Researcher focused on public sector policy, governance and reform
Dr Sana Nakata is Lecturer in Political Science, ARC Discovery Indigenous Research Fellow (2016-2019) and Co-Director of the Indigenous-Settler Relations Collaboration. Trained as a lawyer and political theorist, her research is centred upon developing an approach for thinking politically about childhood in ways that improve the capacity of adult decision-makers to act in their interests. She published her first book in 2015, Childhood Citizenship, Governance and Policy: the politics of becoming adult (Routledge).
Her current project looks at representations of children in Australian political controversies, with particular focus upon Indigenous Australian children and child asylum seekers.