Nan Seuffert joined UOW in 2012 as a Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Intersections Research Centre (LIRC). She researches and publishes interdisciplinary work in the areas of law and society and law and humanities with a critical theory perspective and a focus on gender, race and sexuality. She currently teaches Contracts in first year law, Law, Gender Sexuality as an elective, occasionally, Capital Raising and Financial Product Regulation.
Professor Seuffert has been successful in attracting grants from public funders such as the Australian Research Council, the National Bank of Australia, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the New Zealand Fund for Science Research and Technology, the Ian Potter Foundation, the JR MacKenzie Foundation (NZ) and the Legal Services Board (NZ). She has been invited onto large international projects at, eg., Monash and McGill Universities.
Nan has been a Salaried Residential Fellow at the University of California Humanities Research Institute, a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley Law Center for the Study of Law and Society, and an invited visitor at the University of Kent Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality and the Malmo University Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies, among other universities and research centres.
As Director of the Legal Intersections Research Centre, and Head of Research in the School of Law, Nan has and has had oversight of an active program of seminars, symposia, visiting scholars and early career researcher and graduate student mentoring and other programs.
Mentoring has been a significant focus for Nan, and she has led international mentoring workshops at the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (funding: Social and Legal Studies) and at UOW. She received the title Woman of Impact at UOW in 2016 in part in recognition of extensive mentoring contributions at UOW and further afield, including as President of the Australia and New Zealand Law and Society Association.
Nan is on a number of editorial and advisory boards, including Law & Literature (US, Cardozo and Routledge) Feminist Legal Studies (UK, Springer), Law, Text Culture (UOW), Australian Feminist Studies (AU, Routledge), International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law (UK, Northumbria) and the book series 'Law and the Postcolonial: Ethics, Politics & Economy' (UK, Routledge).
Professor Seuffert carries a number of senior governance roles in addition to her position as Director of the LIRC, including as an active elected member of the UOW Council, Deputy Chair of UOW Senate, member of the UOW Education Policy Review Subcommittee (of Senate), member of the Faculty Research Committee, member of the UOW Community Engagement Grant Selection Panel, School Leadership Team and School Research Advisory Group, as well a member of the UniSuper Consultative Committee.
As a Professor at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, Nan held a number of Faculty and University administrative and management roles, including Acting Dean, Acting Associate Dean, Acting Deputy Dean, Associate Dean Research and Graduate, Director of Graduate Programmes, Director of Undergraduate Programmes and Director of International Relations. She was also one of four Professorial representatives elected by academic staff University-wide to Academic Board.
Nan is currently engaged in a number of collaborative and sole interdisciplinary research and community engagement projects.
She is a Chief Investigator on ‘The effects of female genital mutilation laws in Australia’ (ARC DP200100902, $449K)(lead, Juliet Rogers, UoM) an interdisciplinary law, criminology and anthropology project that aims to produce new knowledge about laws that have criminalised female genital mutilation (FGM) in Australia since 1994. FGM laws are now subject to robust international criticism, as well as increased concerns among the affected communities. Through the use of innovative primary data collection strategies with law and policy makers, justice system officials and with affected communities in Australia and the UK, the project seeks to produce robust evidence and original insights into the effects of these laws and the potential impacts of proposed legal initiatives. Expected benefits include enhanced legal and policy approaches to FGM that will assist with safeguarding the wellbeing of women and children.
Professor Seuffert is the lead researcher on ‘Duress, Social Security Debts and Domestic Violence’, an interdisciplinary law and society project funded by the UOW Community Engagement Grant Scheme ($13k), in partnership with Dr Scarlet Wilcock (USyd), Dr Lyndal Sleep (Griffth) and Economic Justice Australia (peak body for community law centres focussed on social security issues). This project’s aims are threefold: to generate a knowledge base of barriers to accessing social security faced by DV victims; to produce a set of materials to be used to improve the information, support and advocacy that members provide to DV victims; and to produce a report for use in advocating for policy reform.
Nan leads the project ‘She speaks, but who hears? Australian Women’s Voices, Listening, Law Reform’ which is the subject of an ARC Special Research Initiative application SR200200523 under review in 2020. This project aims to produce new knowledge regarding the dynamic relationship between women’s voices, how they are listened to and heard, and how they influence law reform, in three areas identified as Australian national priorities: domestic and family violence; sexual violence; and sexual harassment in the workplace. Through a focus on listening in the past and present, we trace whose voices have been heard, and who has been silenced, seeking to promote the inclusion of all Australian women in the substance and process of the law.
Nan is also leading a project on ‘LLB Curriculum Innovation: UOW Law at the Leading Edge’ which includes seven LIRC members (UOW funding, $40k). This project investigates innovative methods and pedagogies, including cutting edge technology, for LLB teaching that maintains UOW Law’s award winning student-centred curriculum and pedagogy, and student success.
Nan's project titled ‘Haunting National Boundaries: Refugee Law and Policy and Asylum Seekers who are Sexual Minorities’ asks what a more concerted focus on colonial genealogies of ‘sexuality’ can bring to: 1) analysis of the stories of origin of international law; 2) the operation of concepts such as ‘discretion’ and ‘credibility’ in the jurisprudence determining refugee claims; and 3) critical understandings of Australia’s controversial asylum seeker detention policies and practices.
Recently completed projects Include: with Dr Trish Mundy, in partnership with the YWCA of NSW, the YWCA Domestic Violence Intervention Service (DVIS) Evaluation, externally funded by a National Australia Bank Community Impact Grant. The project developed and applied ‘best practice methodologies’ for evaluating integrated domestic violence service provision. A pilot project, also with Dr Trish Mundy, in partnership with the Women Lawyers Association of NSW (WLANSW) focused on documenting best practices for the advancement of women in law firms. Nan spoke about the project at Ashurst law firm in 2016, and the project report was launched by the Honourable Acting Justice Jane Mathews AO and the WLANSW in September 2017. Finally, she initiated a student volunteer project on ‘Supporting Family Reunification of Refugees (SURF)’ with Dr Niahm Kinchin, in partnership with the Wollongong City Council and the Illawarra Multicultural Services (IMS).
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
Awarded by: Funding Scheme: Community Grants - Impact Grant | |
Awarded by: Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects |
| Degree | Research Title | Advisee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Philosophy | 'Private' & 'Public' Child Sexual Abuse: Gender, Policy and Law Creation & Reform - A Critical Analysis | Accurso, Iwona |
University of Wollongong, School of Law
Northfields Avenue
Wollongong
NSW
2500
AUSTRALIA
Nan is currently engaged in a number of collaborative and sole interdisciplinary research and community engagement projects.
She is a Chief Investigator on ‘The effects of female genital mutilation laws in Australia’ (ARC DP200100902, $449K)(lead, Juliet Rogers, UoM) an interdisciplinary law, criminology and anthropology project that aims to produce new knowledge about laws that have criminalised female genital mutilation (FGM) in Australia since 1994. FGM laws are now subject to robust international criticism, as well as increased concerns among the affected communities. Through the use of innovative primary data collection strategies with law and policy makers, justice system officials and with affected communities in Australia and the UK, the project seeks to produce robust evidence and original insights into the effects of these laws and the potential impacts of proposed legal initiatives. Expected benefits include enhanced legal and policy approaches to FGM that will assist with safeguarding the wellbeing of women and children.
Professor Seuffert is the lead researcher on ‘Duress, Social Security Debts and Domestic Violence’, an interdisciplinary law and society project funded by the UOW Community Engagement Grant Scheme ($13k), in partnership with Dr Scarlet Wilcock (USyd), Dr Lyndal Sleep (Griffth) and Economic Justice Australia (peak body for community law centres focussed on social security issues). This project’s aims are threefold: to generate a knowledge base of barriers to accessing social security faced by DV victims; to produce a set of materials to be used to improve the information, support and advocacy that members provide to DV victims; and to produce a report for use in advocating for policy reform.
Nan leads the project ‘She speaks, but who hears? Australian Women’s Voices, Listening, Law Reform’ which is the subject of an ARC Special Research Initiative application SR200200523 under review in 2020. This project aims to produce new knowledge regarding the dynamic relationship between women’s voices, how they are listened to and heard, and how they influence law reform, in three areas identified as Australian national priorities: domestic and family violence; sexual violence; and sexual harassment in the workplace. Through a focus on listening in the past and present, we trace whose voices have been heard, and who has been silenced, seeking to promote the inclusion of all Australian women in the substance and process of the law.
Nan is also leading a project on ‘LLB Curriculum Innovation: UOW Law at the Leading Edge’ which includes seven LIRC members (UOW funding, $40k). This project investigates innovative methods and pedagogies, including cutting edge technology, for LLB teaching that maintains UOW Law’s award winning student-centred curriculum and pedagogy, and student success.
Nan's project titled ‘Haunting National Boundaries: Refugee Law and Policy and Asylum Seekers who are Sexual Minorities’ asks what a more concerted focus on colonial genealogies of ‘sexuality’ can bring to: 1) analysis of the stories of origin of international law; 2) the operation of concepts such as ‘discretion’ and ‘credibility’ in the jurisprudence determining refugee claims; and 3) critical understandings of Australia’s controversial asylum seeker detention policies and practices.
Recently completed projects Include: with Dr Trish Mundy, in partnership with the YWCA of NSW, the YWCA Domestic Violence Intervention Service (DVIS) Evaluation, externally funded by a National Australia Bank Community Impact Grant. The project developed and applied ‘best practice methodologies’ for evaluating integrated domestic violence service provision. A pilot project, also with Dr Trish Mundy, in partnership with the Women Lawyers Association of NSW (WLANSW) focused on documenting best practices for the advancement of women in law firms. Nan spoke about the project at Ashurst law firm in 2016, and the project report was launched by the Honourable Acting Justice Jane Mathews AO and the WLANSW in September 2017. Finally, she initiated a student volunteer project on ‘Supporting Family Reunification of Refugees (SURF)’ with Dr Niahm Kinchin, in partnership with the Wollongong City Council and the Illawarra Multicultural Services (IMS).
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
Awarded by: Funding Scheme: Community Grants - Impact Grant | |
Awarded by: Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects |
| Degree | Research Title | Advisee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Philosophy | 'Private' & 'Public' Child Sexual Abuse: Gender, Policy and Law Creation & Reform - A Critical Analysis | Accurso, Iwona |
University of Wollongong, School of Law
Northfields Avenue
Wollongong
NSW
2500
AUSTRALIA
