Halafoff is associate professor in Sociology of Religion in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, in Burwood, Australia[5] and the coordinator of the Spirituality and Wellbeing (SWell) Research Network.[6]
She is currently leading the Australian Research Council Discovery Project on Australian Spirituality: Wellness, Well being and Risks[7] and is a member of the International Research Network for the Study of Science & Belief in Society.[8]
She was also a Research Associate of the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific at Monash University and a Research Associate of the Religion and Diversity Project at the University of Ottawa.[9]
Halafoff was a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Projects on the Worldviews of Generation Z Australians[10] and on Religious Diversity in Australia[11] and the Chief Investigator on the International Research Network for the Study of Science & Belief in Society project on Conspirituality in Australia.[12]
Her research interests include religious diversity, interreligious relations, religion and education, preventing violent extremism, contemporary spirituality, Buddhism and gender, and Buddhism in Australia. She has published extensively in these areas.[13]
Halafoff's research has had an impact on government policy and curriculum development in the area of religious diversity, particularly in the state of Victoria. She is also regularly called upon to comment on her fields of expertise in the media. She is a regular guest on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Soul Search[14] and God Forbid[15] and contributor to the ABC's Religion & Ethics program,[16] and The Conversation.[17]
Halafoff is a practicing Buddhist and has been involved in interfaith activities and networks since the mid-1990s. In 2011, Halafoff was named a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations' Global Expert in the fields of interfaith relations and religion, conflict and peacebuilding.[8][18]
She was the President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) in 2021–2023.[19] In 2010 the AASR Women's Caucus selected her to give the annual Penny Magee Memorial Lecture.[20]
Halafoff has served as the Australasian Representative on the International Society for the Sociology of Religion's Council,[21] as Secretary of the International Sociological Associations Research Committee 22 on Religion,[22] and as Deputy Secretary General Executive Committee member of the International Association for the History of Religions.[2] She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2024.[23]
