Hi, I’m Jane.

Amongst other things, I am a social policy scholar-activist-practitioner. I'm currently a writer, still a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s School of Social and Political Sciences, and formerly a public servant.

Broadly, I study and practise intersectionality, Black and women-of-colour feminisms, and the sociology of inequality and difference. I’m interested in responding to the structural drivers of complex social challenges.

In my public service roles, this work has involved developing whole-of-department strategic plans, leading policy commitments relating to diversity on government boards, and managing teams delivering programs for culturally and racially marginalised communities.

In my community sector roles, my policy advocacy has also taken me to Senate inquiries, board rooms, and conference stages. I also get to support non-profit organisations to do what they do as ethically, sustainably and effectively as possible, as a non-executive director.

Now, I’m channeling my energy into finishing a doctoral thesis about the “institutional life” (Nash 2019) of intersectionality in the Victorian public service. I’m using observational and interview-based methods to examine how public servants understand, respond to and apply intersectionality's key principles in their day-to-day work. I hope to understand how policymaking can better serve families and communities like mine (and, I suspect, yours!).

I acknowledge that I’m a racialised settler living on unceded Wurundjeri lands (which you probably know as Melbourne, Australia — because that’s what settler colonialism has taught us).