Congratulations on your appointment as the Queensland representative on the ANZSOC Committee. What interested you in taking on this role, and what are you hoping to contribute during your appointment?
Thank you so much! I put my name down for this role because as a new academic, the transition from PhD to full-time lecturing this year has given me a first-hand sense of how disorienting that shift can be. During candidature, the administrative realities of the job are rarely explained, yet they shape your entire working life once you’re in it. I’d like to develop practical workshops on workload allocation, first teaching appointments, service expectations, and realistic early-career research trajectories. Having such candid and informal conversations can be super helpful to set expectations for later on down the track.
Your research focuses on violent extremism, radicalisation and threat assessment, particularly how extremist actors construct and justify violence through narrative. Can you tell us a little about this work and what drew you to this area of research? Are there any emerging issues that you think deserve greater attention?
My research looks at how right-wing extremist actors construct and justify violence, particularly the narrative and moral reasoning that underpins radicalisation in the Australian context. What drew me to this area was wanting to understand the reasoning process itself, not just what people do, but the internal logic that gets them there, because that’s usually where the more useful (secondary) intervention points are.
In terms of emerging issues, a few areas stand out to me. First, a gendered lens on right-wing extremism in Australia is still underdeveloped, and how gender shapes both recruitment and justification within these movements in a growing space. Second, youth radicalisation deserves more attention, particularly the role it plays in violence against LGBTQIA+ communities. Third, there’s more to understand about anti-government and anti-nationalist sentiment, particularly within sovereign citizen movements, and how that ideology develops. More broadly however, I want to keep building a better understanding of how narratives facilitate harmful or criminal behaviour, and the point where justification turns into action. These are all spaces I am hoping to work in moving forward.
You have recently joined the University of the Sunshine Coast as a Lecturer in Criminology. Can you tell us a little about your journey into academia? What advice would you offer to other early career researchers who are navigating the transition into a teaching and research position?
I completed my PhD in Justice at QUT at the end of 2025, and before joining UniSC I coordinated and taught undergraduate units across several universities, including QUT and UQ. This grounded me in criminology pedagogy and student support well before stepping into a full-time role, and that experience made a real difference once I started as a full-time academic.
My advice to other ECRs navigating this transition: find out early what the workload realities actually look like. Ask questions about teaching/research/service splits, because those numbers shape what’s realistic in ways that are hard to appreciate from inside a PhD. Don’t assume the balance you imagine from candidature is the balance you’ll get, and don’t hesitate to ask current early-career colleagues what their first year involved. I am always happy to chat about this!
I’d also say, don’t underestimate networking! You never know when opportunities will arise from the relationships you cultivate, and attending conferences like ANZSOC is a great place to start building those connections. Also, if research is something you want to pursue, get involved in research projects early and stay aware of what’s happening in your field. Both make a real difference down the track!
