Rate My Professor Blair Williams

Dr. Blair Williams is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. She completed her PhD at the Australian National University in 2020, with the thesis 'From Tightrope to Gendered Trope: A Comparative Study of the Print Mediation of Women Prime Ministers,' which was awarded the ANU Gender Institute PhD Thesis Prize. Prior to her appointment at Monash in July 2022, Williams served as a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the Australian National University, where she received the ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Impact and Engagement in 2021. Her academic career focuses on advancing understanding of gender dynamics in political leadership and media.

Williams' research specializations include gendered media coverage of women politicians, feminist theory, Australian politics, media analysis, post-structuralism, critical theory, queer theory, LGBTQIA+ rights, and refugee politics. Key publications encompass 'Gender and Political Leadership in a Time of COVID' co-authored with Carol Johnson (Politics & Gender, 2020; 249 citations), 'A Tale of Two Women: A Comparative Gendered Media Analysis of UK Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May' (Parliamentary Affairs, 2021), 'It’s a Man’s World at the Top: Gendered Media Representations of Julia Gillard and Helen Clark' (Feminist Media Studies, 2022), and 'A Gendered Media Analysis of the Prime Ministerial Ascension of Gillard and Turnbull: He’s “Taken Back the Reins” and She’s “a Backstabbing” Murderer' (Australian Journal of Political Science, 2017). Additional contributions include 'All’s Fair in Pandemic and War? A Gendered Analysis of Australian Coverage of Covid-19' with Brent Greer (Media and Communication, 2023), chapters in 'Research Handbook on Public Management and COVID-19' (2024) and 'Gender and Australian Political Leadership' (2021), and encyclopedia entries on Margaret Thatcher, Julia Gillard, and Helen Clark. Her work has shaped academic discourse on media sexism, gender double standards in politics, and leadership masculinities, appearing in leading journals and books.