Nicole Curato is a Professor at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. Her work examines how deliberative politics can take root in the aftermath of tragedies using ethnographic methods. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Philippines in communities affected by disasters, armed conflict, and police brutality. She is the author of the prize-winning book Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action (2019, Oxford University Press) and has published extensively in sociology, political science, and policy studies journals.
She holds a distinct record of simultaneously serving as editor of three of the most important journals in the field. She is the lead editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, co-editor of the Australian Journal of Political Science and associate editor of Political Studies. She is the founder and convener of the Deliberative Democracy Summer School, the co-chair of the European Consortium for Political Research’s Standing Group on Democratic Innovations and the founding member of the American Political Science Association’s related group on Democratic Innovations.
Nicole is an engaged academic. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and the Brookings Institute’s Democracy in Asia series, among others. She hosts and writes her own television programme for CNN Philippines, collaborates with documentary filmmakers to produce immersive and socially relevant content for online streaming sites, and takes part in numerous speaking engagements on deliberative democracy, disinformation, and Philippine politics. She regularly provides briefing to policymakers and international aid agencies and engages in constant dialogue with civil society and activist groups.