Overview
Background
Adam is a public policy scholar and teacher, an expert in health policy and recent recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). He is also the Program Director of the Master of Governance and Public Policy, one of Australia's leading postgraduate qualifications for public servants and policy practitioners.
His research primarily concerns how governments draw on ideas and knowledge and negotiate capacity constraints in the policy process. His recent research has addressed policy responses to health crisis, such vaccine hesitancy and anti-microbial resistance, and the role of ignorance and non-knowledge in generating policy failure, such as regarding the Robodebt scandal. He has published in a range of high-ranking international journals, such as Nature, Public Administration, Policy Sciences and Policy and Society.
Adam's DECRA project is entitled Health workforce crisis: understanding political capacity for policy change, and addresses the political factors that constrain and enable health workforce policymaking in Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand.
Adam is available for PhD supervision and is keen to work with students who are interested in the following topics:
- Major issues in health policy, such as workforce shortages, access issues, vaccine hesitancy.
- The politics of health policymaking.
- The role of ideas and knowledge in health and social/welfare policy.
- Policy capacity challenges.
- Non-knowledge, ignorance and misinformation in public policy.
Availability
- Dr Adam Hannah is:
- Available for supervision
Works
Search Professor Adam Hannah’s works on UQ eSpace
2018
Journal Article
Rethinking the ‘open functional’ approach: ideas, problem pressure and reform in the contemporary welfare state
Hannah, Adam (2018). Rethinking the ‘open functional’ approach: ideas, problem pressure and reform in the contemporary welfare state. Public Administration, 96 (3), 528-543. doi: 10.1111/padm.12414
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Adam Hannah is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Available projects
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Health workforce crisis: understanding political capacity for policy change
Project summary: Develop new knowledge of the political factors that constrain and enable policymaking to address the health workforce crisis through comparative analysis of health worker interest groups.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
The Political Economy of Market-oriented Healthcare Reform in State-Socialist Asia: State, Interests, and Ideology
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Shahar Hameiri
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Doctor Philosophy
The Paradox of University Autonomy: Power and Politics in University Governance
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Ravinder Sidhu
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Doctor Philosophy
Navigating Global Health Diplomacy: Analyzing Indonesian Government- Health NGOs Collaboration in Pandemic Response
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Melissa Curley
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Doctor Philosophy
Strategies of influence used by the meat industry to impact policy making decisions in Australia and the European Union
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Katherine Cullerton
Completed supervision
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2026
Doctor Philosophy
Institutional Amnesia in New Zealand's Climate Change Policy Network
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Alastair Stark
Media
Enquiries
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