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Nicholas Aroney is Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Queensland, Director (Public Law) of the Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law and a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Law and Religion at Emory University. In 2010 he received a four-year Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council to study comparative federalism and in 2021 he secured an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant to investigate the nature and function of constituent power in federal systems. He has held visiting positions at Oxford, Cambridge, Paris II, Edinburgh, Durham, Padua, Sydney, Emory and Tilburg universities.

Professor Aroney has published over 160 journal articles, book chapters and books in the fields of constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and legal theory. He has led several international research projects in comparative federalism, bicameralism, legal pluralism, and law & religion, and he speaks frequently at international conferences on these topics. His most notable publications in these fields include: The Constitution of a Federal Commonwealth: The Making and Meaning of the Australian Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Shari'a in the West (Oxford University Press, 2010) (edited with Rex Ahdar), The Future of Australian Federalism (Cambridge University Press, 2012) (edited with Gabrielle Appleby and Thomas John), The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia: History, Principle and Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, 2015) (with Peter Gerangelos, James Stellios and Sarah Murray), Courts in Federal Countries (Toronto University Press, 2017) (edited with John Kincaid), The Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism (Routledge 2021) (edited with Patricia Popelier and Giacomo Delledone) and Christianity and Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2022) (edited with Ian Leigh).

Professor Aroney is a former editor of The University of Queensland Law Journal (2003-2005) and International Trade and Business Law Annual (1996-1998), and a past secretary of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy. He is a past member of the Governing Council and the current Co-Convenor of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board of the American Journal of Jurisprudence, Public Law Review, Australian Journal of Law and Religion and International Trade and Business Law Review. He has made numerous influential submissions to government and parliamentary inquiries and in 2013 undertook a review of the Crime and Misconduct Act for the Queensland Government with the Hon Ian Callinan AC QC, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia. In 2017 he was appointed by the Australian Prime Minister to an Expert Panel to advise on whether Australian law adequately protects the human right to freedom of religion.

Professor Aroney joined the Law School in 1995 after working with a major national law firm and acting as a legal consultant in the field of building and construction law.

Alex Bellamy is Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at The University of Queensland, Australia. His recent books include "Syria Betrayed: War, Atrocities and the Failure of International Diplomacy" (Columbia 2022) and "World Peace (And How We Can Achieve It)" (Oxford 2020)

Roland is Professor of International Relations and Coordinator of the Visual Politics Research Program. His research explores how images and emotions shape political phenomena, including humanitarianism, security, peacebuilding, protest movements and the conflict in Korea. Books include Visual Global Politics (Routledge, 2018); Aesthetics and World Politics (Palgrave, 2009/2012); Divided Korea: Toward a Culture of Reconciliation (University of Minnesota Press, 2005/2008) and Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (CUP, 2000).

Roland’s main current research project is an interdisciplinary ARC Linkage collaboration (2022-2026) on The Politics and Ethics of Visualising Humanitarian Crises. The project involves eight researchers and the World Press Photo Foundation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Australian Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Roland grew up in Zürich, Switzerland, where he was educated and worked as a lawyer. He studied international relations in Paris, Seoul, Toronto, Vancouver and Canberra. Roland also worked for two years in a Swiss diplomatic mission in the Korean DMZ and held visiting affiliations at Harvard, Cambridge, Humboldt, Tampere, Yonsei and Pusan National University as well as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Further informatin can be found on Roland''s personal website:

For an in-person or zoom appointment book here: https://calendly.com/bleiker

Selection of Recent Publications

“Decolonising Affect" Cooperation and Conflict (2024)

“Un-Disciplining the International” Alternatives: Local, Global, Political (2023)

"Visualizing International Relations” Journal of Visual Political Communication, 10,(2023

"Visual Violence" Interview with Brad Evans, Los Angeles Review of Books, 3 Jan 2022.

Morgan worked in conflict resolution prior to his academic career and continues to practice as a nationally accredited mediator and facilitator. He is a political scientist focusing on cultural difference in peace and conflict, and also researches and publishes in international relations, law and dispute resolution, Indigenous politics, governance and public policy, and international development.

Much of Morgan’s research develops and applies ideas of relationism that emphasise the dynamic and interconnected nature of political life among people, cultures and nations. He has developed these ideas in peace and conflict studies to consider foundational questions about how humans organise being together while addressing practical challenges of how to manage and resolve conflict non-violently.

A key part of Morgan work is collaboration with Indigenous colleagues and peoples to understand Indigenous political systems and governance, challenge the discipline of political science to better engage with Indigenous peoples, and contribute ways of knowing and working across difference. He works closely with Dr/Aunty Mary Graham in developing Indigenous diplomacy and Aboriginal political philosophy and has completed projects on improving governance for organisations in the Aboriginal community-controlled sector.

Morgan’s current research is focused on build capacity to respond to geopolitical disorder by drawing on relationist and Indigenous methods, improving Indigenous-state relations in Australia, and advancing conflict management by developing online tools for conflict coaching and advice.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(with Druckman, Daniel, Serge Loode, and Hannibal A Thai) "The conflict coaching challenge: design and evaluation of an online conflict coach", International Journal of Conflict Management. doi: 10.1108/ijcma-07-2024-0159 (2025).

"Furthering relational approaches to peace", Journal of Peace Research. doi: 10.1177/00223433241267811 (2024).

(with Mary Graham) "Indigenous international relations: old peoples and new pragmatism", Australian Journal of International Affairs, 77 (6), 1-10. doi: 10.1080/10357718.2023.2265847 (2023)

(with Mary Graham and Martin Weber) "Relational Indigenous systems: Aboriginal Australian political ordering and reconfiguring IR", Review of International Studies, 48 (5), doi: 10.1017/s0260210521000425 (2022)

"The spatial-relational challenge: emplacing the spatial turn in peace and conflict studies" Cooperation and Conflict, 55 (4), 001083672095447-552. doi: 10.1177/0010836720954479 (2020)

"Relational and Essential: Theorising Difference for Peacebuilding", Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. doi: 10.1080/17502977.2018.1482078 (2018)

"Beyond the thrall of the state: governance as a relational-affective effect in Solomon Islands", Cooperation and Conflict. 53, 2 doi:10.1177/0010836718769096 (2018)

Humanitarian symbolic exchange: extending Responsibility to Protect through individual and local engagement. Third World Quarterly, . doi:10.1080/01436597.2017.1396534 (2017)

(with Jodie Curth-Bibb) "Recalibrating intercultural governance in Australian Indigenous organisations: the case of Aboriginal community controlled health", Australian Journal of Political Science, doi:10.1080/10361146.2017.1281379 (2017)

"Beyond accommodation: The cultural politics of recognition and relationality in dispute resolution." Australian Journal of Family Law 29 (3, Religion, culture and dispute resolution): 188-202 (2015)

“Old Cultures and New Possibilities: Marege’-Makassar Diplomacy in Southeast Asia”, The Pacific Review 24, no.5 : 601-623 (2011)

"Autoethnographic International Relations: exploring the self as a source of knowledge" (with Roland Bleiker) Review of International Studies 36, no. 3:779-798 (2010)

“Wantokism and State Building in the Solomon Islands: A Response to Fukuyama”. Pacific Economic Bulletin 24, no. 3: 148-16 (2009)

“The Developer’s Self: A Non-Deterministic Foucauldian Frame”. Third World Quarterly 30, no. 8 (2009): 1411-1426.

“Biopolitics Meets Terrapolitics: Political Ontologies and Governance in Settler-Colonial Australia”.Australian Journal of Political Science 42, no. 3 (2007): 403-417.

“Governance and Susceptibility in Conflict Resolution: Possibilities beyond Control”. Social and Legal Studies 16, no. 1: 27-47. (2007)

“Post-Development, Foucault, and the Colonisation Metaphor”. Third World Quarterly 23, no. 3 : 421-436.(2002)

"Relational Peacebuilding: Promise beyond Crisis", Peacebuilding in Crisis? Rethinking Paradigms and Practices of Transnational Cooperation, eds Tobias Debiel, Thomas Held, Ulrich Schneckener. Routledge, 56-69, (2016).

“Beyond Captives and Captors: Settler-Indigenous Governance for the 21st Century” (with Lyndon Murphy). In Unsettling the Settler State: Creativity and Resistance in Indigenous-Settler State Governance, eds. S. Maddison and M. Brigg. Sydney: Federation Press, (2011).

“Conflict Murri Way: Managing Through Place and Relatedness” (with Mary Graham and Polly Walker). InMediating Across Difference: Oceanic and Asian Approaches to Conflict Resolution, eds. M. Brigg and R. Bleiker. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, (2011).

“Disciplining the Developmental Subject: Neoliberal Power and Governance through Microcredit”. In Prospects and Perils of Microcredit: Neoliberalism and Cultural Politics of Empowerment, ed. J. Fernando. London: Routledge, (2006).

Dr Emma Crawford is an occupational therapist and researcher whose work centres on promoting wellbeing for infants, children, families and communities. Emma's primary focus is on cross-cultural projects that link with community organisations to create social change and reduce the impacts of disadvantage by supporting health enhancing environments and activities in early life. At the centre of Emma's work is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 - ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing across all ages. Currently, Emma is leading several projects:

1) The BABI Project (research): refugee and asylum seeker families' expereinces during the perinatal period (systematic review, qualitative focus group and interview research)

2) The Uni-Friends program (student delivered service and student placement) - a social-emotional helth promotion program that draws on cultural responsiveness (The Making Connecitons Framework) and community development principles in an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled School

3) LUCIE-NDC (research) - mothers' experiences of accessing Neuroprotective-Developmental Care in the first 12 months of their infants' lives

Emma has a strong interest in understanding human experiences, community-driven initiatives, and strengths-based, innovative, evidence based, complex approaches to wellbeing that consider individuals and systems She also carries out research regarding allied health student placements in culturally diverse settings including low-middle income countries and Indigenous contexts. She works as a Lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia after having worked in a range of occupational therapy roles including with children with autism, with asylum seekers, with Indigenous Australians with chronic disease, and completing her PhD in Political Science and International Studies in 2015.

Associate Professor in International Relations. Her research and teaching interests include Southeast Asian politics and international relations, Cambodian politics and post-conflict reconstruction, and non-traditional security in East Asia (including trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, pandemic disease and child protection issues). Dr. Curley co-facilitated the UQ Working Group on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling in the T.C Bernie School of Law (http://www.law.uq.edu.au/humantrafficking) from 2012-2016. She has published in internationally peer reviewed journals including: Review of International Studies, The Journal of Law and Society, Australian Journal of Human Rights, and Australian Journal of International Affairs, amongst others. Her most recent book is Migration and Security in Asia (Routledge 2008) with S.L. Wong. Before joining the School in January 2006, Dr. Curley was a researcher in the China-ASEAN project at the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong, where she also coordinated a consultancy project on Southeast Asian affairs for the Hong Kong Government's Central Policy Unit. She holds a Ph.D in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and BA(Hons) in Government from UQ.

In 2015, Dr Curley joined the Executive Advisory Board of Bravehearts, an Australian not-for profit organisation that aims to educate, empower and protect Australian children from sexual assault, and in 2016 was made a Paul Harris Fellow, in recognition of her services to The Rotary Foundation. In 2020 she gained Fellowship status with the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Tim Dunne is Provost and Senior Vice-President at the University of Surrey, a role that he took up in early 2022. As Provost he has responsibility for the institution’s academic performance across 13 Schools, 3 Faculties and 3 Pan-University Institutes. Prior to his move to Surrey, Tim had a number of leadership roles at The University of Queensland, including Deputy Provost as well as the Founding Executive Dean of HASS. Tim is recognised for his research on human rights protection and foreign policy-making in a changing world order. He has written and co-edited sixteen books, including Terror in our Time (2012), The Globalization of International Society (2017), and most recently the The Rise of the International (2024) co-edited with Professor Richard Devetak. He is an elected Fellow of the Academic of Social Sciences in Australia and the Academic of Social Sciences in the UK. He proudly holds an Emeritus Professorship in the School of POLSIS at The University of Queensland.

Pedro Fidelman leads strategic projects in the Social and Environmental Sustainability theme at the UQ Centre for Policy Futures, including the Centre's contribution to the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program and Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre.

Pedro’s research focuses on environmental policy and governance with an emphasis on the role of institutions (e.g., regulations, norms, and decision-making processes) in addressing global environmental change (e.g., over-exploitation of natural resources, biodiversity loss and climate change). He is also interested in the process of policy making and associated social and political actors and contextual factors.

His research is predominantly empirical, drawing on case studies in the context of marine and coastal social-ecological systems, climate change adaptation and natural resources management in Australia, Southeast Asia and Brazil. Current research includes governance, policy and regulatory implications of using novel and emerging technologies for environmental outcomes, and policy and regulatory innovation in the context of environmental, social and technological change.

Prior to joining UQ, Pedro held research positions in Brazil (e.g., University of Brasilia) and Australia (e.g., ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Sustainability Research Centre of the University of the Sunshine Coast).

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.

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.

Professor Brian Head joined the University of Queensland in mid-2007 after holding senior roles in government, universities, and the non-government sector. He is the author or editor of several books and numerous articles on public management, governance, social isues and environmental policy. His major interests are evidence-based policy, complex or 'wicked' problems, program evaluation, early intervention and prevention, collaboration and consultation, public sector integrity, and leadership. He has undertaken several consultancies on program evaluation, policy review, organisational performance, and good governance processes. He has strong interests in applied research across many areas of public policy and governance, and is committed to building closer links between the research and policy sectors. His recent books include Wicked Problems in Public Policy (2022, Palgrave, open access), Reconsidering Policy (2020, Policy Press, co-authored), and Learning Policy, Doing Policy (2021, ANU Press, co-edited).

I am a social anthropologist specialising in migration, refugee protection, and religious politics in Southeast Asia, with particular expertise in Malaysia's treatment of displaced populations and Muslim identity formation. My research combines ethnographic fieldwork with policy analysis to understand how states, communities, and individuals navigate questions of belonging, protection, and cultural identity.

Academic Background I hold a PhD in anthropology and sociology from La Trobe University, with previous degrees in Social Anthropology and Politics/International Relations from the University of Kent. I was an Australian Research Council DECRA research fellow (2014-2017) and the Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Fellow on Contemporary Southeast Asia (2023-2024), spending time at the National University of Singapore and Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Research Focus My work spans political anthropology, development studies and migration studies, with particular focus on:

• Refugee and immigration policy in Southeast Asia
• Religion-state relations and Muslim identity politics
• Urban refugee experiences and protection frameworks
• Faith and spirituality in the modern world
• Participant observation methodology in sensitive research contexts

Publications and Engagement I am author of Modern Muslim Identities: Negotiating Religion and Ethnicity in Malaysia (NIAS Press) and co-editor of volumes on human security and urban refugees published by Allen & Unwin/Routledge. As a regular media commentator and course director for UQ's MOOC "World101x: Anthropology of Current World Issues," I translate academic research for broader audiences through traditional and digital platforms.

Sebastian Kaempf is an Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at the School of Political Science and International Studies. He is also the Director of the Rotary Peace Centre at UQ.

His expertise lies at the intersection between International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies, with specialization in the areas of international security, ethics and the laws of war, and information technology relating to global politics and violent conflict. Specifically, his research focuses on two areas:

The first concerns the relationship between ethics and the laws of war in the context of the transformation of violent conflict. Here, he is interested in the ways in which historic and contemporary wars - waged under conditions of asymmetry - have impacted on the relationship between the norms of casualty-aversion and civilian protection.

The second area focuses on the role a transforming global media landscape is playing in violent conflicts. Here, his research focuses on how historic and current conflicts are being waged in and through media and information technology, with a particular emphasis on the geopolitics of cyberspace, embedded news reporting, mass surveillance and big data mining, non-state armed groups, and the influence of the Pentagon and CIA in the entertainment sector.

Dr Kaempf received his PhD at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University (UK). He holds a BSc and MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

He won the ISA Deborah Gerner Award for Teaching Innovation in 2020. In 2013, he won an Australian national award for teaching excellence (AAUT); in 2012, he won UQ and Faculty awards for teaching excellence. He is also the producer (with UQx and edX.com) and convenor of 'MediaWarX', one of UQ's Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): https://www.edx.org/course/global-media-war-technology-uqx-mediawarx-0

He was a visiting fellow/researcher at UGA in Athens, Georgia, Sao Paulo State University, Humboldt University in Berlin, Sciences Po Lyon, the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, The University of Sydney,and Brown University in Providence, US.

Together with his colleague A/Prof Al Stark, he hosts the podcast 'Higher Ed Heroes': https://www.buzzsprout.com/813707

And he is the co-producer of the award-winning film documentary 'Theatres of War: How the CIA and Pentagon took Hollywood': https://go.mediaed.org/theaters-of-war

He is a member of the editorial team of the journal 'Review of International Studies'.

Dr Kieren Lilly is a social psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), University of Queensland. Kieren’s research examines experiences of inequality and discrimination, with a particular focus on the relationships between social identity, relative deprivation, political ideology, and collective action. For instance, his doctoral research explored the causes, consequences, and trajectories of relative deprivation among the general public, while his more recent work examines the factors shaping support for right-wing reactionary movements, typologies of authoritarianism, and perceptions of reverse discrimination among advantaged groups.

Kieren is also deeply committed to supporting LGBTQIA+ research and equity. He leads and collaborates on projects investigating (a) the relationships between identity, health, and well-being among LGBTQIA+ populations and (b) attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ people and social policy. Kieren’s research aims to challenge dominant, binary views of sexuality and gender, including via studies of sexual fluidity and transnormativity. In 2025, Kieren was awarded the UQ Ally Award in recognition of his commitment to promoting inclusion and community for transgender and gender-diverse staff and students.

At ISSR, Kieren works on several externally funded projects monitoring and evaluating public programs related to substance use, criminal justice, and primary care. He specialises in advanced quantitative research methods, including longitudinal, multilevel, person-centred, and quasi-experimental approaches, and has expertise in managing large-scale panel and administrative data sets.

Professor of International Relations

Matt McDonald joined the School of Political Science and International Studies in January 2010. After completing his PhD at UQ in 2003, Matt held lectureship posts in international relations at the University of New South Wales and the University of Birmingham (UK), and was Associate Professor in International Security at the University of Warwick (UK). His research focuses on the relationship between security and climate change, the international politics of climate change, and critical theoretical approaches to security. He has published on these themes in a wide range of journsls, and is the author of Ecological Security: Climate Change and the Construction of Security (Cambridge UP, 2021), Security, the Environment and Emancipation (Routledge 2012) and (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo) Ethics and Global Security (Routledge 2014). He was formerly co-editor of Australian Journal of Politics and History. He is currently completing an ARC-funded project on comparative national approaches to the climate change- security relationship, and is currently leading the cross-disciplinary University research network, Climate Politics and Policy.

Selected Publications

Books (Authored)

• Ecological Security: Climate Change and the Construction of Security (Cambridge UP, 2021)
• (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo), Ethics and Global Security: A Cosmopolitan Approach (Routledge, 2014)
• Security, the Environment and Emancipation: Contestation over Environmental Change (Routledge, 2012).

Edited Volumes

• (with Paul Williams), Security Studies: An Introduction, 4th ed (Routledge, 2023)
• (with Paul Williams), Security Studies: An Introduction, 3rd ed (Routledge, 2018)
• Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific. Special Issue of Critical Studies on Security, 5:3 (2017).
• (with Mark Beeson), The Politics of Climate Change in Australia. Special Issue of Australian Journal of Politics and History, 59:3 (2013).
• (with Tim Dunne), The Politics of Liberal Internationalism, Special Issue of International Politics, 50:1 (2013).
• (with Anthony Burke), Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific (Manchester UP, 2007).

Refereed Journal Articles

• 'Emergency Measures? Terrorism and Climate Change on the Security Agenda', European Journal of International Security, 10:1 (2025), pp.115-32.
• 'Fit for Purpose? Climate Change, Security and IR', International Relations, 38:3 (2024), pp.313-30.
• 'Cimate change, security and the institutional prospects for ecological security', Geoforum, 155 (2024), 10496.
• 'Accepting Responsibility? Institutions and the Security Implications of Climate Change', Security Dialogue, 55:3 (2024), pp.293-310.
• (with Susan Park et al), 'Ecological Crises and Ecopolitics Research in Australia', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 71:1 (2024), pp.147-65.
• (with Jonathan Symons et al), 'Australia, we need to talk about Solar Geoengineering', Australian Journal of International Affairs, 78:3 (2024), pp.369-74.
• 'Immovable Objects? Impediments to a UN Security Council Resolution on Climate Change', International Affairs, 99:4 (2023), pp.1635-51.
• 'Geoengineering, Climate Change and Ecological Security', Environmental Politics, 32:4 (2023), 565-85.
• (with Jessica Kirk), ‘The Politics of Exceptionalism: Securitization and COVID-19’, Global Studies Quarterly, 1:3 (2021).
• 'After the Fires? Climate Change and Security in Australia', Australian Journal of Political Science, 56:1 (2021), 1-18.
• ‘Climate Change and Security: Towards an Ecological Security Discourse?’, International Theory, 10:2 (2018), 153-80.
• ‘Critical Security in the Asia-Pacific: An Introduction’, Critical Studies on Security, 5:3 (2017), 237-52.
• ‘Remembering Gallipoli: Anzac, the Great War and Australian Memory Politics’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 63:3 (2017), pp.405-17.
• (with Lee Wilson) ‘Trouble in Paradise? Citizen Militia Groups in Bali, Indonesia’, Security Dialogue, 48:3 (2017), pp.241-58.
• ‘Bourdieu, Environmental NGOs and Australian Climate Politics’, Environmental Politics, 25:6 (2016), pp.1058-78.
• (with Anthony Burke and Katrina Lee-Koo) 'Ethics and Global Security', Journal of Global Security Studies,1:1 (2016), pp. 64-79
• 'Australian Foreign Policy under the Abbott Government: Foreign Policy as Domestic Politics?' Australian Journal of International Affairs 69:6 (2015), pp 651-669.
• ‘Discourses of Climate Security’, Political Geography, 33 (2013), pp.43-51.
• (with Christopher S. Browning),‘The Future of Critical Security Studies: Ethics and the Politics of Security’, European Journal of International Relations 19:2 (2013), pp.235-55.
• 'The Failed Securitization of Climate Change in Australia’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 47:4 (2012), pp.579-92.
• ‘Lest we Forget: The Politics of Memory and Australian Military Intervention’, International Political Sociology, 4:3 (2010), pp.287-302.
• 'Securitization and the Construction of Security', European Journal of International Relations, 14:4 (2008), pp.563-87.
• (with Katharine Gelber) ‘Ethics and Exclusion: Representations of Sovereignty in Australia’s Approach to Asylum-Seekers’, Review of International Studies, 32:2 (2006), pp.269-89.
• ‘Fair Weather Friend? Australia’s Approach to Global Climate Change’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 51:2 (2005), pp. 216-34.
• ‘Human Security and the Construction of Security’, Global Society, 16:3 (2002), pp. 277-95.

Media

Matt has been interviewed on television and radio, and has contributed opinion editorials to ABC News, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Literary Review, Australian Outlook, ABC's The Drum, Insight, the Lowy Interpreter and is a regular contributor to The Conversation. For his recent articles in The Conversation, see here: https://www.theconversation.com/profiles/matt-mcdonald-12655/articles

Dr Renée Mickelburgh is a communication scholar at the University of Queensland (UQ). With over two decades of experience in communication — from journalism and political communication, through to civil society and now academia — Renée lectures and coordinates courses in media strategies and strategic communication. Her research considers how emotions circulate in the communication of wicked problems: specifically, gender violence and environmental justice. She is also concerned with how emerging technologies — particularly artificial intelligence — are reshaping strategic communication, advocacy, and public discourse.

Renée is the author of The ecofeminist storyteller: environmental communication through women's digital garden stories and has co-authored book chapters and journal articles focussed on the communicaiton of sexual consent among young adults. She has worked as a research fellow for UQ’s Sexual and Gender Violence Research Network and is now deputy lead of the School of Communication and Arts AI working Party. The AI Working Party aims to connect teachers, researchers and industry experts across disciplines including strategic communication, creative writing, literary studies, drama, digital media, and museum studies and provide a coordinated response to the opportunities and risks posed by AI. As an affiliate of UQ’s Centre for Communication and Social Change, she contributes to discussions on AI for public good and AI's impact on women.

Renée follows the transformative approaches of leading feminist writers and scholars by engaging with creative methods of inquiry in her teaching and research.

Renée is open to supervision and welcomes inquires from potential post-graduate students in the following areas:

• Feminist environmental communication
• Gender violence
• Feminist media studies
• Participatory research methods
• Affective and creative methodologies
• Strategic communication and advocacy
• Digital intimacies

Frank’s research interests include political behaviour, political communication, voter attitudes, behaviour change, leadership and evidence-based policy. His research has been published in leading international journals such as Leadership Quarterly, European Journal of Political Research, Political Psychology, Public Administration, West European Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, Evidence and Policy, China Quarterly and the Australian Journal of Public Administration. His 2017 book The Wealth Paradox (co-authored with Jolanda Jetten and published by Cambridge University Press) has also attracted international attention, and is now widely regarded as having successfully debunked common myths about populist radical right parties and their voter base.

Dr Kylie (Anderson) Navuku has extensive experience in academic teaching and research. At The University of Queensland (UQ) Kylie is a teaching-practice focused academic, teaching in Communication courses (undergraduate and postgraduate). Her teaching includes: Public Interest Communication; Communication Theory; Communication Management and Leadership; and Intercultural Communication.

Kylie's research interests are at the intersection of politics and communication (including media/journalism) with a focus on island countries and oceans. Most recently her work has focused on climate change and the challenges for island-based artists engaged in environmental communication.

As a communication practitioner, Kylie has worked with non-government, government, and inter-governmental stakeholders contributing to campaigns/ initiatives with the purpose of raising awareness and furthering public education on various themes (including conservation, climate change, and civic education). Kylie is currently a co-Theme Leader for "Communication for Climate Action" with the Centre for Communication and Social Change (CfCSC). Her curent focus as a practitioner is investigating ways to communicate bioeconomy to non-specialist audiences.

In addition to a PhD from UQ, Kylie has a MA (IntRel)(Res) [Master of Arts (International Relations) by Research] and a BIntSt (Hons) [Bachelor of International Studies (Honours)] from Flinders University.

Other university employment includes the University of the South Pacific (USP) and Flinders University of South Australia. At USP, Kylie was based at Laucala Campus in Fiji but her role also took her to the campuses and centres in Majuro (Marshall Islands), Honiara (Solomon Islands), Nuku'alofa (Tonga), Alafua (Apia, Samoa), and Rarotonga (Cook Islands). At Flinders, Kylie was based at the Bedford Park Campus, while at UQ she is based at St Lucia campus in Queensland.

From the politics of climate change to defending democracy, Professor Daniel Nyberg is seeking to understand how corporations, governments, and citizens negotiate different priorities when facing key challenges of our time.

This qualitative researcher takes an interdisciplinary approach to his work across two main areas:

1. climate change, where he interrogates the links between climate change and corporate capitalism, and
2. defending democracy, where he seeks to untangle the relationships between industry and government.

“These are some of the biggest threats facing humankind,” he affirms.

“How could you not be interested?”

Climate Change

Professor Nyberg’s interest in climate change came from a growing sense of urgency. As public interest in green products grew, corporations were beginning to address climate change internally, through the design and delivery of green products and services. At the same time, the climate emergency led to attempts to contain or regulate polluting industries, for example through carbon offsets and other measures.

“It’s important to understand what corporations are doing in order to mitigate and/or minimise the effects of climate change,” Professor Nyberg explains.

“We also need to have knowledge about what they’re doing so we can regulate their activities.”

Working alongside Professor Christopher Wright from the University of Sydney's Business School, and Dr Vanessa Bowden from the University of Newcastle's School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, this ground-breaking research has been published in a number of leading international journals. The three colleagues collaborated on the book, Organising Responses to Climate Change: The Politics of Mitigation, Adaptation and Suffering (2022, Cambridge University Press), building on the success of Professor Nyberg and Professor Wright's book, Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction (2015, Cambridge University Press), which attracted wide attention across both the social and natural sciences.

Defending Democracy

Building on this work, Professor Nyberg has developed a strong interest in corporate political activity, both in how public policy is interpreted and implemented in practice, as well as in how corporations seek to influence public policy. This shift from the narrow focus on corporate outcomes to the broader understanding of democratic processes, is particularly relevant in the fraught debates around climate policy.

“I’m currently exploring how corporations influence democracy,” he states.

“The clearest example is the Labor Government’s super profit tax proposal of 2010, which the mining industry vehemently opposed. Even though it spent $22 million doing so, calculations by the Australian Financial Review suggest it saved $10 billion by agreeing to a truce with then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard. So, you can see it’s often much easier and cheaper for corporations to deal with public policies than it is for them to deal with their processes.”

Ass. Prof. Jacinta O’Hagan is an Associate Professor in International Relations in the School of Political Science and International Studies. A former diplomat with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Jacinta O’Hagan has held prior appointments at the Australian National University and held visiting fellowships and affiliations at the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the European University Institute.

Her principal areas of teaching are international history, humanitarianism and culture in world politics. Her research and publications have focused on the role of culture and civilizational in world politics and the politics of humanitarianism, including the role of non-state actors in humanitarianism, and humanitarian diplomacy. She has worked on collaborative projects on the relationship between digital media and political violence and the globalization of international society. Her most recent research and publications have focused on the international humanitarian system, and civilizational politics in international society.