Timothy Neale

Timothy Neale serves as Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and DECRA Senior Research Fellow at Deakin University, where he also convenes the Deakin Science and Society Network. His academic work bridges anthropology, environmental governance, and science-technology studies through settler-Indigenous relational frameworks.

His research centers on environmental disasters and polluted landscapes, examining nuclear materials as sites of both material vibrancy (radioactive decay transforming matter) and social rupture (Fukushima-type events). He investigates how biopolitical frameworks intersect with Indigenous sovereignty in environmental governance, particularly in Australasian contexts. His scholarship challenges narratives of pre-nuclear purity by analyzing how nuclear elements intra-act with social ecologies.

Dr. Neale's scientific recognition includes the prestigious Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), supporting his ethnographic work on nuclear life. He serves as editor for Science, Technology & Human Values and produces the Conversations in Anthropology podcast, amplifying critical perspectives in STS.

As Convener of Deakin's Science and Society Network, he fosters transdisciplinary collaborations addressing ecological crises. His book Wild Articulations: Environmentalism and Indigeneity in Northern Australia (University of Hawai'i Press, 2017) establishes foundational work on Indigenous environmental agency. Current research explores how nuclear materiality reconfigures temporal and spatial understandings of disaster recovery.