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I specialize in the international and comparative political economy of finance.

My research examines how politics shapes the conduct of monetary policy, the functional profile of central banks, and the size and scope of the global financial safety net. I explore how political pressures influence central banks' decisions, particularly under populist regimes, and how these pressures affect economic stability. My work also examines the historical evolution of central banks, analyzing how their roles have been shaped by the political and economic needs of their founding regimes.

Additionally, my research seeks to explain why the global financial safety net, though intended to provide universal protection, often fails to do so, leaving many countries vulnerable. I investigate how the politics shaping the size and scope of international institutions like the IMF lead to a fragmented and ultimately inequitable system of global financial governance.

I am primarily a plant virologist but have has a diversity of research interests in mycology, bacteriology and even entomology as part of broader biosecurity projects. Living in Queensland has provided me the opportunity to work on diseases of tropical and subtropical horticultural crops such as banana, avocado, pineapple, citrus and sugarcane, and his expertise has been sought in developing nations throughout the world, particularly in southeast Asia.I strive to see fundamental scientific discoveries translated into practical outcomes for farmers. I also take a keen interest in promoting the profession of plant pathology through a previous role as President of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society, and my current role as Vice President of the International Society of Plant Pathology.

Katharine Gelber is Deputy Executive Dean and Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at UQ. She is a former Head of the School of Political Science and International Studies (2019-2023), and a Professor of Politics and Public Policy. Her research is in the field of freedom of speech, and the regulation of public discourse. She has been awarded several ARC, and other, competitive research grants. In Oct-Dec 2024 she was a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Cambridge University. In November-December 2017, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Global Freedom of Expression Project, Columbia University, New York. In Dec 2017, she jointly hosted, with Prof Susan Brison, a workshop at the Princeton University Center for Human Values on, 'Free Speech and its Discontents'. In 2014, with Prof Luke McNamara, she was awarded the Mayer journal article prize for the best article in the Australian Journal of Political Science in 2013. In 2011 she was invited by the United Nations to be the Australian Expert Witness at a regional meeting examining States' compliance with the free speech and racial hatred provisions of international law. She is the author of three monographs (Free Speech After 9/11, OUP 2016; Speech Matters, UQP, 2011, Speaking Back, John Benjamins, 2002), and three edited books (incl. Free Speech in the Digital Age, OUP 2019), as well as numerous journal articles.

Kath is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia, and a Fellow of the Queensland Academic of Arts and Sciences.

Selected publications:

Books

Brison, S and Gelber, K (eds) 2019 Free Speech in the Digital Age, Oxford University Press, New York.

Gelber, K 2016 Free Speech After 9/11, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Gelber, K 2011. Speech Matters: Getting Free Speech Right, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.

Panzironi, F & Gelber, K (eds) 2012. The Capability Approach: Development Practice and Public Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region, Routledge, London.

Refereed journal articles

Gelber, Katharine 2024 ‘Free speech, religious freedom and vilification in Australia’, Australian Journal of Political Science 59(1): 78-92, https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2023.2283008.

Gelber, Katharine and Murphy, M 2023 ‘The Weaponisation of Free Speech under the Morrison Government’, Australian Journal of Political Science, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2023.2242304.

Brennan, K; D Duriesmith, E Fenton and K Gelber 2022 “Gendered Mundanities: Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching in Political Science”, Australian Journal of Political Science (published online 27 Feb 2022), https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2022.2043241.

Bowman, K and Gelber, K 2021 ‘Responding to Hate Speech: Counter Speech and the University’, Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, 28(3): 248-275.

Gelber, K 2021 ‘Differentiating Hate Speech: A Systemic Discrimination Approach’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 24(4): 393-414, DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2019.1576006 (published online 2019).

Gelber, K and O’Sullivan, S 2020 “Cat Got Your Tongue? Free Speech, Democracy and Australia’s ‘Ag-Gag’ Laws”, Australian Journal of Political Science, 56(1): 19-34, https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2020.1799938.

Gelber, K 2019 ‘Norms, Institutions and Freedom of Speech in the US, the UK and Australia’, Journal of Public Policy, online 25 June, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X19000187.

Gelber, K 2019 ‘Terrorist-extremist speech and hate speech: understanding the similarities and differences’ Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 22(3), 607-622, doi: 10.1007/s10677-019-10013-x.

Gelber, K 2018 ‘Incitement to hatred and countering terrorism – policy confusion in the UK and Australia’, Parliamentary Affairs 71(1): 28-49, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsx008.

Gelber, K 2017 ‘Diagonal Accountability: Freedom of Speech in Australia’, Australian Journal of Human Rights 23(2): 203-219.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2017.1363371 (Published in Special Issue: ‘Democracy and Human Rights’)

Gelber, K 2017 ‘Hate Speech – Definitions and Empirical Evidence’, Constitutional Commentary 32: 101-111.

Gelber, K & McNamara, L 2016 'Anti-vilification laws and public racism in Australia: mapping the gaps between the harms occasioned and the remedies provided', University of New South Wales Law Journal 39(2): 488-511.

Gelber, K & McNamara, L 2016 ‘Evidencing the harms of hate speech’, Social Identities, 22 (1-3): 324-341. DOI: 10.1080/13504630.2015.1128810.

Book chapters (selected)

De Silva, Anjalee; Katharine Gelber & Adrienne Stone 2024 (in-press). ‘Academic Freedom in Australia’, in Scott-Baumann, A., Holmwood, J., & Pandor, H. (eds) How to Develop Free Speech on Campus: Talking to Others. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gelber, K 2022 ‘Free Speech in Australia’ in Paula Gerber & Melissa Castan eds., Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia Thomson Reuters, Pyrmont: 517-534.

Gelber, K 2021 ‘Speaking Back’, in Adrienne Stone and Frederick Schauer eds., The Oxford Handbook of Freedom of Speech, Oxford University Press, Oxford: 249-265.

Gelber, K 2020. ‘Post-memory and Artefacts: The Gelber/Altschul Collection’, in N Marczak and K Shields eds. Genocide Perspectives VI: The Process and the Personal Costs of Genocide. Sydney: UTS ePress: 53-68. https://doi.org/10.5130/aaf.

Gelber, K 2020 ‘Capabilities and the Law’, in E Chiapperro-Martinetti, S Osmani & M Qizilbash eds The Cambridge Handbook of the Capability Approach Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 643-659.

Gelber, K 2020 ‘Free Speech Debates in Australia: Contemporary Controversies’, in Helen J. Knowles and Brandon T. Metroka eds., Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies, Peter Lang: 187-208.

Gelber, K and Brison, S 2019 ‘Digital Dualism and the “Speech as Thought” Paradox’, in Brison, S and Gelber, K (eds) Free Speech in the Digital Age, Oxford University Press, New York.

Gelber, K & Stone, A 2017 ‘Constitutions, Gender and Freedom of Expression: the Legal Regulation of Pornography', in Helen Irving ed. Constitutions and Gender, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham: 463-481, DOI: 10.4337/9781784716967.

Gelber, K 2016 ‘Critical Race Theory and the constitutionality of hate speech regulation’, in R Dixon & G Appleby (eds) The Critical Judgments Project: Re-reading Monis v The Queen, Federation Press, Sydney: 88-102.

Laura Genovesi is a Cure Brain Cancer Foundation Research Fellow within the Paediatric Brain Cancer Laboratory headed by Professor Brandon Wainwright.

Dr Genovesi is a cancer biologist specialising in in vivo pre-clinical models to dissect the mechanisms underpinning growth of medulloblastoma, a paediatric brain tumour. They were awarded their PhD in 2012 (University of Western Australia), where they studied the role of microRNAs in the transformation of human neural stem cells to Medulloblastoma. They relocated to the University of Queensland to commence her post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Brandon Wainwright. Dr Genovesi's post-doctoral research focuses on discovering and targeting the genetic networks that drive medulloblastoma. Their work has contributed to defining regulatory networks underlying the growth of medulloblastoma and the therapeutic application of CDK4/6 inhibitors in the treatment of medulloblastoma. Most recently, her work has characterised the status of the blood brain barrier in some of the most widely used patient derived orthotopic xenograft models of medulloblastoma. Dr Laura Genovesi’s research is now focused on understanding the intrinsic and adaptive plasticity of tumour cells and acellular components of the brain tumour microenvironment (TME) that drive tumour progression and determine response to therapy. Their research integrates integrates diverse preclinical model systems including patient-derived in vivo models and dynamic ex vivo 3D hydrogel models with innovative spatial transcriptomics/ imaging and advanced computational cancer biology aiming to ultimately to improve the lives of children diagnosed with brain tumours.

Nicole’s research focuses on the gendered politics of conflict and peacebuilding, violence, security and participation. She has a strong interest in feminist institutional theory, as well as conceptual debates on regulatory pluralism and contested notions of (gendered) order as they are evident in local and global politics. Since the early 2000s, she has conducted research in the Pacific Islands region focusing on gender politics, gendered security and post conflict transition in Fiji, New Caledonia, Bougainville and Solomon Islands. She has worked in collaboration with women’s organisations, women decision-makers and women policy-makers in these settings to progress aspects of this work. She has led large, externally funded, comparative research projects examining how women's rights to security are institutionalised in Pacific Island countries (2013-2016) and where and how women participate in post-conflict transformation (as part of a broader collaborative ARC Linkage Project (2016-2020). Aside from the scholarly publications listed below, she has made influential contributions to national and regional intergovernmental policy forums on gender, security and development programs and is a regular contributor to national and regional on-line opinion editorial sites.

Dr Barbara George-Jaeggli is a Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture & Food Innovation. She has a Master of Science degree in Biology from ETH in Zürich and a PhD in Crop Physiology from UQ. The main objective of her research is to improve the profitability and sustainability of dry-land agriculture by increasing cereal crop productivity per unit input. Dr George-Jaeggli is part of a multi-disciplinary sorghum crop improvement group based at the Hermitage Research Facility in Warwick who have assembled extensive genotyping and phenotyping resources. Sorghum is valued for its high productivity under hot and dry conditions and is an important summer grain in the broad-acre cropping regions of north-eastern Australia and a staple food crop for millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr George-Jaeggli’s team uses sorghum as a model to study the genetics and physiology of complex cereal traits, such as drought adaptation, canopy radiation use efficiency, photosynthetic capacity and yield. They have developed tools to measure these traits across thousands of field-grown breeders’ plots using proximal sensing platforms. Barbara George-Jaeggli is currently also the Centre Leader of Hermitage Research Facility.

Professor Christian Gericke is a Neurologist and Public Health Physician. He directs the Canberra Specialist Epilepsy Centre at Deakin Private Hospital in Canberra and consults at Cadogan Medical in Brisbane.

He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Australian National University, Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of Queensland, and Convener of the Specialist Medical Review Council (SMRC) for the Australian Government. He regularly acts as an Independent Medical Expert for the Supreme Courts and the Coroners Courts in all Australian jurisdictions and for the High Court of Justice in England (King's Bench).

Previously, he worked as an academic neurologist at Calvary Mater Newcastle, the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, King’s College Hospital in London, and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

After graduating from medical school in Berlin, he trained in neurology at the Charité, followed by fellowships in adult and paediatric epilepsy in Strasbourg and Geneva. He holds two research doctorates and master's degrees from the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics.

He chairs the Neuroepidemiology Section of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and serves on the International League against Epilepsy (ILAE) Standards and Best Practice Council.

Dr Dereje Gete is a Research Fellow at the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre, School of Public Health. Dr Gete was awarded his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Queensland in 2022. His doctoral dissertation focused on the role of pre-pregnancy dietary patterns on adverse birth outcomes, child health, and well-being, using the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health and the Mothers and their Children's Health study.

Dr Gete is currently working on the Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis symptoms Study (GELLES) and Mothers and their Children’s Healthcare Experience Study (MatCHES), using nationwide cohort studies linked with administrative health databases. His research interests include the epidemiology of nutrition, infectious diseases, and women's and children's health.

Dr Ghahreman-Falconer is a registered pharmacist and a lecturer in Medicines Management and Pharmacy Practice at the School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland. She course coordinates in the Master of Clinical Pharmacy Program. Dr Ghahreman-Falconer has worked as a pharmacist both in community and hospital settings for 20 years, and is passionate about improving patient safety and the quality of care we deliver our patients. She currently works one day per week at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in a senior research role to build research capacity in the pharmacy department and across Metro South Health by mentoring aspiring hospital pharmacists. Her research interests include risk prediction modelling, medication safety and clinical informatics to optimise patient care. She supervises HDR and Honours students conducting research on machine learning in clinical practice, and extended scope pharmacy services in acute care settings. Dr Ghahreman-Falconer provides academic oversight to the RECARD Study (Medical Research Futures Fund: MRFMMIP000044), a program of research focused on reducing preventable medication related hospitalisations in high-risk cardiovascular patients. Her work as a research conjoint at the Princess Alexandra Hospital enables her to stay abreast of clinical needs, clinician workflows, digital hospital changes and what is needed at the coal face. She is the chair of the Pharmacy Research in Metro South (PRIMS) committee. Dr Falconer is also an affiliate within the Centre for Health Service Research UQ. She is an active member of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and serves on the Research Leadership Committee.

Dr. Azadeh Ghari-Neiat is a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at the University of Queensland. Her research interests lie at the intersection of the Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Computing, Crowdsourcing, and Cybersecurity. Her work focuses on enhancing connectivity and security in modern computing environments through innovative crowdsourcing solutions. She completed her PhD in Computer Science from RMIT University in 2018. Prior to joining UQ, Dr. Ghari-Neiat held academic positions at Deakin University as a Senior Lecturer and at the University of Sydney as a postdoctoral research fellow and casual lecturer.

Dr Negareh Ghasemi received her BSc and MSc degrees in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 2003 and 2007 respectively. She obtained her PhD in Power Electronics in 2013. She received Outstanding Thesis Award from Queensland University of Technology in 2013. She has more than 10 years working experience in industry and academia. Dr Ghasemi is an active member of IEEE Women in Engineering and an Editorial Board member of International Journal of Power Electronics. Dr Ghasemi has been collaborating with several international universities and institutes in Japan and Germany. Her research interests include Power Electronics and Control, Pulsed Power and Ultrasound Systems and their applications.