Priya Chattier

Priya Chattier joined ANU's State, Society and Governance in Melanesia program as a Pacific Research Fellow in April 2014. Before joining SSGM, she pioneered and headed the University of the South Pacific’s first-ever Gender Studies programme. She completed her PhD in Sociology at the Australian National University in 2008. Her doctoral research explored the dynamics of survival, self-respect and agency in the lived experiences of women living in poverty in rural Fiji. Priya's work is located at the intersections of academic and activist work on gender equality, women's economic empowerment, gender relations, Hindu womanhood and Hinduism, and social change in contemporary Fiji and the Pacific Island Countries.Her recent publications focus on the capability approach and gender-sensitive measures of poverty and also on, gender and Hinduism in Fiji.

In the recent past, she has been involved in various research projects including an Australian Research Council research grant for Fiji-based fieldwork on Assessing Development: Designing Better Indices for Poverty and Gender Equity and was also a lead researcher for World Bank qualitative rapid assessment in Fiji informing the World Development Report 2012 on 'gender and economic choice'. Priya was employed as the National Consultant for AusAID Fiji’s Market Development Fund’s research project on gender and poverty in horticulture and tourism sectors in Fiji. These research experiences required her to critically evaluate gender relations, history of women’s movements and current discourses on feminist political economy and globalization in Fiji and the Pacific.

Career Highlights

Pacific Research Fellow in Gender at the State Society and Governance in Melanesia program, ANU (2014); Gender Studies Coordinator at the University of the South Pacific (2010-2014); Research, Monitoring and Evaluations Specialist for UNIFEM Pacific’s (Now UN Women) flagship programme: Advancing Gender Equality in Political Governance (2008-2010); Doctoral candidate at the School of Social Sciences, ANU; International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) Rhonda William’s Award for best paper (2006).