Susan Priest

Susan Priest serves as Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Education in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra, a position held since 2018. She teaches across undergraduate and graduate law programs including core foundation subjects, Constitutional law, and honours research units within the Law School.

Her academic credentials include undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in both education and law. She was admitted as a Legal Practitioner in the Australian Capital Territory in 2000.

Dr. Priest specializes in Australian legal history with concentrated research on constitutional development, judicial biography, and post-Federation politics. Her scholarly work extends to gender and law, human rights frameworks, and pedagogical approaches for first-year law students. Recent projects examine nineteenth-century criminal trials, court architecture's influence on judicial operations, and archival studies of foundational High Court justices.

Her publication trajectory reveals consistent focus on Australia's legal evolution, particularly analyzing the High Court's formative decade and constitutional milestones through interdisciplinary historical methodologies.

She has received nine teaching excellence awards since 2012:

• Multiple Deans Awards for Teaching Excellence
• Multiple Deans Awards for Citizenship
• University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Award

Dr. Priest supervises postgraduate research and leads educational strategy as Associate Dean, focusing on curriculum innovation and student support systems within legal education. Her administrative leadership encompasses quality assurance and teaching development initiatives across the Law School.