Madeleine is a PhD student at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her work focusses on social movements, constitution-making, and mass participation in deliberative democracy. She previously completed an Honours thesis on social trust and deliberative politics in Argentina.

Prior to beginning graduate studies, Madeleine worked in community engagement for local government and non-profit organisations, as well as in communications, community organising and campaigns for environmental and social justice.

Dissertation

Madeleine’s PhD research explores mass democracy in deliberative constitution-making. The constitution-making process currently underway in Chile reflects an international trend towards more participatory constitution-making. For deliberative democratic theory, this raises long-standing questions about the relationship between discursive law-making and mass democracy—realistically, how can all subjects be authors of the law? Madeleine’s research combines normative theory with a case study of Chile’s current constitution-making process, to investigate how deliberation in the public sphere can influence constitution-making in practice.

Conference Presentations

• Social movements as catalysts for deliberative constitution-making, Political Studies Association (PSA) Annual Conference. March 29, 2020. Virtual Conference.

PhD supervisors

• John Dryzek (Primary Supervisor)

• Selen Ercan (Secondary Supervisor)

Teaching

• Tutor, Political and Social Theory. 2020.

Administration

• Co-Editor, Working Paper Series, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance

Scholarships and Prizes

• Deliberative Democracy Scholarship, University of Canberra, 2020

• Percival Serle Prize, University of Melbourne, 2017

• Dwight Final Examination Prize, University of Melbourne, 2017