Dr Eleanor Merton, 2026
Supervisor: Dr Alastair Stark
Eleanor R. K. Merton is a PhD candidate from Aotearoa New Zealand. Her PhD project looks at institutional amnesia among state and non-state actors in New Zealand’s climate change policy network. Her previous work includes a Cambridge Element on collaboration and joined up government, a Public Management Review article on goal commitment in interagency collaboration, and an article for the International Review of Administrative Sciences on public service reform paradigms. Her older work appears in poetry journals
Dr John Fowler, 2026
Supervisor: Professor Matthew McDonald
John comes from an education background, with over 13 years experience as an English, Physical Education and Humanities teacher. Under the academic supervision of Matt McDonald and Sarah Percy, he is currently in his final year of his doctorate. His thesis is exploring the role of culture in Australia's use of the military for disaster relief operations.
Dr Lindy Andren, 2025
Supervisor: Professor Morgan Brigg
Dr Lindy Andren is a Lecturer in Indigenous Politics at The University of Queensland, with a multidisciplinary background spanning political science, anthropology, psychology and English literature, and is an active member of the Australian Political Studies Association.
Dr Danielle O’Hara, 2025
Supervisor: Dr Alastair Stark
Dr Danielle O’Hara recently completed her PhD, which examined the causes of conflict in disaster recovery collaborations. She has experience across management, consulting, policy and community-facing roles, working with government, peak bodies and non-government organisations. Her work focuses on disaster resilience and recovery, cross-sector collaboration, community engagement, facilitation, and program design and evaluation.
Dr Muhammad Ammar Hidayahtulloh, 2025
Supervisor: Professor Nicole George
Ammar’s research interests broadly fall under the field of gender and politics, covering topics such as women’s political activism and democracy, electoral gender quotas, and gender policy change. His PhD project investigates Islamist opposition to gender equitable reform in the post-democratic transition period in Indonesia. By building on feminist institutionalism, he aims to develop a more nuanced account of opposition to gender equality than the dominant narrative of gender backlash.
Dr Nengzheng Shi, 2025
Supervisor: Dr Sarah Teitt
Nengzheng is a recent PhD graduate at POLSIS, where he also completed the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies in 2020. His PhD thesis puts together the fields of dialogue and nonviolent resistance to investigate whether dialogue influenced the development and maintenance of nonviolent discipline in the 2019 Hong Kong protest movement. Besides his role as a researcher, Nengzheng is also a passionate tutor at POLSIS who has taught at least seven different courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels since 2021. He's also an active Buddhist member of Soka Gakkai International in Australia and hugely passionate about soccer.
Dr Se Youn Park, 2025
Supervisor: Professor Nicole George
Se Youn recently completed her PhD in International Relations at the School of Political Science and International Studies, where she examined how legislation, narratives, and institutional practices interplay to shape the regulation of ISIS women returnees in the UK and Australia. Her work focuses on the gendered dimensions of security governance, with a secondary research agenda in South Korean gender politics and feminist backlash. Se Youn currently serves as Director of Research at Women in International Security (WIIS) Australia, where she oversees the internship programme and leads research development initiatives.
Dr Tim Westbury, 2025
Supervisor: Professor Matthew McDonald
Tim has a background in international development, having worked for UN agencies and bilateral donors in technical and management roles across the Asia-Pacific. He has focused on sustainable development policy, programme management, migration, and climate change in the context of small island developing states. His PhD examined climate security discourse in the Pacific context, and how this can influence policy and practices that address different dimensions of climate-related (im)mobilities.