Rate My Professor Jessica Weir

Jessica Weir is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University and brings over two decades of experience from the public, private, and community sectors, including ten years with the Native Title Research Unit at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Weir is also a Visiting Fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, and serves as a node leader in the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre. As an engaged academic, she emphasizes collaborations across sectors, producing non-traditional research outputs such as training programs for public servants, artist partnerships, the 'So you care about Indigenous scholars?' poster series, and the 'At risk in the climate crisis' podcast series. She is available to supervise PhD students in her areas of expertise and sits on the editorial board of the Routledge Environmental Humanities Book Series.

A non-Indigenous scholar, Weir investigates environmental issues and natural hazard risk by holding environment and society in intimate relation, rethinking nature and evidence in domains typically led by natural sciences. Her research addresses policy and regulatory consequences of co-located Indigenous and non-Indigenous jurisdictions, informed by more than 20 years of collaboration with Indigenous leaders in Australia. Her internationally recognized book, Murray River Country: An Ecological Dialogue with Traditional Owners (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2009), critiques the public sector's separation of nature and society. Other influential publications include 'The Benefits Associated with Caring for Country' (2011), 'Country, Native Title and Ecology' (2012), 'Persuasion without Policies: The Work of Reviving Indigenous Peoples’ Fire Management in Southern Australia' (2021), and 'Centring Indigenous Peoples in Knowledge Exchange Research-Practice by Resetting Assumptions, Relationships and Institutions' (Sustainability Science, 2024). Her scholarship intersects human geography, Indigenous studies, decolonial studies, political science, environmental humanities, and science and technology studies. Weir has received the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Award for Excellence in Indigenous Research (2023), the Dorothy R. Taylor Award for Best Paper (2021, shared), and the Emergency Communication Research Award (2022, shared).