Danielle Celermajer

Danielle Celermajer is Professor of Sociology and Criminology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, where she also serves as Deputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute and lead of the Multispecies Justice Project. A longtime human rights activist before entering academia, she previously held the position of head of Indigenous policy at the Australian Human Rights Commission and worked in grassroots human rights initiatives. Celermajer earned her PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. She established postgraduate human rights programs at the University of Sydney, including directing the Master of Human Rights and Democratisation.

Her research specializations encompass theories of justice, human rights, and multispecies justice, particularly extending justice frameworks to animals and ecosystems in contexts of environmental politics and climate change. Key publications include her book The Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apologies (Cambridge University Press, 2009), which received an Honorable Mention from the American Political Science Association Section 17, and Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future (Penguin Random House, 2021), shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in non-fiction. Highly cited articles feature Multispecies justice: theories, challenges, and a research agenda for environmental politics (2022, 568 citations), Multispecies justice: Climate-just futures with, for and beyond humans (2021, 233 citations), Justice through a multispecies lens (2020, 196 citations), and Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation (2020, 130 citations). Celermajer co-edited the special issue Multispecies Justice for Cultural Politics (2023), a runner-up for the Council of Editors of Learned Journals award. Her scholarship influences debates on compassionate conservation, animal personhood, and climate-just futures, shaping environmental political theory.

Professional Email: danielle.celermajer@sydney.edu.au