• Australian history
• Childhood
• Children's rights
• Feminism
• Gender history
• Girl studies
• Social movements

Dr Isobelle Barrett Meyering joined Macquarie University in 2018. Her current research project, ‘Contested Childhoods: A History of Children’s Rights in Australia (1959-2013)’, explores how debates over children’s rights have shaped political, social and cultural life across a period of almost sixty years. 

This research builds on Isobelle's previous work focused on the history of Australian feminism, childhood and the family. Her book, Feminism and the Making of a Child Rights Revolution, 1969-1979 (MUP, 2022), foregrounds the radical vision of children's liberation articulated by Australian women's liberationists in the 1970s. She has also published work on a range of other aspects of Australian feminism, including feminist parenting practices, lifestyle politics and backlash movements.

Prior to joining Macquarie University, Isobelle completed her PhD at UNSW in 2017, where she also taught in history and gender studies. She also worked as a research assistant at the University of Wollongong (2016-2017) and the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse (2009-2013).

Isobelle is currently treasurer of the History Council of New South Wales and co-convenor of the Children's Rights, Participation and Perspectives research stream in the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. She previously served as secretary of Oral History New South Wales and was a founding member of the editorial collective for History in the Making, a national online journal for history students first published in 2012.