Welcome – QUT School of Justice – Dr Caitlin Mollica

Posted by Brigid on 24 January, 2020

We welcome Dr. Caitlin Mollica as a Lecturer within QUT School of Justice, Faculty of Law. Caitlin completed her PhD at Department of Government and International Relations at Griffith University (2018). Caitlin’s research interests include youth, gender, transitional justice and human rights. Caitlin’s primary research considers the engagement of young people with transitional justice and human rights practices. Her work also examines the unique ways girls and young women access justice in the Asia Pacific.

Caitlin’s published work examines the contributions of Solomon Islander youth to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process and highlights the importance of recognising the agency and individual voices of youth as a way to ensure more inclusive and holistic reconciliation practices. Caitlin has been co-investigator on a UN Women-funded research project, that mapped women’s access to formal and informal justice processes in Asia and the Pacific (2019). In 2019, she was awarded a New Researcher Grant from Griffith University to conduct a pilot study for a project on the implementation of UN Resolution 2250 on Youth Peace and Security (2019). Caitlin also secured funding, in collaboration with Dr. Helen Berents (QUT Centre for Justice), from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) for a workshop on Youth and Peace in the Indo-Pacific (2019). This workshop brought together scholars and practitioners to consider how policy responses and scholarship can better engage with the peace and security challenges facing young people in the region.

Currently, Caitlin is developing a project that examines the relationship between donors and youth in the broader context of the new international mandate on youth inclusive peace building.

A warm welcome to Caitlin from all of us at QUT Centre for Justice.

Welcome – QUT School of Justice – Dr Danielle Watson

Posted by Brigid on 23 January, 2020

We welcome Dr Danielle Watson as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law.

Danielle was awarded a PhD in Sociolinguistics from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine in 2016. She was the former coordinator of the Pacific Policing Programme at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. Danielle specializes in police/civilian relations on the margins with particular interests in hotspot policing, police recruitment and training as well as many other areas specific to policing in developing country contexts. Her research interests are multidisciplinary in scope as she also conducts research geared towards the advancement of tertiary teaching and learning.

Danielle is the principal researcher on two ongoing projects “Policing Pacific Island Communities” and “Re-Imagining Graduate Supervision at Regional Universities”. She is also the lead author (with Erik Blair) of Reimagining Graduate Supervision in Developing Contexts: A Focus on Regional Universities (2018, Taylor and Francis), and sole author of Police and the Policed: Language and Power Relations on the Margins of the Global South (2018, Palgrave Macmillan).

Danielle has received several awards and grants to conduct research in Trinidad and Tobago, Germany, Austria, Canada, Australia and Fiji. Among the prestigious awards she received were a Caribbean-Pacific Island Mobility Scheme (CARPIMS) PhD Mobility Scholarship (2014), an Australian Government Endeavour Executive Fellowship (2016) and a British Academy Fellowship (2018).

Danielle is passionate about working with all stakeholders involved in the maintenance of law and order, and hopes to advance policing policies and practices through academic outreach.

Welcome Danielle!

On Friday we will profile our third and final new member to the school.

Welcome – QUT School of Justice – Dr Alissa Macoun

Posted by Brigid on 21 January, 2020

We welcome Dr Alissa Macoun as a Lecturer in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law.

Alissa is interested in the politics of race and contemporary colonialism. Alissa’s work in Australian Indigenous politics and policy explores ways race is used to legitimise colonial approaches, institutions and regimes. She is interested in policy logics, political structures, academic and social knowledge production practices, as well as the connections between these processes. Her work draws on scholarship from public policy, political theory, settler colonial studies, sociology, critical race and critical Indigenous studies.

Alissa was a Lecturer at the School of Political Science and International Studies at University of Queensland from 2015-2019. Although non-Indigenous, she was a Research Fellow for the Australian Research Council’s National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN) based at QUT from 2013 – 2015.

Alissa has a PhD (Political Studies) and BA (Honours, first class) from the University of Queensland. Her PhD thesis explored the political justification of the Commonwealth’s 2007 Intervention in Northern Territory Indigenous communities and won the 2013 APSA PhD Prize.

We have three new staff who have commenced with QUT School of Justice in 2020 and we will be profiling each of them this week. Keep an eye out!

Beware of bushfire scams – Dr Cassandra Cross

Posted by Brigid on 17 January, 2020

The recent Australian bushfires are presenting the latest opportunity for fraud.

QUT C4J member, Dr Cassandra Cross, has written an article for The Conversation about how this fraud can happen, how you can safely donate and how you can think long term about protecting yourself from fraud.

Cass researches on various aspects of fraud including the policing, prevention and support for online fraud, including romance fraud and cybercrime. In 2011, she was awarded the Donald Mackay Churchill Fellowship, which enabled her to travel to the UK, USA and Canada to examine how these jurisdictions respond to online fraud.

In 2013, Cass was awarded a Criminology Research Grant (CRG) to undertake the first Australian study examining the reporting and support needs of online fraud victims. In 2015, she was awarded a second CRG to examine the process of identity restoration for victims of identity theft, in partnership with iDcare. In 2016, she was awarded a third CRG to examine the policing of cybercrime in Australia.

In 2019 Cass was appointed Senior Research Fellow to the Cybersecurity CRC, delivering industry-led cyber security research outcomes.

The article is well worth a read – read here

Fulbright Scholar Award – Associate Professor Kelly Richards

Posted by Brigid on 17 January, 2020

Our heartfelt congratulations to Associate Professor Kelly Richards on her recent Fulbright Scholar Award for 2020.

Kelly will use her Fulbright Scholar Award to further her research on victim/survivors of sexual violence and Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) at California State University-Fresno and the University of Vermont.

Kelly’s research focuses primarily on sexual offending against children, and especially on the reintegration of those who perpetrate sexual violence. In 2010 Kelly was awarded the ACT Government Office for Women Audrey Fagan Churchill Fellowship to investigate CoSA around the globe. Kelly is a member of a wide range of professional and community organisations in the fields of criminology and sexual violence. She is a Member of the Queensland Government’s Child Death Case Review Panels, the Queensland representative on the After Prison Network, a Committee Member of the Queensland chapter of Restorative Practices International, a member of the Brisbane Rape and Incest Survivors’ Support Centre Research and Reference Group, and a member of the Bravehearts Foundation Expert Research Advisory Panel, among others.

Vice-Chancellors’s Award for Excellence – Dr Cassandra Cross

Posted by Brigid on 19 December, 2019

Congratulations to Dr Cassandra Cross, member of QUT Centre for Justice, on her recent Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. This award is conferred to individuals or teams in recognition of exceptional performance that aligns with the university’s vision and strategic goals.

Cass’ award was based on excellence in Partnerships and Engagement for forging transdisciplinary research partnerships and enhancing engagement within and beyond the QUT community.

Cass has built strong partnerships and engagement in the areas of fraud and cybercrime with SUNCORP, several Australian Police agencies, PCYC Queensland, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Self-Managed Independent Superannuation Funds Association (SISFA)

Congratulations Cass.

Workshop: Youth and Peace in the Indo-Pacific: Policy, Practice, Action

Posted by Brigid on 17 December, 2019

Public Panel – 27 November Workshop day 2

Helen Berents – Workshop Welcome

On the 28th and 29th of November, QUT Centre for Justice hosted a workshop funded by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA), ‘Youth and Peace in the Indo-Pacific: Policy, Practice, Action’.

The workshop was co-convened by School of Justice Senior Lecturer, Dr Helen Berents, along with Dr Caitlin Mollica (Griffith University) and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Professor Jacqui True (Monash University).

On Wednesday 27, November there was a public evening panel event including Dr Helen Berents, on ‘Agents of Change: What Can Youth Offer Peace and Security?’ held at the Ship Inn, Southbank.

The workshop on the 28th and 29th brought together invited academics, advocates, and civil society representatives from across Australia to consider how policy responses and scholarship can better engage with the peace and security challenges facing young people in the Indo-Pacific region.

Over half the world’s population is under 30 years old; and almost half of the world’s youth live in the Indo-Pacific. Young people in the region face multiple, intersecting challenges including the impact of conflict and insecurity, economic insecurity, and growing environmental risks. Yet they are often marginalised or excluded from the institutions tasked with implementing peace and security. This workshop aimed to facilitate a critical policy dialogue, which examines post-conflict practices that have sought to meaningfully engage with the experiences of youth in the region.

The workshop drew on the established work and leadership of feminist scholars and practitioners, which has brought about gender inclusive policy making, and encouraged the development of similar practices for those individuals aged between 18-29 years old. In doing so, it contributed critical scholarship that considers the contributions of youth participation to the creation of more inclusive and holistic peace practices; and Australia’s role in the development of youth mainstreaming policies and practices in conflict-affected contexts.

Further information about the workshop can be found here.

Bridget Harris: ANZSOC New Scholar Prize 2019

Posted by Brigid on 12 December, 2019

Congratulations to QUT C4J member, Dr Bridget Harris, on her recent award of ANZSOC New Scholar Prize for 2019. The New Scholar Prize is given each year for the best publication in criminology (or a related area) written by a member of the Society who qualifies as an early career researcher.

The article, co-authored with Delanie Woodlock , was published in British Journal of Criminology and is titled, “Digital Coercive Control: Insights From Two Landmark Domestic Violence Studies”. The authors present their recent studies on harmful and invasive behaviours enacted through technology. Bridget applies her research focus of domestic and family violence (DFV) and spatiality, and the unique ‘spaceless’ features of technology-facilitated DFV.

The full article is available through open access and can be found here.

Congratulations to Bridget on a very successful year pioneering and further developing research into this very important area, both in Australia and internationally. A well deserved award.

Inaugural issue: Law, Technology and Humans

Posted by Brigid on 5 December, 2019

The inaugural issue of Law, Technology and Humans is now online.

Law, Technology and Humans is an international, open access, peer-reviewed journal publishing original, innovative research concerned with the human and humanity of law and technology.

In his introduction to the new publication, General Editor Professor Kieran Tranter notes:

Law, Technology and Humans aims for something different from the mainstream of technology law scholarship. Rather than repeating analysis born from the dominant narrative, it boldly presents itself as a portal to the multiverse of stories and methods through which to understand, dream, critique, build and live well in the technological present as it, with every planetary rotation, moves towards the technological future.

The foundation issue is in two parts. The first is a collection of papers aligned to the recent symposium: Automation and Disruption in the Legal Profession and includes articles related to the future of the legal profession, a new curriculum approach to learning within the legal academy, interpretations of NewLaw practice in Australia, the utilisation of technologies in the community legal sector and experiential ethics for the lawyer/AI hybrid.

The second part of this issue is dedicated to general articles examining law and technology on a broader scale including the use of robo-advisors in the financial services market and the legal consequences of social media use by employees. The Journal also includes a review of Virginia Eubanks recent book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by journal book review editor Faith Gordon.

Submissions are now being accepted for Volume 2, Issue 1 to be published in May 2020

Follow Journal announcements on Twitter @LawTechHum