Rate My Professor Sonia Palmieri

Sonia Palmieri is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a PhD from the University of Queensland. Palmieri's research centres on women's political participation and leadership in the Pacific region and globally, with a particular emphasis on the social and cultural conditions that legitimise women's leadership in political institutions, including parliaments. Her signature contribution lies in the theorisation and practical implementation of gender-sensitive parliaments, evidenced through academic publications, practitioner-focused toolkits, and policy tools. Additionally, she collaborates with students and peers to advance inclusive research methodologies, particularly feminist approaches, and contributes to capacity building for gender research.

Palmieri brings over 15 years of professional experience spanning academic, development, and parliamentary institutions. She has served in key roles at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, Switzerland; the United Nations Development Programme in Hanoi, Vietnam; the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in New York, USA, where she was Policy Specialist on Political Participation; and the Australian Parliament. She has designed and evaluated development programs for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, working with current and aspiring women politicians across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and predominantly the Pacific. Her influential publications include the book Gender-Sensitive Parliaments in Fiji: Between International Norms and Localised Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), co-editorship of Gender and Politics Reimagined: Centring Oceanic and Asian Lenses (ANU Press, 2025), Gender-Sensitive Parliaments: A Global Review of Good Practice (2011), and Feminist Institutionalism and Gender-Sensitive Parliaments: Relating Institutional Dynamics to Power and Transformative Gender Outcomes (2019). Recent projects under her leadership include Assessing the State of Democracy in the Pacific for International IDEA (2025) and investigations into localised gender equality changes in the Parliament of Fiji. Her scholarship shapes parliamentary reforms and gender equality strategies in the Pacific and beyond.