Kelly Gerard

Kelly Gerard is a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Chair in Political Science and International Relations at The University of Western Australia's School of Social Sciences. She specializes in the political economy of aid and development policy, with a focus on gender equality, Southeast Asian politics, and social movements. She holds an Endeavour Cheung Kong Research Fellowship and an ARC Discovery Early Career Award.

Her teaching includes units like POLS2220 Foundations of Global Political Economy and POLS3335 Social Movements and the Politics of Change. She has conducted postdoctoral research at Murdoch University and City University of Hong Kong. Her research has been published in journals like Review of International Political Economy and Globalizations.

Gerard has led major grants including a $365k ARC project on gender equality through aid and a $24k study on Australian aid consultants. Her work often addresses ASEAN regionalism, civil society participation, and the instrumentalization of women's empowerment in development frameworks.

Recent research highlights include analyzing aid chain dynamics, tracking gender empowerment funding in Southeast Asia, and critiquing 'empowerment lite' practices in development policy. She frequently contributes to public policy discussions through outlets like the East Asia Forum.