Roland joined the department in 2009, after extensive undergraduate teaching at the University of Melbourne. His doctoral thesis, completed in 2007, examined the role of the Third World in the evolution of the post-war human rights project. It was awarded the Chancellor's Prize for Excellence (2008). Roland was also the recipient of the R.M Crawford Medal from the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2010), and the La Trobe Excellence in Research Award for Early Career Researchers (2010). His recent research has been focused on transnational organizations and institutions, principally the UN and the Group of 77.