Qualification:

My name is Olivia Freund, I live rurally on Worimi land in Seaham, New South Wales and am a student in my final year of the Bachelor of Laws at the University of Newcastle. I completed a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Politics in 2018 and received first class qualifications in Politics for my Honours thesis in 2019. My thesis was supervised by Dr. Tod Moore and explored working class political consciousness and discourse analyses surrounding the closure of the Newcastle Steelworks which is a personal topic to me. I am the inaugural president of the UoN Politics Society and seek to promote political study to the student community through this exciting medium. I highly value inclusivity and respect in building interpersonal connections and am humbled to be part of creating a new community at my university. I am currently continuing to pursue my passion for research under the supervision of Dr. Amy Maguire at the Newcastle Law School, where I am completing a semester thesis investigating the specific impacts of compulsory income management legislation on First Nations women with the use of Feminist Legal Theory and Indigenous Women's Standpoint Theory. In the winter of 2021, I will be participating in a research project on Understanding Indigenous Self-Determined Governance of Development as an Aurora Intern at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. This includes developing valuable research and data skills as part of the National Survey of 'Elder' Indigenous Organisations: Adaptive Lessons for Renewing Governance Upon completion of my Bachelor of Laws, I hope to enter policy and governance work and am keen to learn more about specific policy areas of regional infrastructure, women's politics, rural politics, labour politics, and equity in First Nations communities. Outside of academia and study, I enjoy spending time with the animals on my property, discovering natural surroundings by hiking and photography, and teaching violin. As a second-generation Australian with Maltese migrant lineage, I also have a keen interest in fostering strong personal ties to culture, and embodying my cultural heritage in all I do.