Biography

Dr. Sara Niner is an interdisciplinary researcher and lecturer in Anthropology with the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Dr. Niner is a critical development studies scholar who has undertaken primary field research in developing country contexts particularly in the new nation of Timor-Leste. She is the Anthropology major Convenor and has led the Masters of International Development Practice.

She is an expert in the field of gender and international development with a particular interest in those issues in the post-conflict environment of Timor-Leste and is widely published in this field. She has worked in solidarity with the Timorese community in Australia since 1991 and as a volunteer and consultant in Timor-Leste since 2000. In 2000 she edited and published To Resist is to Win: the Autobiography of Xanana Gusmão with selected letters and speeches (Aurora Books, Melbourne, 2000) and in 2009 published her PhD thesis Xanana: Leader of the Struggle for Independent Timor-Leste (Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2009) translated into Portuguese as Xanana: Líder da luta pela independência de Timor-Leste (Don Quixote Publishing: Lisbon 2011). She remains a key intellectual among the leading group of international researchers within area studies on Timor-Leste, publishing numerous articles and commentary, including her latest book, an edited collection, titled Women and the politics of gender in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste, Women in Asia Series, Oxford: Routledge.

As a regional gender expert, Dr. Niner has often worked and reported on gender issues in S. E. Asia for local and international development agencies and has published her research findings in top-rated international journals, such as International Feminist Journal of Politics, Feminist Media Studies and Medical Anthropology. Her 2015 Oxfam Monash Partnership research project, titled Gender Analysis of Oxfam Savings and Loans Scheme Timor-Leste, included arrange of recommendations to increase and program for gender equity in microfinance programs. Her 2013 study into young men in Timor-Leste and their attitudes to gender roles, relationships and violence informed a gender-based violence prevention campaign funded by the Spanish government. Her 2018-20 project with the Alola Foundation and the International Women’s Development Agency informed their programs to effectively strengthen women’s meaningful political participation, leadership and advocacy for issues that are important to them.