Dr. Intifar Chowdhury is a youth researcher and Lecturer in Government at Flinders University, South Australia. She is passionate about writing to better the political representation of all young Australians in our democracy.
In July 2023, Intifar completed her PhD in political science at the Australian National University's (ANU) School of Politics and International Relations. Her doctoral research tackled the important question of whether young people are turning away from democracy. It comprised a quantitative enquiry on advanced democracies using survey data from comparative databases. Beyond academia, Intifar continually strives to translate her research work into public good: her political commentary on youth politics has appeared in diverse media platforms, including in The Conversation, The Guardian, The Canberra Times, The Ethics Centre, ABC Q&A, Al Jazeera English, the Democracy Sausage Podcast, Triple J Hack, Reuters, Australian Institute for International Affairs and ANU's Policy Forum.
Prior to this, Intifar obtained a double degree in Science (Biochemistry/Genetics) and International Relations (Honours) at the ANU. During her time as a student, Intifar has interned at the Commonwealth parliament, the Canberra Hospital and Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschun in Berlin (WZB). At ANU, she also worked as the Senior Survey Research Officer for a youth longitudinal Post School Destination (GENERATION) survey, conducted by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM) in collaboration with the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE). In the past years, Intifar has represented ANU research while visiting the LIfBi research centre in Germany, the OECD Education Directorate in France and universities in Austria and Italy.
Intifar greatly enjoys teaching at university, educating and guiding the future custodians of democracy. Her teaching philosophy has been accredited at the UK Higher Education Academy. She also won the 2020 ANU CASS Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Education, 2021 ANU CASS Excellence in Tutoring and Demonstrating and 2021 ANU Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
At the end of each day, when she takes off her research hat, Intifar enjoys instructing group fitness classes at the uni gym, contributing to the physical and mental wellbeing of her students and colleagues.