Maria is a Research Fellow/Lecturer in the Department of International Relations. She was awarded her PhD in Politics and International Relations from Monash University in 2018.

Maria’s research agenda is motivated by the grand challenge of understanding gendered insecurities, contestations and transformative politics in the context of multiple and intersecting crises. She focuses on the Asia-Pacific region and the Philippines in particular to analyse multiple sites where conflicts, disasters, economic recessions, health epidemics and rising fundamentalisms increasingly constitute the overlapping risks and hazards impacted by climate change. This body of work is being developed in journal publications such as Review of International Studies, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Gender & Development, the International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Human Rights Quarterly; in book chapters in edited volumes; and through public engagements such as commentaries via the Australian Institute of International Affairs’ Australian Outlook, and media interviews.

Maria’s research has consistently gained distinction through invitations in competitive workshops, prizes and awards including the International Studies Association Emerging Global South Scholar Workshop (2019); the Australian International Political Economy Network Journal Article Prize (2018); and the Australian Institute of International Affairs Early Career Research Impact Award (2018).

Prior to joining ANU, Maria was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Monash Centre for Gender, Peace and Security where she was co-lead investigator for a collaborative research with ActionAid Australia and other ActionAid country offices on developing “Gender Responsive Alternatives on Climate Change” from 2018-2019.