Dr Alissa Macoun
Director, Principal Researcher. She/her. See Alissa’s work on Google Scholar.
Alissa is a white woman interested in the politics of the politics of race, colonialism, justice and complicity. She is an experienced researcher and academic with an abiding interest in the formal and informal politics of institutions, their knowledge politics and legitimising stories - as well as ways people internalise and contest these power dynamics.
Much of Alissa’s academic career has been focused on building intellectual community and supporting those doing challenging or disruptive interdisciplinary work. A committed teacher and research supervisor, she is currently a Lecturer at QUT. Her research in Australian Indigenous politics and policy explores ways white people and institutions deploy race to entrench colonial dynamics and relations of rule. Through this focus on colonialism in systems and structures, she is also contributing to the emerging field of Indigenist Health Humanities.
Alissa has a PhD (Political Studies) and BA (Honours, first class) from the University of Queensland. Before working as an academic, she was as a political staffer in state and local government and during that time held a range of positions within the Queensland ALP.