Zoe Staines

Zoe Staines (she/her) is Senior Lecturer and Director of Research in the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology, awarded in 2013 for her thesis titled "Knowledge management in criminal investigation: empirical examination and re-conceptualisation of dean's investigative thinking styles." Prior to her academic career, Staines held senior research and policy roles in government and the non-profit sector. Her deeply interdisciplinary research spans social policy, sociology, and criminology, with particular attention to gender and work, care, welfare conditionality, (de)coloniality, and structural injustice. She leads research projects funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2020-2023) on unemployment in remote Australia and the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (2024) exploring perceptions of universal basic income.

Staines has authored or co-authored four books published by leading presses including Routledge and Policy Press: Securing women’s economic security, safety, and freedom: the role of Universal Basic Income in Australia (2025), Introduction to the Social Sciences (2023, with Gerhard Hoffstaedter and Ned Binnie), Island criminology (2023, with John Scott), and Compulsory income management in Australia and New Zealand: more harm than good? (2022, with Greg Marston, Louise Humpage, Michelle Peterie, Philip Mendes, and Shelley Bielefeld). She has published dozens of journal articles, 85% in Q1 journals and 21% in journals ranked in the top 10% globally, such as Policy Studies (top 2%) and Sociology (top 4%). Key recent articles include "An intersectional feminist analysis of compulsory income management in Australia" (Journal of Social Policy, 2024, with Greg Marston et al.), "Social science as social action to address inequalities" (Australian Journal of Social Issues, 2023, with Kiah Smith et al.), "Work and wellbeing in remote Australia: moving beyond punitive ‘workfare’" (Journal of Sociology, 2022), and "Responsibilising young benefit recipients: Income management and financial capability in New Zealand" (Critical Social Policy, 2022, with Louise Humpage et al.). Staines currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Social Issues (Q1), Chair of the Organising Committee for the 2026 Australian Social Policy Conference, and an elected board member of Australia's Council for Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS). She is a member of the International Association for Feminist Economics, the Australian Social Policy Association, and Basic Income Earth Network.

Professional Email: z.staines@uq.edu.au