Professor Janeen Baxter

Janeen Baxter, FASSA, has been the Director of the Life Course Centre since its formation in 2014. Janeen is at the forefront of scholarship on families, households and life course research. She is known for her leadership in developing life course and longitudinal studies through Australia’s first national longitudinal study, Negotiating the Life Course (NLC), her research on gender inequality and family dynamics, and her leadership of the Life Course Centre, the second 7-year social science ARC Centre of Excellence to be funded at the time of award.

She has contributed innovative analyses of large-scale quantitative data with a focus on gender equity in family dynamics and work-life balance. Her research impact is reflected in her influence on data investments and policy decisions by the Australian Government as well as a strong publication record in leading social science journals. She has developed and led several large-scale, multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research projects and has an exceptional track record in attracting competitive funding and building collaborations with industry and government. She is currently involved in a number of funded projects, such as the Try Test and Learn Evaluation, and Western Australia’s 100 Families project.

She is a dedicated mentor and regularly supervises ECRs, PhD candidates, and Honours students. Many of her former research fellows and students have won prestigious fellowships, while others have gone on to successful careers in academia or government. She regularly engages with community mentoring and speaks at local events, such as The Brisbane Feminist Festival (pictured above).