
Alejandra is an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin Law School.
Previously, she worked on a range of research projects at the Health+Law Research Partnership at UNSW, focusing on how people living with blood-borne viruses navigate legal and migration systems in Australia. Her work involved translating evidence from the national Legal Needs Study (LeNS) into practical tools for legal and migration agents. This included contributing to the design of a set of online learning modules on legal health literacy as well as the development of a national recognition network for lawyers and migration agents who demonstrate informed, inclusive, and responsive practice in working with people living with blood-borne viruses. Her work has also involved supporting the design of the LIVES Panel, a national research infrastructure connecting people with lived experience of blood-borne viruses with future research.
Alejandra has a background in political science and development studies. She completed her PhD at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) and the Gender, Law and Drugs (GLaD) research program at La Trobe University. Her doctoral research examined the intersections of coca cultivation, gender, and human rights in the Colombian peace process, contributing to debates on the coloniality of drug policy and the ontopolitical dimensions of rights.
Her broader research explores connections between drugs, gender, and human and more-than-human rights. Her interests include development studies and how the links between drugs, health, gender, sexuality, and rights are understood and practised in policy design and implementation.
Qualifications
Research Interests
Drug policy; development studies; coloniality of drug research and policy; human rights