Sana Nakata

Sana Nakata is Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Indigenous Education and Research Centre, James Cook University. She is trained in the law and political theory of the Western tradition, and her research focuses upon the politics of childhood, Indigenous policy and governance. She has held multiple Australian Research Council grants, written and edited books including Childhood Citizenship, Governance and Policy (Routledge, 2015) and published in leading international and Australian journals, including Politics, Contemporary Political Theory, and Australian Journal of Political Science.

She has limited availability for new HDR candidates, and currently supervises the following HDR candidates at JCU:

Aaminah Khan (PhD, Primary Supervisor)

Jamie Daisy (MPhil, Primary Supervisor)

Tamara Sam (PhD, Secondary Supervisor)

Elizabeth Brooker (PhD, Secondary Supervisor)

Erin Leach (PhD, Secondary Supervisor)

She has previously supervised the following six PhD candidates to successful completion on the following topics:

Meleesha Bardolia (2025) 'Unsettling the Settler Fiction of 'Rightful Dwelling' in Laws and Literatures'. The University of Melbourne.

Gearóid Brinn (2023) ‘Radicalising Democracy: Agonism, Anarchism and the State’. The University of Melbourne.

Jacynta Krakouer (2022), ‘Aboriginal Young Peoples’ experiences of Out of Home Care’. The University of Melbourne.

Laura Dunstan (2021) ‘The impact of family formation, change and family life events on Indigenous family health and wellbeing'. The University of Melbourne.

Claire Nyblom (2020) ‘Re-Substantializing Justice – the possibilities'. The University of Melbourne.

Hamza bin Jehangir (2019) ‘Determining the “political” through deliberative practices in non-liberal contexts'. The University of Melbourne.

Politics of Childhood; Indigenous Law and Governance; Public Policy; Political Theory; Democratic Theory