• Fertility Transition in Iran
• Family change and Marraige
• Muslim demography
• Immigration in Australia
• Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration

Prof. Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi is Senior Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University (ANU) and Professor of Demography at the Department of Demography University of Tehran. He has a PhD in Demography from the ANU; and his PhD thesis focused on Fertility Patterns of Immigrant Groups in Australia. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Demography Program, ANU (1998-2000), and Future Fellow at the Australian Demographic and Social Resarch Institute (2010-2014). Abbasi-Shavazi served as the Head of the Department of Demography of the University of Tehran during 2002-2006, and is now Vice-President of the Population Association of Iran (2014-2016). He was Chair of Human Resource Committee & Member of Board of Trustees, International Center for Diarrhoeal Diseases, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the journal of Asian Population Studies, and a member of the Asian Population Research Institute at Shanghai Univesity. He Chaired the IUSSP Panel of Demography of Refugees; and was President of the Asian Population Association (2011-2012).  Abbasi-shavazi is the Laureate of the 2011 UN Population Award.

Abbasi-Shavazi's main research has been focused on Iran's fertility transition but he has also worked on other areas including migration/ethnicity and fertility, family change, reproductive health, and Afghan refugees in Iran.

He has completed a comprehensive study of fertility changes in Iran over the last three decades. During 2000-2003, jointly with Professor Peter McDonald, he conducted a three-year Wellcome Trust project on Iran Fertility Transition Survey in collaboration with the Division of Population Research of the University of Tehran and the Iran Ministry of Health in four provinces of Gilan, Sistan and Baluchistan, West Azarbaijan and Yazd.  During 2004-2007, Abbasi and McDonald completed another Wellcome Trust funded project on the social and health consequences of the early cessation of childbearing in Iran which was conducted i four provinces of Gilan, Isfahan, Yazd, and the city of Tehran.The outcome of this project was published as a book on Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction by Springer in 2009. 

In addition to fertility, family change, and reproductive health, Abbasi has been involved in a major study of Afghan refugees in Iran. 1n 2004, he was awarded a project grant on Translational Networks on Afghan Refugees in Iran. In collaboration with Dr Glazebrook, Dr Mahmoudian, Dr Jamshidiha, & Rasoul Sadeghi, three case studies were conducted in Tehran, Zahedan and Mashhad cities to investigate the livelihood strategies of Afghan migrants in Iran. In 2007, he completed a project on the Second Generation Afghans in Iran, and prepared a national report on the State of International Migrants and Refugees in Iran.  Prof. Abbasi is currently involved in an ARC project on changing pattern of migration from Afghanistan with implications for Australia.