Zoe Staines

Zoe Staines is a Senior Lecturer in criminology and social policy, and Director of Research (School of Social Science), at The University of Queensland. Her deeply interdisciplinary research spans social policy, sociology, and criminology, examining gender and work, care, welfare conditionality, and (de)coloniality with particular attention to structural injustice. She has published four books (including with leading publishers, Routledge and Policy Press) and dozens of journal articles, 85% of which are in Q1 journals and 21% of which are in journals ranked well within the top 10% globally (e.g., Policy Studies–top 2%, Sociology–top 4%). She also currently serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Social Issues, a leading (Q1) interdisciplinary journal. Zoe is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics, the Australian Social Policy Association, and Basic Income Earth Network. She is also current Chair of the Organising Committee for the 2026 Australian Social Policy Conference and an elected board member of Australia's Council for Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS). Before entering academia, Zoe held senior research and policy roles in government and the non-profit sector.