About Amanda

Amanda cut her teeth as a social and union movement organiser. The failure of protests against the War in Iraq drove her to reflect on strategy, inspiring her to co-found GetUp.org.au (Australia’s largest digital campaign organisation) and to study coalition building as a strategy, which resulted in a PhD. While undertaking field work in the US, she learnt about community organising and the Industrial Areas Foundation, which led her to return to Australia and found the Sydney Alliance – bringing this global tradition to Oceania.

Returning to research in 2016 she began a postdoctoral fellowship on social change strategy in cities, that led to the book People Power in Cities (Oxford University Press, 2026). She also began experimenting with community organising as a research method, initiating the Real Deal for Australia project that works on place-based, community-led transition policy. Across the University of Sydney, Amanda has used organising skills to convene cohorts of researchers, training them in the relational skills of organising and building a cross-disciplinary community of practice where researchers could share their knowledge in community engagement strategies. This has led to publications on the method, and multiple awards for projects applying these methods. Amanda has also raised over $1.3 million in research funds for this work.

Amanda is currently an Associate Professor in urban geography at the University of Sydney (Faculty of Science). Driven to ensure excellent research also has profound social impact, she also hosts the ChangeMakers Podcast, where she documents stories of social change around the world and interviews global change makers.