Study International Relations and Political Science

Rob believes political science research tells us how politics is changing and when citizens might want a new kind of politics.  

“There’s so much we don’t yet know about political science,” he says. “Democracy is changing with the upsurge of populism, the decline in trust and the rise of China. Centre-left political parties are experiencing a period of retreat and decline. The modern party system in many countries is changing beyond recognition.”  

“There are political problems we’re not even close to fully understanding or solving yet," Rob adds. “Our whole society depends on future knowledge and scholarship to help us better understand political change, especially in the face of the mounting climate emergency.”  

Rob's current primary research, therefore, looks at the crisis of social democracy, trying to draw lessons and understanding about the decline of the family of centre-left parties. He co-wrote a collection – ‘Why the Left Loses’ CNN used for a special edition program.  

He employs humour as a learning tool in class to make students think differently about political science, earning him a 2014 faculty citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. The interplay between Batman and the Joker helps teach the concept of ‘governance’ and each year he crowns a student monarch of the class to help discuss the sources of political legitimacy.  

Rob’s inspired by the quiet fortitude of many MPs, citizen activists, human rights defenders and advocates, his students and Chelsea Football Club, decent coffee, his family, and their ridiculous dog, Mr Brown.

At age 7, Rodrigo's family suspected he'd have a career in research. During a trip to Venice, his father videoed him asking endless questions about what made Venice a Republic and how exactly its political system worked.  

It's this natural curiosity for politics and discovering things nobody else knows that has resulted in Rodrigo's award-winning career. In 2018, he was the first Australian political scientist to win the prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science Award. In the same year, he also won the Vice-Chancellor's Innovation in Teaching Award and the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Early Career Researchers.

Rodrigo is currently researching how voters choose leaders in advanced democracies. He has found that a candidate's looks or involvement in scandal can play an important role in the decision-making process, particularly if voters have little information about politics, candidates and elections. His research has a compelling role to play in helping people understand the consequences of their choices and therefore make better decisions.  

An inspiring, supportive and innovative lecturer, Rodrigo has been invited to present his work in all corners of the globe. His research is often used by mainstream media in Australia and overseas to explain current events, allowing him to reach a wider audience beyond academe. His best advice to future researchers and students is: “Choose your path carefully. The only way to succeed is to do something you really love and that excites you!” 

Josh Holloway is a Lecturer in Government in the College of Business, Government & Law. Josh’s research interests include party politics, digital governance, environmental politics, and democratic resilience to crisis. His research has been published in the European Political Science Review, Government & Opposition, Contemporary Politics, Election Law Journal, Defence Studies, and the Australian Journal of Political Science. He also contributes to two leading textbooks on Australian politics. Josh’s work has attracted highly competitive external funding, and has received domestic and international media coverage.

Josh is an experienced and passionate teacher, whose philosophy centres on inspiring students to take an active role in the co-creation of knowledge through participatory and inquiry-based learning. He contributes to two leading textbooks on Australian politics and public policy, and has published research on industry engagement in public policy teaching. His teaching expertise centres on Australian and comparative politics, digital governance, environmental politics, and public policy. Josh teaches across Government’s undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

In research and teaching, Josh draws on his employment background, having previously worked in the Parliament of South Australia and consulted on federal and state election campaign strategy.

Hongyi Liang is a Lecturer in International Relations at the College of Business, Government and Law. Her teaching and research interests include International Relations, Political Economy, Asian studies, and Chinese Politics. Hongyi received her Ph.D. in Government from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Hongyi believes that each student possesses a unique knowledge bank that are shaped by their life experience, and her primary role as a teacher is to facilitate the expansion of their individual knowledge banks. Hongyi would actively engage students by tapping into their prior knowledge, encouraging them to explore and discover knowledge that is meaningful to them, and fostering a classroom environment conducive to idea exchange and discussions.

Hongyi teaches undergraduate, postgraduate, and transnational courses in Flinders Government.

Dr. Intifar Chowdhury is a youth researcher and Lecturer in Government at Flinders University, South Australia. She is passionate about writing to better the political representation of all young Australians in our democracy.

In July 2023, Intifar completed her PhD in political science at the Australian National University's (ANU) School of Politics and International Relations. Her doctoral research tackled the important question of whether young people are turning away from democracy. It comprised a quantitative enquiry on advanced democracies using survey data from comparative databases. Beyond academia, Intifar continually strives to translate her research work into public good: her political commentary on youth politics has appeared in diverse media platforms, including in The Conversation, The Guardian, The Canberra Times, The Ethics Centre, ABC Q&A, Al Jazeera English, the Democracy Sausage Podcast, Triple J Hack, Reuters, Australian Institute for International Affairs and ANU's Policy Forum.

Prior to this, Intifar obtained a double degree in Science (Biochemistry/Genetics) and International Relations (Honours) at the ANU. During her time as a student, Intifar has interned at the Commonwealth parliament, the Canberra Hospital and Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschun in Berlin (WZB). At ANU, she also worked as the Senior Survey Research Officer for a youth longitudinal Post School Destination (GENERATION) survey, conducted by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM) in collaboration with the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE). In the past years, Intifar has represented ANU research while visiting the LIfBi research centre in Germany, the OECD Education Directorate in France and universities in Austria and Italy.

Intifar greatly enjoys teaching at university, educating and guiding the future custodians of democracy. Her teaching philosophy has been accredited at the UK Higher Education Academy. She also won the 2020 ANU CASS Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Education, 2021 ANU CASS Excellence in Tutoring and Demonstrating and 2021 ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Over the past 20 years, Gerry’s research has focused on marginalisation as experienced by young people in Australia and other countries – at school, with their peers, and in the community. He’s particularly interested in amplifying young people’s voices through his research and supporting them to talk about their lived experience. We hear very little from young people themselves about how their experiences impact the opportunities available to them, and what they do to protect themselves and their families from the effects of poverty and marginalisation.

Gerry’s research does not offer ‘easy fixes’ to these problems of marginalisation. The purpose of his research is to focus the attention of people with power - advocates, policymakers and practitioners in health, education, community services and local government - on what young people themselves see as the challenges in their lives, and supports to help them overcome these challenges.

Gerry is a sociologist and social policy analyst. Before coming to Flinders in 2012, he worked at the University of Cambridge (UK), UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (Italy) and the University of NSW. He has won over $5 million in funding, and has been Chief Investigator on six Australian Research Council (ARC) grants since 2009, most recently the Wellbeing in Adolescence project (2019-23) and the Opportunities and Contributions project (2023-26). He has authored over 50 journal articles, and has a Google Scholar H-index of 28. He has advised the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on child, youth, gender and family statistics. He was recently a member of the ARC College of Experts (2020-2022). Most importantly, he advocates for amplifying the voices of young people who are the least heard but who have the most to gain from policymakers and others in power hearing them.

Qualifications

• PhD, Social Policy, University of NSW, Australia
• MSc, European Social Policy Analysis, University of Bath, UK
• Grad. Dip. (Computing), Athlone Regional Technical College, Ireland
• B.Soc. Sc., University College, Dublin, Ireland

Zhibin Zhang joined Flinders University in July 2016. Prior to that he taught at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His primary research interests focus on comparative nonprofit studies and comparative public administration/policy. Specifically, his research covers a wide range of topics including nonprofit-government relations, governance reforms, and public policy and management, across China, Singapore, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific. He has been an Associate Editor of Nonprofit Management & Leadership since 2019.

Qualifications

• PhD in Public Administration, George Washington University
• MA in Public Administration, Renmin University of China
• BA in Chinese Politics, Renmin University of China