Rate My Professor Melanie Brand

Dr. Melanie Brand is a Lecturer in Intelligence Studies in the School of International Studies, Department of Security Studies and Criminology, within the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. Her research specializations encompass intelligence analysis and warning, oversight and accountability, secrecy, and cultural perspectives on intelligence, espionage, and spying. Brand earned her PhD in History from the University of Melbourne in 2023, with a thesis entitled "A Question of Trust: Secrecy and Intelligence Accountability in Cold War Australia." She previously completed a Master's degree in History at the same institution in 2016. Her academic career at Macquarie University spans from 2017 to the present.

Brand's key publications include "In the Name of National Security: Press Censorship in Cold War Australia" (Australian Historical Studies, 2025), "The Media and 'Mrs Petrov': Press Representations of Australia’s Most Famous Spy" (Intelligence and National Security, 2025), "Why Are Australia's Intelligence Agencies Talking About Diversity?" (Australian Policy and History, 2025), and "'A Spy Thriller Outdoes Fiction': Popular Culture and the 1954 Petrov Affair" (Journal of Australian Studies, 2024). Her doctoral research underpins the forthcoming book Blind Trust: Secrecy, Scandal, and Intelligence Accountability in Cold War Australia, scheduled for publication by Georgetown University Press in December 2026. She contributes to teaching through units such as PICT8044 Intelligence Analysis, PICX2010 Intelligence and Counter Intelligence, and PICT2010 Intelligence for Decision Advantage. Brand serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism and is a founding board member of the Women in Intelligence Network. She received the Faculty of Arts Early Career Learning & Teaching Award and was shortlisted for the Lyndall Ryan Thesis Prize.