Professor Emma Lee

Position: Professorial Research Fellow

Area: National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Tasmania
  • BA (Hons) of Biological Anthropology and Prehistory, Australian National University
  • Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Research and Leadership, University of Melbourne

Biography

Dr Emma Lee is a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania, Australia.  Emma’s work in Tasmania has assisted in constitutional reform, the first joint management plan of a protected area and, in 2022, establishing a market for cultural fisheries.

In 2023 she became the first Indigenous woman to be a recipient of a Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation. Emma was also a finalist for 2022 Australian of the Year (Tasmania) for her body of work in Indigenous rights. In 2021, she became the first Indigenous Australian editor of a Best Practice Guideline for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).  In 2019, she was a member of the Federal Government’s National Co-Design Group for Indigenous Voice.

Areas of expertise

  • Land and sea management
  • Policy, legislation and regulatory environments in Australia
  • Regional development
  • Tourism

Selected Research Grants

  • 2023: Pew Marine Fellows Program, Pew Trust. Project title: Developing sea country literacy to decolonise research and Indigenous marine stewardship for Aboriginal Tasmanian benefit
  • 2022: AIATSIS Indigenous Research Exchange. Project title: ‘Reset the Relationship’: modelling an Indigenous Voice to Government in Tasmania
  • 2019: Australian Research Council (DP200101394). Project title: Making policy reform work: comparative analysis of social procurement policy implementation in Victoria and Scotland

Publications and outputs 2023:

Paper - Bellato, B, Frantzeskaki, N, tebrakunna country and Lee, E, Cheer, JM & Peters, A 2023, ‘Transformative epistemologies for regenerative tourism: towards a decolonial paradigm in science and practice?’, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2023.2208310

Chapter - tebrakunna country and Lee, E & Grimwood, B 2023, ‘Refusing tourism’ in Mair, H (ed), Handbook on Tourism and Rural Community Development, Elgar Publishing, UK, pp. 125-138. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800370067.00017

Publications and outputs 2022:

Book - tebrakunna country and Lee, E & Evans, J (eds) 2022, Indigenous women’s voices: 20 years on from Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies, Bloomsbury Books, London, UK.

White Paper Roundtable – Greening Australia, April 2022, White Paper - Valuing Nature, Climate action and the economy: Insights from an expert discussion on climate, the economy, society and a better path forward.

Report – Future Earth Australia, 2022, A National Strategy for Just Adaptation, Australian Academy of Science, ACT.

Chapter – Lee, E 2022, ‘Identity in a Time of Rising Tides’, in Nursey-Bray, M, Palmer, R, Chischilly, AM, Rist, P & Yin, L (eds), Old Ways for New Days: Indigenous Survival and Agency in Climate Changed Times, Springer, Switzerland.

Publications and outputs 2021:

Report - Hoegh-Guldberg, O, Bowen, K, Capon, T, Church, J, Howden, M, Hughes, L, Jotzo, F, Palutikof, J, Quiggin, J, Karoly, D, King, A, Lee, E, Nidumolu, U, Nursey-Bray, M & Steffen, W 2021, The risks to Australia of a 3oC warmer world, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, ACT.

Guideline - Verschuuren B, Mallarach J-M, Bernbaum, E, Spoon J, Brown S, Borde R, Brown J, Calamia M, Mitchell N, Infield M & Lee E 2021, Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature: Guidance for Protected and Conserved Area Governance and Management, Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Co-Design – Commonwealth of Australia 2021, Indigenous Voice Co-design Process Final Report to the Australian Government, Canberra, ACT.

Paper - Jonas, HD, Ahmadia, GN, Bingham, HC, …Lee, E (tebrakunna country)… 2021,’ Equitable and effective area-based conservation: towards the conserved areas paradigm’,  PARKS: The International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 71-84

Paper – Lee, E 2021, ‘Indigenous peoples shift conservation through best practice’, Nature Human Behaviour, https://doi.org/10.1038/S41562-021-01100-0