Dr Matt Allen is a human geographer who has been working in the Pacific Islands region for more than 25 years as a researcher, teacher and development practitioner. Matt has published widely on topics relating to the extractive industries, food security, resilience, rural development, peace and conflict, and state-building and intervention, with a particular focus on the Melanesian Pacific.

Matt was an Australian Research Council DECRA fellow from 2014 to 2017 and Professor of Development Studies at the University of the South Pacific from 2018 to 2020. He is the author of Greed and Grievance: Ex-militants’ Perspectives on the Conflict in Solomon Islands (University of Hawaii Press, 2013) and Resource Extraction and Contentious States: Mining and the Politics of Scale in the Pacific Islands (Palgrave, 2018).

Matt has successfully led research grants and contracts totaling more than AUD $2 million. He has delivered research consultancies for a wide range of donors and NGOs, including UN agencies, World Bank, ADB, USAID, DFAT and MFAT. He also has an extensive track record of policy engagement via policy briefs, blogs and op eds, invited presentations, media engagements, and consultancy reports.

Career highlights

• Principal Consultant (Research), Sustineo Pty Ltd (2021-current).
• Professor of Development Studies, University of the South Pacific (2018-2020).
• Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2014-2016)
• Fellow, State, Society and Governance Program, ANU (2013-2017)
• Research Fellow, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, ANU (2011-2012)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, ANU (2008-2010)
• Doctoral candidate, Crawford School of Economics and Government, ANU
• Research Officer, Department of Human Geography, ANU (2003-2004)
• Regional Development Coordinator, Hassall and Associates (2002-2003)
• Young Professional Officer, ACNARS Project (AusAID), PNG (1999-2001)
• Masters candidate, Department of Geography, ANU (1997-1999)

Natural resource governance, political ecology, political economy, extractive resource industries, rural development, agrarian change, local-level governance, state-society relations, and conflict, interventionism and state formation, with a focus on the Western Pacific (Melanesia).