Dr Michaela Spencer

Dr Michaela Spencer a Senior Research Fellow at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University. Her current research involves working from the ‘Ground Up’ with Indigenous knowledge authorities, and differing traditions of knowledge and governance. This involves collaborative work under First nations elder authority, engaging ‘problems of the moment’ in urban and remote Aboriginal polities and activating new understandings and practices within cultures of government and policy making. She is the co-ordinator of the CDU Diploma of Indigenous Research, and Indigenous community-based researcher micro-credential program. She is also a founding editor of Mattering Press, a scholar-led open access book publisher.

Dr. Spencer's vision for her Fellowship is to advance understandings and resources for recognising Indigenous sovereignty at state, territory, and national levels. She believes there is much to do in ensuring such change tackles the important social, cultural and philosophical issues that allow such recognition to move beyond being merely token, and my sense is that research that transgresses the boundaries of the academy is a critical part of this larger transformation.