Rate My Professor Naomi Pfitzner

Dr Naomi Pfitzner is Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Hub and a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts at Monash University. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne from 2013 to 2016, with her thesis titled "Engaging fathers: Learning from Baby Makes 3", examining men’s engagement with intimate partner violence primary prevention programs under the supervision of Professors Cathy Humphreys and Kelsey Hegarty. Pfitzner conducts research in gender-based violence prevention and response, with key interests in family violence, gender, family studies, social policy, and law. Her work focuses on primary prevention of gender-based violence, respectful relationships education, and gender equality.

Pfitzner has led several national projects funded by ANROWS to pilot and evaluate professional learning programs for teachers addressing the manosphere's influence in classrooms. She has conducted evaluations for the Australian Government on respectful relationships education in schools, Our Watch on family violence primary prevention interventions targeting parents, and Victorian initiatives including the Family Violence Body Worn Camera Trial, Fast-Tracking Initiative in the Magistrates' Court, Specialist Investigators Support Unit, Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme, and Enhanced Pathways project. Nationally and internationally recognised for research on domestic and family violence help-seeking and service innovation during COVID-19, her findings have been cited by the Centre for Global Development and informed Australian parliamentary inquiries on COVID-19 responses and the Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. She is an Associate Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women awarded in 2023 and received the Arts Education Fellowship Award in 2019. Key publications include "Locked out or let in? Learning from victim-survivors’ remote help-seeking experiences during COVID-19" (Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 2026), "LGBTQ+ domestic and family violence victim-survivors’ experiences of remote court hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic: the gendered dimensions of safety, independence and visibility" (Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2025), "Lessons from lockdown: designing flexible, responsive domestic and family violence service systems" (Violence Against Women, 2025), and "Queering police legitimacy theories: (dis)trust, context, and visibility" (Policing and Society, 2025). Her research has been published in leading international journals and presented at conferences on criminology, family studies, and family violence.