EI 2018: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Panel

Professor Maggie Walter

Professor, Sociology 
University of Tasmania
2018 Chair

Professor Maggie Walter (PhD) is a sociologist whose research is focused on race relations, inequality, research methods and methodologies. She is the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor of Aboriginal Research and Leadership at the University of Tasmania. Professor Walter is passionate about improving the position of Aboriginal people in Australian society and changing the dynamics around race relations. Professor Walter is widely published in her fields of research. She is editor and co-author of the best-selling Social Research Methods and co-author of Inequality in Australia: Discourses, Realities and Directions, and lead editor and co-author of the 2017 edited collection Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong: A Longitudinal Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families.

Professor Walter has had a long pre-academic career in the public service, working in the Department of Social Security and other Commonwealth Government Departments from 1980 until 1999.

During this time she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Social Welfare) from Charles Sturt University in 1994, a Bachelor of Social Work (1st Class Honours) from the University of Tasmania in 1998. Professor Walter was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology) from the University of Tasmania in 2003 and joined the University of Tasmania as an academic in 2002, first in Aboriginal Studies, and then in 2004 moved to the School of Social Sciences.

Professor Walter’s recent research track record includes an ARC Linkage Projects grant (with Larrakia Nation) investigating Aboriginal perspectives on race relations in Darwin, an ARC Linkage Projects grant (with Department of Social Services) examining how to improve Indigenous health and well-being over the lifecourse and an ARC Indigenous Discovery Grant, mapping how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children grow up strong in education.

Professor Walter is also passionate about building the knowledge base of Indigenous statistical methodologies. Her book Indigenous statistics: a quantitative methodology (with Chris Andersen, Left Coast Press 2013) was the first book, globally to address this topic, and she has run numerous workshops on Indigenous statistics and Indigenous data, most recently in collaboration with the University of Arizona based Native Nations Institute, at the University of Technology Sydney (2017), with the primary aim of building data awareness and the statistical literacy and capacity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and community leaders.

EI 2018 Panel Members

• Associate Professor Roxanne Bainbridge, Central Queensland University
• Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, University of Technology Sydney
• Mr Ned David, Yumi Education Services 
• Ms Lauren Ganley, Desert Knowledge Australia  
• Professor John Maynard, The University of Newcastle
• Dr Anne Poelina, Madjulla Incorporated
• Professor Irene Watson, University of South Australia