Overview
Johanna Commins joined Melbourne Law School as a Lecturer (Legal Academic Skills) in January 2024. In this role she splits her time between teaching in the JD Program and working in the Ian Malkin Legal Academic Skills Centre, where she teaches skills development, particularly in relation to legal writing.
Johanna completed her LLB and BA (English Literature) and her MA (First Class Pass) at the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau in Aotearoa-New Zealand. She has a PhD in law from the University of Melbourne, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Johanna’s professional background is in refugee law. She has worked both as a first instance decision-maker for the New Zealand government and a legal researcher for the New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal. She has worked as an independent researcher and as a headnote writer for the New Zealand Law Society. Johanna has a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) and spent a year teaching English at a high school in South Korea.
Johanna researches and writes in the areas of law and literature and feminist legal theory with a particular interest in representations of women across different types of texts and discourses. Her PhD thesis examined Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, as a feminist jurisprudential text. She also conducts research on reproductive rights, reproductive justice and abortion law, with a focus on Australian and US jurisdictions.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Editor, Australian Feminist Law Journal
- Member, Institute of International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School
- Member, Law Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia
- Member, Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand
- Member, Reproductive Justice ECR Network, University of Melbourne
- Member, Legal Writing Institute