I hold a Phd in Anthropology from ANU (1990) based on extended research and fieldwork in West Timor. Subsequently I was a staff member of the CHL ANU Department of Anthropology from 2000 until 2016 attaining the position of Senior Research Fellow. From 2017-2024 I was Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social Science, Western Sydney University. I have published extensively on the anthropology of eastern Indonesia and Timor Leste and maintain an active research program. I have long experience in research leadership and Phd Supervision (38) as well as a strong record in Australia Research Council and related competitive grant success. 

I also have over 30 years experience in applied anthropology focusing on Eastern Indonesia and Northern Australia. I have been active in the design, development and implementation of numerous technical assistance projects in Indonesia and Timor Leste. As a social development specialist I have undertaken long and short term consultancy work with the World Bank, ADB, CIDA (Canada), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and Australian AID. As a Sustainability advisor I have  worked extensively in the mining and energy sectors of Indonesia (2007-2012) with companies such as Rio Tinto, BP, Newcrest, Bumi Resources, Inpex and Shell Upstream Services. I am currently engaged as an advisor on a 4 year agricultural project in Timor Leste funded by ACIAR. 

I have worked for many years in Australian Aboriginal cultural heritage documentation and protection, as well as native title research and documentation. Projects include the Fitzmaurice River Bed and banks land claim NT (2017), Amanbidji Land Trust Research and Mediation (2023), and current work on  Bradshaw and Wombungi Native Title connection reports in the Northern Territory.

Career highlights

Head of Department of Anthropology CHL ANU 2012-2016
Editor in Chief; The Australian Journal of Anthropology 2019-2023
Associate Editor; The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 2011-2018. Research anthropologist, Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (1995-2000);
Technical advisor, Australian Agency for International Development in the
   Indonesian Water and Sanitation Sector (1997-2004);
Research Fellow, Resource Management in the Asia Pacific Project (1999-
   2001); 
Visiting Affiliations: International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), University of Leiden 1998 & 2005; Kahin Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Cornell University 2007; Agrarian Studies Program, Fall Term, Yale University, 2010; COMPAS, Michaelmas Term, Oxford University 2014. Centre of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) Kyoto University; University of Stockholm (Dept of Anthropology) 2020 

Recent Publications
McWilliam A and L Palmer et al 2026 Customary Governance in Post-Independence Timor-Leste: Spirit Ecologies of the House, Leiden University Press.

McCarthy J., A. McWilliam and G. Nooteboom (eds.) 2023 The Paradox of Agrarian Change: Food Security and the Politics of Social Protection in Indonesia, Singapore: National University of Singapore Press. 

McWilliam A 2020 Post-Conflict Social and Economic Recovery in Timor-Leste: Redemptive Legacies, London, New York: Routledge.     

O'Connor S., McWilliam A and Brockwell S (eds) 2020 Forts and Fortification in Wallacea; Archaeological and Ethno-Historical Investigations, Terra Australis Series 53 ANU Press.