I am privileged to call Whadjuk Noongar Boodja home and acknowledge the Noongar peoples as the custodians of this land. I recognise the diversity and strength of all First Nations Australians and I pay my deep respect to Elders of past and present for their wisdom and guidance.
My research brings together cultural studies, critical theory, and qualitative methodologies to investigate the relationships between language, representation, identity, and everyday life. I am particularly interested in how biopolitical narratives shape the ways we understand ourselves, others, our relationships, and our worlds.
Currently completing a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Western Australia, my doctoral research sits at the intersection of Gender and Women's Studies, Queer Studies, and Decolonial Studies. I examine pronatalism, reproduction, family, and kinship as sites of power, using feminist, queer, intersectional, and anti-colonial frameworks to investigate how discourses of reproduction shape identity, belonging, and engage social hierarchies.
Alongside my doctoral research, I have contributed to a range of collaborative qualitative, ethnographic, and media-focused research projects across Western Australia. These collaborative projects include qualitative interviewing, discourse and media analysis, project coordination, and academic event management. My research experiences reflect my commitment to research that is both critically engaged and grounded in lived experience.
Overview
Research
Research Areas
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Pronatalism and stratified reproduction
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Family and kinship formations
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Gender, sexuality, and identity
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Power, ideology, and discourse
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Intersectionality and systemic inequality
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Constructions of parenthood and care
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Family diversity and social change
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Representation and contemporary media
Theories
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Queer Theory
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Feminist Theory
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Decolonial Theory
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Representation Theory
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Critical Family and Kinship Theory
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Biopolitical Approaches to Power and Governance
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Cultural Studies
Methodologies
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Critical Discourse Analysis
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Intersectional Methodologies
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Queer and Decolonial Research Approaches
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Conceptual and Qualitative Inquiry
Doctoral Research: Critiquing Pronatalism
My doctoral research critiques how dominant pronatalist discourses operate as regulatory mechanisms of biopolitical power that actively regulate identity through reproduction.
It explores how pronatalism shapes everyday understandings of family, identity, and power. Drawing on queer, care-feminist, and anti-colonial theory, this work examines how pronatalist ideologies are mobilised through dominant discourses of multiple systemic hierarchies. Specifically, it deconstructs how Anglocentric pronatalism relies on particular framings of geneticism to maintain biological essentialism and frame the hetero-patriarchal nuclear family structure as natural, positioning all other family structures and childlessness as unnatural.
Collaborative Research Projects
Queer Generations
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Focus: A multi-generational ethnographic study investigating LGBTIQ experiences in Perth, Western Australia.
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Contributions: Collaborated closely with internal and external university stakeholders to source and recruit participants, advertised, organised, and conducted qualitative interviews. Responsibilities also included presenting preliminary findings to the lead investigator and organising cross-institutional scholars to present at multiple seminar series.
Digital Identities Symposium
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Focus: Facilitating academic dialogue on how digital communication networks shape contemporary identity.
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Contributions: Co-organised, branded, and presented at a four-day cross-institutional interstate symposium. This role required extensive project administration, including liaising with internal and external stakeholders, assisted the curation of guest speakers, chairing academic sessions, and coordinating event logistics.