Dr Maxine Newlands

Dr. Maxine Newlands (BA (Hons), MA, Ph.D., FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations in the School of Social Science at JCU.  Her Ph.D. studies were in environmental politics and the media over in the UK, and she moved to Australia and JCU shortly after finishing her Ph.D. (2013).

Before entering academia, Maxine was a broadcast journalist with the BBC and commercial radio. She continues to write for the Ecologist magazine, and is a regular political commentator for Australian and International media. Maxine is the author of Environmental Activism and the Media: the Politics of Protest, with Peter Lang Publishers.

Maxine is a Research Fellow at the Cairns Institute of Tropical Societies and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Maxine is a political scientist working to understand how and why environmental politics and networks of communication transform policymaking. Maxine combines her passion for restoration, adaptation, governance and social and communication networks to identified improvements in governance, a community of practice and social justice

Maxine is a multidisciplinary social science scholar who advises government (federal and state) and various industries on world-leading projects. Maxine's most recent work includes:

• A weekly political round-up on ABC Far North (Wednesday 9:30) and ABC North Queensland (Friday 08:30)

• Latest paper: Scaling up the global reef restoration activity: Avoiding ecological imperialism and ongoing colonialism

• Latest media commentary: SCIMEX Expert Reaction- UNESCO declares GBR should be listed as 'in danger

Current Research Projects

Maxine is currently conducting research around the Great Barrier Reef

• RRAP project mapping stakeholder engagement, governance and media analysis.
• CSIRO Townsville and the College of Business, Governance and Law on environmental communication.
• Creative Ecologies project.

And,  with colleagues at UPNG on gender, climate change and governance in PNG.