Isabelle Volpe

Isabelle Volpe is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) at Curtin University's Melbourne Office. Isabelle's work explores how drug policy is implemented, lived, and made meaningful in everyday settings. She is currently working on an NHRMC-funded project exploring drug checking and unregulated drug markets.

As a critical drug studies researcher, Isabelle's approaches draw on Science and Technology Studies and critical social science to unsettle normative assumptions and attend to complexity in drug practices. Her work particularly focuses on: drug checking design and implementation, drug risk communication, youth political participation practices, and developing participatory methods. Her PhD (completed in 2025 at the Drug Policy Modelling Program at UNSW Sydney) explored diverse ways in which young people participate in drug policy in Australia, both formally and informally.

Isabelle is a Visiting Fellow at the Drugs, Policy and Social Change (DPSC) group at Manchester Metropolitan University, Honorary Fellow at the Burnet Institute, and Adjunct Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW Sydney. She has conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Liverpool (UK) and Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and held research positions at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (UNSW Sydney) and the Social Equity Research Centre (RMIT University). She has volunteered as a service worker and community organiser at The Loop Australia, DanceWize NSW, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy Australia.