As a (budding) political science student with a penchant for the intricacies of crafting public policy, I lap at the feeding trough of government websites. The research that goes behind creating legislation inherently seeks to answer a dirty, controversial question; ‘who gets what when, how, and why.’ It is my belief that due to the visceral nature of politics and public policy, the way legislation touches everyone, the research behind writing legislation should not exclude a single person.
In her (limited) research career, she has explored historical inequalities – class inequality, racial inequality, gender inequality, sexual inequality, and colonialism – and its long-lasting ramifications on the quality of life for modern-day people. Pertaining to class and politics, her interest has been piqued around the decreased voter turnout as a result of the ebbing political power of unions in New Zealand in relation to enacting legislation that has stripped unions of political sway. Internationally, her feelers have arisen around the effects of neo-colonialism on the global south’s self-determination, a feminist approach on the ways gender is used to justify the military, and the processes of creating the ‘other’ between the global North and South and this effect on population welfare.
It’s not an unfair claim to say Alyanna is interested in untying historical systems of oppression through legislation and research, (hopefully) taking on an intersectional approach to address the ways legislation and law have served, continues to serve, and reinforces the oppression of historically marginalized voices.
