Dr Emma Russell is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2024-2026) and Associate Professor in Crime, Justice & Legal Studies. She is a critical criminologist and carceral geographer who focuses on incarceration, policing and criminal legal processes. Her current projects investigate risk governance in bail and post-release systems, and the political economies of prison expansion in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Emma is the author of Queer Histories and the Politics of Policing (Routledge, 2020) and Resisting Carceral Violence (with Bree Carlton, Palgrave, 2018). Her work is published in leading international journals in criminology and human geography, and she is Reviews Editor for Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal. She is experienced in radio production, having created a radio documentary on the historic 'Wring Out Fairlea' prison protests and co-produced the Homes Not Prisons radio series as part of a collective at 3CR Community Radio. 

Emma has developed research partnerships with community legal centres that have made important contributions to justice policy debates. She was lead author of the Constellations of Circumstances report (Fitzroy Legal Service, 2020), which was extensively cited in the 2022 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System. Emma recieved the 2019 Research Excellence Award and 2021 Partnership Development Award from the La Trobe School of Humanities & Social Sciences. She was also a recipient of one of the inaugural La Trobe AccessAbility and Inclusion Awards for her teaching in 2021.

Emma has been a Visiting Scholar at Birkbeck University of London and Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University Wellington. She is an affiliate member of the Centre for Criminology, Law and Justice at University of New South Wales and Gabra Biik, Wurruwila Wutja Indigenous Research Centre at La Trobe University. She also sits on the committee of La Trobe's Gender, Sexuality, and Diversity Studies program. Outside academia, she is a member of Flat Out, the Rights Advocacy Project, and the Smart Justice for Young People and Smart Justice for Women coalitions.

Emma welcomes applications for postgraduate research supervision on topics related to her areas of research expertise.