Meredith Nash is Professor and Associate Dean - Diversity, Belonging, Inclusion, and Equity in CECS. She was previously a social scientist at the University of Tasmania and Senior Advisor – Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity at the Australian Antarctic Division. Meredith is a cultural sociologist and qualitative methodologist. She has pursued an evidence-based approach that aligns research, best practices, and quantitative and qualitative data that underscores lived experiences across social groups.

Meredith has published influential and highly cited books and articles examining social inequality. She is best known for her social research on intersectional leadership approaches, including several studies on leadership for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) in Australia and making workplaces safer for people in historically excluded groups. Meredith has conducted pioneering studies on evaluating institutional equity in STEMM and is a leading figure in extreme environment sociology through her work on making remote scientific fieldwork in Antarctica more inclusive, and addressing sexual harassment in extreme STEMM workplaces. Meredith has worked with dozens of STEMM organisations to develop fresh and innovative approaches to their organisational gender equity and inclusion practices and policies and engaging men in as gender allies. She is a leading science communicator and plays a starring role in the critically acclaimed documentary, The Leadership (2020, Bunya Productions). Meredith is also an ICF accredited executive coach.

Meredith’s academic career commenced in 1998 at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) as an undergraduate student in Women’s Studies and Psychology. She studied abroad at the Australian National University in 2001, which prompted a permanent move to Australia to undertake postgraduate work. She earned a master’s degree in Gender Studies and Development in 2005 and a PhD in Gender Studies in 2009, both from the University of Melbourne. Meredith was appointed as an academic in Sociology at the University of Tasmania in 2011. Over the last decade, she has combined her work as a feminist cultural sociologist with an array of senior leadership positions in the College of Arts, Education, and Law at UTAS (e.g., Director, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (2020 – present); Deputy Director, Institute for the Study of Social Change (2017-20) and in the University (e.g., Chair, University Equity Committee (2020-21) and externally at the Australian Antarctic Division as Senior Advisor – Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (2020 – present). Meredith has also served her discipline(s) as President of the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association (2014-16) and Diversity and Inclusion Portfolio Leader of the Australian Sociological Association (2018-20). She was appointed to her current role in CECS in May 2022. Meredith is an  member of the Executice Committee for the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) Standing Committee on the Humanities and Social Sciences. She serves on the SCAR Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Group and sits on the Advisory Council of Pride Polar. Meredith is also on the board of Women's Health Tasmania. 

Current projects include:

Experiences of women of colour in STEMM

Building inclusive extreme fieldwork environments

Lived experiences of overland traverse in the Million Year Ice Core Project 

Meredith has supervised numerous students in sociology and gender studies. She is particularly interested in supervising students interested broadly in the application of intersectionality in STEMM, leadership for women, organisational cultures, remote Antarctic fieldwork, and workplace sexual harassment. More broadly, students interested in social identity, bodies and embodiment, and the future of work are invited to get in touch.