Linda Botterill

Professor Linda Botterill is a renowned political scientist and academic at the University of Canberra, where she serves as Professor in Australian Politics and Head of the Canberra School of Politics, Economics & Society. She holds a concurrent Visiting Fellowship at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University (ANU). Her research focuses on the intersection of values and public policy, particularly in Australian rural policy, political institutions, and crisis governance. Botterill has over 70 scholarly publications, including seminal works like Interrogating Public Policy Theory: A Political Values Perspective (2019) and Wheat Marketing in Transition (2012).

Her career spans academic and policy roles, including a decade in the Australian Public Service (APS) advising on primary industries and energy policy during the Keating government. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), recognizing her contributions to social science research. Botterill’s work emphasizes ethical dimensions of policy, non-knowledge in crisis decision-making, and the evolving dynamics of rural policy in Australia.

Her research also explores agrarian sentiment, political values in policy success/failure, and the role of science in policymaking, particularly in drought and climate adaptation contexts. Botterill’s interdisciplinary approach bridges political theory, public administration, and applied policy analysis, with frequent engagement in national debates on governance and rural development.