Julia Keenan

Since joining CSRM in 2007, Julia’s work has spanned a range of social sustainability issues related to the extractive industries in Australia and internationally. She specialises in researching the relationship between mining companies and local communities, with particular focus on agreement-making with Indigenous Peoples, gender and community development, and methodologies for analysing and improving resource companies’ social performance. Her recent research has focussed on the social aspects of mine closure, including mine site and infrastructure repurposing.

Julia has co-authored industry guidance documents on Indigenous Peoples and Mining (for the International Council on Mining and Metals) and Integrating Gender into Communities Work (for Rio Tinto). She has also contributed to research projects examining company-community conflict, extractive industry policy, social and cumulative impact assessment and internal management systems. The majority of this work has been in collaboration with Australian and international resource companies (at corporate and operations levels), government agencies and non-government organisations. She holds a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts (with Honours in Linguistics) from The University of Queensland, and is currently undertaking her PhD with CSRM.