Associate Professor
Matthew Ball

Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Justice
Biography
Matthew is an Associate Professor in the School of Justice, having joined the school in 2008. His research focuses on the intersections between sexuality, gender, and criminal justice. Matthew has established an international research profile in the field of Queer Criminology, having written and edited two foundational texts in the field - Criminology and Queer Theory: Dangerous Bedfellows? (Palgrave) and Queering Criminology (co-edited with Angela Dwyer and Thomas Crofts, Palgrave). He has also co-edited a further four journal special issues on Queer Criminology, including: a special issue of Critical Criminology titled 'Queer/ing Criminology: New Directions and Frameworks' (with Carrie L. Buist and Jordan Blair Woods), a special issue of Current Issues in Criminal Justice titled 'Queer(y)ing Justice' (with Angela Dwyer, Nicole Asquith, Justin Ellis, and Trudie Broderick), and two special issues titled 'LGBTIQA Issues in Criminology and Criminal Justice' (with Henry F. Fradella) for the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice and Criminal Justice Studies. Matthew is the 2021 recipient of the Western Society of Criminology's Richard Tewksbury Award for significant contributions to scholarship or activism on the intersection of crime and sexuality. Matthew is also an active member of the American Society of Criminology Division of Queer Criminology and the Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice. He co-convened the first Queer Criminology symposium in Australia (in 2014), as well as the 'Queer(y)ing Justice in the Global South' conference (in 2018), among other events. From 2012-2015, Matthew was a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Sex, Gender, and Sexualities at Durham University, UK. Matthew is a founding editor of the Routledge book series Queering Criminology and Criminal Justice. He is currently on the editorial board for Critical Criminology: An International Journal and Current Issues in Criminal Justice. Matthew has previously served on the editorial boards of the International Journal for Crime, Justice, and Social Democracy, and Legal Education Review. Matthew is currently the Research Coordinator in the School of Justice, and Chair of the School of Justice Workloads Committee. He has previously been the School of Justice Confirmations and Final Seminars Co-Chair, the School of Justice Higher Degrees Research Coordinator, the Faculty of Law Equity Chair, and an academic representative on the QUT LGBTIQA+ Action Plan Working Party. He continues to play an active role in equity-related activities in the School and Faculty. Outside of QUT, Matthew is a mentor for the Pinnacle Foundation, supporting young LGBT+ students attending university. He is also a Director of Union College at the University of Queensland.Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Justice
Keywords
queer theory, sexuality, gender diversity, LGBT people and criminal justice, critical criminology, governmentality, poststructuralism, Foucault, QUT Centre for Justice
Discipline
Criminology, Other studies in Human Society
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- Docotor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
- Bachelor of Justice (Honours) (Queensland University of Technology)
- Bachelor of Justice (Critical Criminology) (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
- American Society of Criminology (Division of Queer Criminology and Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice)
- Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
- British Society of Criminology
- The Pinnacle Foundation (mentor)
- QUT Ally Network
- Queering Paradigms network
Teaching
Units currently taught
- JSB171 Justice and Society
- JSB267 Identity, Marginalisation, and Global Change
- JSB184 Sex and Crime
Selected publications
- Ball M, Carpenter B, (2019) Justice in society (2nd edition).
- Ball M, (2019) Unsettling queer criminology: Notes towards decolonization, Critical Criminology, 27 (1), pp. 145-161.
- Ball M, Rinaldi C, (2018) Criminologia queer (Queer criminology). In P Saitta & C Rinaldi, Criminologie critiche contemporanee (Contemporary critical criminology), Giuffre Francis Lefebvre, pp. 263-300.
- Ball M, Dwyer A, (2018) Queer criminology and the global south: Setting queer and southern criminologies into dialogue. In R Hogg, J Scott, M Sozzo & K Carrington, The Palgrave handbook of criminology and the global south, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 121-138.
- Dwyer A, Ball M, Bond C, Lee M, Crofts T, (2017) Exploring LGBTI Police Liaison Services: Factors influencing their use and effectiveness according to LGBTI people and LGBTI police liaison officers: Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council Grant: CRG 31/11-12.
- Ball M, (2016) Criminology and queer theory: Dangerous bedfellows? [Critical Criminological Perspectives], Palgrave Macmillan.
- Dwyer A, Ball M, Crofts T, (2016) Queering Criminology, Palgrave Macmillan.
- Ball M, (2014) What's queer about queer criminology?. In V Panfil & D Peterson, Handbook of LGBT communities, crime, and justice, Springer, pp. 531-555.
- Ball M, (2014) Queer criminology, critique, and the 'art of not being governed', Critical Criminology, 22 (1), pp. 21-34.
- Ball M, (2012) Becoming a 'bastion against tyranny': Australian legal education and the government of the self, Law and Critique, 23 (2), pp. 103-122.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Matthew, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Supervision
Current supervisions
- VICTIMISATION EXPERIENCES OF MALE SAME-SEX DIGITAL DATING PLATFORM USERS IN INDIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Cassandra Cross, Professor John Scott - Crime Construal, Psychological Distance, and Community Members' Worry about Crime
PhD, Mentoring Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Michael Chataway, Adjunct Associate Professor Toby Miles-Johnson - DC COMICS, QUEER CULTURAL LEGAL STUDIES, AND VISUAL JURISPRUDENCE: HOW DC COMICS VISUALISES CHANGING LAW
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Kieran Tranter, Mr Mark Thomas
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Animal Cruelty, Discourse, and Power: A Study of Problematisations in the Live Export Policy Debates (2018)
- Transgender Domestic Violence: An Analysis of the Transgender Community and Service Provision in Queensland (2018)
- Community of Blood: Impacts and management of intersecting stigmas among Thai same-sex attracted men and transgender people with HIV (2017)
- The Interactions between Police and People with Intellectual Disabilities from the Perspective of Non - Government Organisations in QLD (2016)