Professor Margaret Alston

Head of Department
Professor of Social Work

Margaret.Alston@med.monash.edu.au

Telephone: +61 3 9903 1129

Facsimile: +61 3 9903 1141

Profile

Professor Margaret Alston, B.Soc. Stud (Syd), Dip. Comp. Applic. (RMIHE), M. Litt (UNE), PhD (UNSW) assumed duties as Head of Department in July 2008. Prior to commencing at Monash she was Professor of Social Work and Human Services and Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research (a subprogram of the Institute of Land, Water and Society) at Charles Sturt University. She is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. She has served on a number of Boards including the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, Family Services Council. Family and Community Services Department in Canberra and the National Women's Advisory Group overseeing the Rural Women's Policy Unit in the Department of Primary Industries and Energy. In 2008 she was appointed to the Australian delegation attending the Commission for the Status of Women meeting in New York. In 2009, 2007 and 2003 she has spent time as a visiting expert in the Gender Division of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome. She has also acted as a gender expert for UN-Habitat in Kenya in 2009. She has published widely in the field of rural gender and rural social issues. She has been a keynote speaker at a number of national and international conferences over the last several years and is sought out for media commentary on the rural social condition, and on climate change and gender issues.