Dr. Intifar Chowdhury is a youth researcher at the Australian National University (ANU). She is passionate about writing to better the political representation of all young Australians in our democracy.
In July 2023, Intifar completed her PhD in political science at the ANU School of Politics and International Relations. Her doctoral research tackled the important question of whether young people are turning away from democracy. It comprised a quantitative enquiry on advanced democracies using survey data from comparative databases. Beyond academia, Intifar continually strives to translate her research work into public good: her political commentary on youth politics has appeared in diverse media platforms, including in The Conversation, The Guardian, The Canberra Times, The Ethics Centre, ABC Q&A, Al Jazeera English, the Democracy Sausage Podcast, Triple J Hack, Reuters, Australian Institute for International Affairs and ANU’s Policy Forum.
Prior to this, Intifar obtained a double degree in Science (Biochemistry/Genetics) and International Relations (Honours) at the ANU. During her time as a student, Intifar has interned at the Commonwealth parliament, the Canberra Hospital and Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschun in Berlin (WZB). She has also worked as the Senior Survey Research Officer for a youth longitudinal Post School Destination (GENERATION) survey, conducted by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM) in collaboration with the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE). In the past years, Intifar has represented ANU research while visiting the LIfBi research centre in Germany, the OECD Education Directorate in France and universities in Austria and Italy. Recently, she has commenced her first permanent academic job with Flinders University in South Australia.
Intifar greatly enjoys teaching at university, educating and guiding the future custodians of democracy. Her teaching philosophy has been accredited at the UK Higher Education Academy. She also won the 2020 CASS Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Education, 2021 CASS Excellence in Tutoring and Demonstrating and 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
What is Youth Political Participation for Infifar?
Seeing this as an opportunity to apply my passion and interest in both youth politics and comparative studies, I am immensely excited about joining the Young Researchers’ Network. I am looking forward to contributing to cross-disciplinary exchanges on the topic of youth participation and providing an Australian perspective to the global flagship report.
I am a 29-year-old Australian from a South Asian and Middle Eastern background. I am a young person residing in a multicultural society in a multilingual household, speaking about 6 languages. I am acutely aware of the fact that ‘youth’ is not a homogenous group. To enhance young people’s voices to ensure a sustainable and representative democracy, it is necessary to not only understand the generational changes across time but also the contextual (including cultural, technological, and macro-institutional) changes that have occurred in the global village that we live in today. This, I believe, is the essence of a global flagship report on youth political participation: it must highlight how and why society changed over the past decades. And speaking from my own experiences, I will go as far to attribute the widening gap between young people and policymakers to the various tokenisation and stereotypical misunderstandings in this domain.
Given my personal experiences, academic qualifications and curiosity to learn more about youth across various cultural, historic and political backgrounds, working in the field of youth political participation feels like a natural fit. I am confident that my combination of quantitative skills and interests in comparative research would be assets to the Young Researchers’ Network.
Personality trait Intifar admires most
Among the big 5 personality traits (Fiske 1949), the Openness trait admires me the most as it entails eagerness to learn and experience new things. The imagination and insight leads to a broad range of interests, encouraging creative, abstract and lateral thinking. It pushes one to think outside of the box and order the most exotic thing in the menu!
Popular figures like Oprah, Steve Jobs and Johnny Depp are some examples of those who score high in this personality trait. A key facet of the Openness trait that intrigues me is the willingness to be open-minded and to listen to others when it comes to decision making. While conducting cross-national research, this has inspired and helped me to overcome personal biases and experiences.
Fun fact about Intifar
At the end of each day, when I take off my research hat, I enjoy instructing group fitness classes at the gym, contributing to the physical and mental wellbeing of my students and colleagues.
Work already published
“Albanese’s $1.9m property listing is a far cry from the housing struggles of ordinary Australians”, The Guardian, 13 September.
“Younger Australians feel like the game is rigged. And with the spending gap widening, who can blame them?“, The Guardian, 5 June, 2024.
“Australians are more likely to have partners who don’t share their political views than 25 years ago. Why?”, The Conversation, 1 May, 2024.
“Who screwed millennials?”, Podcast, The Guardian, 24-28 March, 2024.
“Australia’s economy has become a young people-screwing machine. So how do we unscrew ourselves?”, The Guardian, 27 March, 2024.
“#YouthInAction – Young Women’s Political Empowerment Is a Fundamental Human Right”, Youth Democracy Cohort, European Partnership for Democracy, 11 March, 2024.
“Political power in Australia is still overwhelmingly male. But beneath the despair, there’s reason for hope”, The Conversation, 8 March, 2024.
“Australian voters are increasingly driven by issues rather than party loyalty – and that’s bad news for the old political order”, The Guardian, 28 February, 2024.
“Australia’s young people are moving to the left- though women are more progressive than man, reflecting a global trend”, The Conversation, 2 February, 2024.
Are young Australians turning away from democracy?, Australian Journal of Political Science, Australian Journal of Political Science 56(2):1-18.
Youth education decisions and occupational misalignment and mismatch: Evidence from a representative cohort study of Australian youth, Oxford Review of Education, Oxford Review of Education, pp.1-21.
“PM Travel, Tax Cuts & Rental Relief“, ABC QandA, 20 November.
“The Undecided Voters”, ABC QandA, May 2022
“Voice not top of mind for voters in cost-of-living crisis”, The West Australian, 10 October.
“The Voice to Parliament referendum will be the first for many. Here’s what you need to know”, The Canberra Times, 30 September.
“Should the voting age in Australia be lowered to 16?”, The Conversation, 6 June.
“Young people may decide the outcome of the Voice referendum – here’s why”, The Conversation, 16 February.
“Away from Political Parties into Lifestyle Politics: Young People in Advanced Democracies”, E-International Relations, 23 July.
“Young People May Be Learning Politics Through Tweets, Reels, Spoofs, And Memes“, Australian Outlook: Australian Institute of International Affairs, 6 July.
“Young Australian voters helped swing the election – and could do it again next time“, The Conversation, 6 June.
“Housing affordability crisis: The elephant in the room stomping young Australians”, The Ethics Centre, 16 May.
“To Australians sick of the election: this is why voting is not a waste of your time”, The Conversation, 13 May.
“What will young Australians do with their vote – are we about to see a ‘youthquake’?”, The Conversation, 14 April.
“The Australian Government must walk the walk on gender equality“, Policy Forum: International Women’s Day in Focus, 10 March.
“Why are young Australians locked out of home ownership? The answer is politics”, The Guardian, 16 January.
“Overly suspicious youth or dodgy politicians? The distrustful relationship risking the future of democracy”, Policy Forum: Asia and the Pacific Policy Society, 16 December.
“Finally, some Millennial representation. But what about Dominic Perrottet makes us shift in our chairs?”, The Canberra Times, 15 October.
“From climate change to COVID, Gen Z’s premature mid-life crisis could be a tale of hope and resilience”, ABC News, 3 October.
“Melbourne protests paint youth in a negative light”, The Canberra Times, 27 September.
“‘Ms Represented’ may have missed the mark”, The Canberra Times, 21 August.
“Young Australians are supposedly ‘turning their backs’ on democracy, but are they any different from older voters?”, The Conversation, 3 August.
“How much do Australians Care about Climate Change?” Al Jazeera, May 2022
“The Undecided Voters”, ABC QandA, May 2022
“Realignment or dealignment? Survey perspectives on the 2022 Federal Election”, ANU, June 2022
“The Voters’ Verdict”, Democracy Sausage, June, 2022
“What (women) voters want”, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (GIWL), October 2022
“Youth flock to the ballot box”, 2SER, 2022 “Do we need truth police for political adverts?“ Echidna Podcast, The Canberra Times, 2022
Projects / collective Intifar involved in
Senior Survey Analyst – Australian Post-School Destination (GENERATION) longitudinal survey
Member – Australian National University Institute of Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions (ANU ICEDS)
Associate Fellow (AFHEA) – Advanced HE Internationally Accredited Education Fellowship Scheme (EFS) of the UK Higher Education Academy
Advanced First Aid and Mental Health First Aid Accreditation – MHFA Australia
Policy Perspectives, Jeff Bleich Centre (JBC) for Democracy and Disruptive Technology – Editor
Get to know Intifar
