Tracy Fenwick

Tracy Fenwick is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at The Australian National University (ANU) and Director of the Australian Centre for Federalism. She specializes in comparative federalism, social policy implementation, and subnational governance, with regional expertise in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina) and Australia. Fenwick holds a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford and has held visiting appointments at institutions including the University of British Columbia and McGill University.

Her research focuses on federalism's role in welfare state development, decentralization challenges, and the design of social protection policies like conditional cash transfers (CCTs). Recent work examines fiscal federalism dynamics in Australia and Brazil's policy capacity to sustain CCT programs. Fenwick has advised international organizations and governments on federalism and social protection.

Teaching includes courses on Latin American politics, federalism, and research methods. Her publications span journals like Publius, Policy and Society, and Global Social Policy, and she co-edited Beyond Autonomy: Practical and Theoretical Challenges to 21st-Century Federalism (2021). She directed a project analyzing media perceptions of CCTs in Brazil and continues to explore pandemic-era fiscal federalism tensions.