Dr Jodhi Rutherford

Biography

Jodhi joined the QUT School of Law as a full-time member in February 2022. She had been working as a visiting law lecturer and sessional academic with QUT since February 2015 while she completed her doctoral studies.  Jodhi’s PhD was awarded in 2021, along with a commendation for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis. Her thesis on voluntary assisted dying law reform was undertaken jointly at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research and the Centre for Research Excellence in End-of-Life Care, both at QUT. Her doctorate was funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council scholarship, and was a qualitative, socio-legal analysis of the perspectives and experiences of Victorian doctors after the commencement of a legal voluntary assisted dying regime in Victoria in 2019.

Jodhi’s research was recently cited in both the Tasmanian and Queensland Parliaments during debates to legalise voluntary assisted dying.

Jodhi’s research interests include:

• End of life health law reform;
• Ethical participation in ‘taboo’ health care practices and emerging technologies;
• First Nations Peoples’ Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of resources development; and
• Neurodiversity and the law.

Jodhi is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and also an Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the HEA. She is also a nationally accredited mediator.

Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Jodhi was a lawyer and political scientist specialising in dispute resolution, native title, Indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property, and mining law. She has worked for the Commonwealth and Queensland governments, and in the commercial infrastructure, oil and gas, and mining sectors.