Anne Nygaard Jedzini is a PhD researcher on power-sharing at Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at University of Canberra.

She is the recipient of the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative 2021 PhD Scholarship. Anne is the former Vice Mayor and Councillor of the City of Aarhus in Denmark where she held public office from 2014-2018. The City of Aarhus is her Danish hometown and where she is originally from. Anne is currently elected as the Australian Political Studies Association Postgraduate Caucus representative and is a member of the Australian Political Studies Association's Executive Committee. She is also currently appointed as the HDR member on the External Review Panel for the Faculty for Business, Government & Law at University of Canberra.

For her PhD, Anne examines how power is shared, exercised and experienced, and to what extent power-sharing has deliberative dimensions in deliberative and participatory processes (democratic innovations) in Australian local governments. More specifically, her PhD examines the democratic, political and institutional conditions for power-sharing through deliberation between councillors and community members in a comparative case study of three Australian local government councils. She is set to complete her PhD by June, 2024.

Anne has extensive experience from Danish politics. As Vice Mayor, she served as political member of five committees. Two of these committees were deliberative co-creation task committees with both councillors and relevant members of the public. During her time in public office, Anne focused on how members of the community could have more direct impact on public policymaking. She also focused on how to create the best possible conditions for startups, entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Throughout her time in Danish politics, Anne ran multiple political bipartisan campaigns. These campaigns sought to bring different perspectives, lived-experiences and worldviews together over issues such as lack of democratic participation, enablement of young people's voices and gender inequality in local government politics. Much of her research interests stem from her lived-experience with power, democratic innovations and policymaking in Denmark.

Anne's research interests include power and power-sharing in institutions/organisations, democratic innovations, deliberative/participatory democracy, political leadership, Australian politics and qualitative research methods.

PhD supervisors

• Nicole Curato (Primary Supervisor)

• Selen Ercan (Secondary Supervisor)

Academic Experience

01.07.2023-present.  

Job Title: Academic Tutor in Power and Policymaking. 

Organisation: Griffith School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University,  Australia. 

Responsibility: Academic tutor and marker for a total of thirty undergraduate students in the unit, Power and Policymaking, throughout trimester 2. 

01.08.2021-present.  

Job Title: Academic Tutor in Political Leadership. 

Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra,  Australia. 

Responsibility: Academic tutor and marker for a total of forty undergraduate students in the unit, Political Leadership, throughout semester 2. 

01.02.2022-01.12.2022. 

Job Title: Academic Tutor in Introductions to Politics and Government. 

Organisation: Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra,  Australia. 

Responsibility: Academic tutor and marker for a total of forty undergraduate students in the unit, Introductions to Politics and Government, throughout semester 1 and 2. 

01.08.2021-01.12.2022. 

Job Title: Academic Tutor in Investigating and Explaining Society. 

Organisation: Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, Australia. 

Responsibility: Academic tutor and marker for a total of sixty undergraduate students in the unit, Investigating and Explaining Society, throughout semester 2. 

01.03.2021-01.07.2021. 

Job Title: Event Manager on Australian Citizens’ Jury on Genome Editing. 

Organisation: Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, Australia. 

Responsibility: Event manage the research project Australian Citizens’ Jury on Genome Editing which was also a three-day event held at the Museum of Australian Democracy from June 17-20, 2021. 

01.08.2020-31.12.2020. 

Job Title: Senior Research Assistant on “Network Analysis of Emissions of Transport and Gas Users in the ACT.” 

Organisation: Griffith University, Australia. 

Responsibility: Identify key transport emission stakeholders in the ACT to determine their carbon footprint. 

Professional Experience

01.02.2019-01.08.2020. 

Job Title: Sales and Business Development Director. 

Organisation: Suncil International ApS, Australia. 

Responsibility: Develop market strategy across Australia through strategic business development. 

01.04.2018-01.02.2019. 

Job Title: Business Developer. 

Organisation: Suncil International ApS, Denmark. 

Responsibility: Stakeholder management of customers and business partners in EU and MENA region. 

Public Office

01.01.2014-01.01.2018. 

Job Title: Vice Mayor and Councillor: 

• Political member of The Committee of Volunteering and Co-creation 

• Political member of The Committee of Co-Citizenship 

• Political member of The Committee of Finance 

• Political member of The Committee of Children and Young People 

• Political member of The Committee of Gender Equality and Diversity 

Organisation: Aarhus Municipality, Denmark. 

Responsibility: Preside over the political governance of the City of Aarhus through evidence-based policy      decisions. 

Non-Peer Reviewed Publications

Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2023. Politicians must share deliberative power to increase legitimacy. 

Type of Publication: Blog article published March 16, 2023 in the European Consortium’s Political Science Research blog, The Loop. 

Journal Articles under Peer Review

Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2021. How do city council politicians facilitate co-creation? Evidence from Australia and Denmark. 

Type of Publication: Empirical journal article submitted November 15, 2021 in the Australian Journal of Political Science. 

Author Statement: I undertook an interpretivist empirical study of in-depth interviews with sixteen Danish and Australian city council politicians. I specifically explored what motivates city council politicians to practice and participate in co-creation processes, what societal stakeholders are included in co-creation processes and what the similarities and differences of co-creation processes are in Danish and Australian local governments in urban and regional areas. I recruited the research participants through my own political networks, transcribed the audio files of the interviews, wrote the interviews up in an analytical table, and did a thematic analysis of the research data against my main and sub-research questions. 

Academic Conferences 

20.06.2022-22.06.2022. 

Title: Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2021. How do city council politicians understand and facilitate co-creation? An explorative study of Australian and Danish local governments. 

Organisation: Deliberative Democracy and Public Opinion Summer School, Turku, Finland. 

Details: Deliberative democracy conference with participation of deliberative democracy scholars from across the world.  

09.06.2022-11.06.2022. 

Title: Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2021. How do city council politicians understand and facilitate co-creation? An explorative study of Australian and Danish local governments. 

Organisation: The Transatlantic Dialogue 16, Roskilde, Denmark. 

Details: Public administration conference with participation of American and European public administration scholars.  

16.02.2022-17.02.2022. 

Title: Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2021. How do city council politicians understand and facilitate co-creation? Evidence from Australia and Denmark. 

Organisation: Australian Political Studies Association, Brisbane, Australia. 

Details: POP (Political Organisations & Participation) 2022 Workshop for emerging political science scholars in Australia. 

Presentations

21.02.2023. 

Title: Jedzini, Anne Nygaard. 2023. Democratic Innovations: From Aarhus to ACT. 

Organisation: City Renewable Authority, ACT Government and International Association for Public Participation Australasia, Canberra, Australia. 

Details: ‘Engaging in our city’ IAP2 Local Network breakfast event with participation of three speakers and sixty engagement practitioners from the public, private and civic sector in the ACT. 

Scholarships and Prizes

09.11.2021. 

Prize: Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for the Investigating and Explaining Society unit team. 

Organisation: University of Canberra Teaching Excellence Awards and Citations, University of Canberra. 

23.02.2021. 

Scholarship: Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative 2021 PhD Scholarship. 

Organisation: Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra. 

Academic Administration

01.04.2023-present. 

Title: Research Student Member. 

Organisation: External Review Panel for the University of Canberra Faculty for Business, Government & Law, Australia. 

01.12.2022-present. 

Title: Postgraduate Caucus Representative. 

Organisation: Australian Political Studies Association Executive Committee, Australian Political Studies Association, Australia. 

01.03.2022-31.01.2023. 

Title: Higher Degree by Research Representative. 

Organisation: Graduate Research Committee, University of Canberra, Australia. 

01.09.2020-31.12.2020. 

Title: Student Advisory Board Member. 

Organisation: The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Australia. 

01.01.2020-31.12.2020. 

Title: Master Student Board Member. 

Organisation: The Academic Board, La Trobe University, Australia. 

Political Advisory 

26.07.2022-28.07.2022. 

Title: Political intern for Dr. Helen Haines MP Independent Member for Indi. 

Organisation: House of Representatives, Parliament of Australia, Australia. 

01.08.2021-01.06.2022. 

Title: Deliberative Democracy Expert. 

Organisation: Kim for Canberra Party, Australia. 

01.08.2016-01.12.2016. 

Title: Campaign Organiser. 

Organisation: The Danish Social Liberal Party’s U.S. Election Volunteer Team, Denmark. 

01.01.2015-01.12.2016. 

Title: Political Advocate. 

Organisation: Danes for Hillary, Denmark. 

Research Interests

• Deliberative/participatory democracy 

• Democratic/political institutions 

• Democratic innovations  

• Public administration  

• Public governance 

• Political leadership 

• Australian politics  

• Qualitative research methods