Associate Professor Fiona Mclachlan

Associate Professor Fiona McLachlan is a senior researcher in the Safety and Wellbeing in Sport Group, and Associate Director, Research Training in the Institute for Health and Sport (IHES). 

Fiona received her PhD from the University of Otago in 2012 which examined historical theory and social change in the context of the provision of public swimming pools. Fiona has worked as an academic at Victoria University since 2012, where she has built from her historical work to understand and transform gendered injustice and violence in sport Fiona currently leads a program of high-quality discovery and applied interdisciplinary research in sport governance, culture and inclusive practice. In the area of sport, history and gender justice, she has contributed important theoretical and methodological innovations to her field through her critical work on progressive narratives and chronopolitics. 

She has secured external funding for research in excess of $2m including as a CI on an ARC Discovery project Governance for Gender Inclusion. Through her applied work in child safety, gender equity, the prevention of gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ inclusion Fiona has developed effective frameworks to build and support capacity for individual and organisational change in the sport sector. 

Fiona is an experienced and committed HDR supervisor and invites applications from prospective students interested in sport, feminism, gender justice and safety from social, historical and cultural perspectives.