Steven Ratuva is at the forefront of interdisciplinary research globally on race relations, global security, social protection for vulnerable groups, climate change and affirmative action for minorities. His leadership of international research teams and networks (such as the International Political Science Association research on global security amongst others) as well as various applied projects has contributed to redefining global security thinking and helped reshape understandings of ethnicity and conflict. Steven’s authoritative research on affirmative action in countries like Fiji, South Africa and Malaysia has provided a critical perspective on how affirmative action can be manipulated by elites to serve their economic and political interests at the cost of the poor. Fiji-born Steven has worked to promote critical minority research internationally and advocate for the importance of minority intellectual innovation which is often undermined by the reduction of knowledge into metrics, algorithm, ranking, use of social index or indexology (a term he coined) and commodification in a modern neoliberal context. He founded an interdisciplinary journal to support young Pacific researchers and he is also advisor and consultant for a number leading global and regional institutions and organizations. He is at the cutting-edge of interdisciplinary research by breaking down knowledge barriers and publishing in different disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, politics and development studies. In 2018 he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship for research at UCLA, Duke University and Georgetown University and in 2019 he was co-winner of the University of Canterbury research medal. In 2020 he was awarded the prestigious Metge Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi for research excellence, capacity building and leadership in the social sciences.