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Dr. Cassie Pedersen

Lecturer, Criminology and Criminal Justice

Contact

Campus

Berwick Campus

Biography

Dr Cassie Pedersen is a lecturer in criminology and criminal justice whose teaching and research examine crime, harm, and justice within and beyond human‑centred frameworks. Her scholarly interests lie in enriching green criminology through ecofeminism, bringing a feminist lens to harms against nonhuman animals and nature, and examining the interconnected structures of violence and oppression affecting animals and other marginalised groups. Her work is grounded in concern for more‑than‑human justice, emphasising inclusivity, relationality, and care.

Cassie’s PhD, which she completed in 2017, traced the tendency to posit trauma as either an extraordinary event that ruptures the socio‑structural conditions in which it arises, or as an all‑too‑ordinary occurrence. Rejecting this as a false dichotomy, she conceptualised trauma through the lens of the extra/ordinary. This way of thinking continues to inform her current work, which examines the extraordinary impacts of ordinary harms and the ways these overlap and coalesce—for example, through the routinised harms of industrialised animal agribusiness.

Cassie teaches units in criminological theory, justice responses to difference, and youth justice, and is passionate about encouraging students to think critically about harm, responsibility, and the experiences of marginalised human and nonhuman groups within the criminal justice system and society more broadly.

Fields of research

  • Gender and crime
  • Critical approaches to crime
  • Environmental crime
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More about Cassie

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Federation University 
  • Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours), University of Ballarat 
  • Bachelor of Arts, Australian Catholic University 

Areas of interest

  • Green criminology  
  • Critical animal studies 
  • (Eco)feminism 
  • Care ethics 
  • Trans-species trauma  
  • Critical criminology  
  • Rural criminology  

Areas of expertise

Cassie has expertise in critical and theoretical approaches to criminology, with a particular focus on green criminology, ecofeminism, and more‑than‑human justice and care. Her research examines how human and nonhuman harms are co-constituted and mutually reinforcing, and how forms of violence against animals, nature, and marginalised human groups are rendered ordinary and invisible within social and criminal justice contexts. She brings an interdisciplinary theoretical orientation to criminological debates, drawing on ecofeminist theory, critical animal studies, and trauma theory to question dominant assumptions about harm, (in)justice, and responsibility. 

Grants

  • Camilleri, M. & Pedersen, C. (2025). Evaluation of Court Services Victoria’s Homelessness Project Pilot. ($20,000) 
  • Zeuschner, L. & Pedersen, C. (2024). Towards an ecofeminist higher education pedagogy: Exploring the perceived link between violence against women and nonhuman animals. ($4,727 internal funding – ECR Seed Grant)

Current

  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Two sides of the ‘less-anthropocentric multi-species flourishing’ coin: Contemplative/creative collaborations with animals and nature and shifts in inner subjectivity’, principal supervisor. 
  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Historical and contemporary responses to fraud and corruption by the Australian Commonwealth Government’, associate supervisor. 
  • Graduate Certificate in Research student, ‘Understanding and preventing sexual femicides in an Australian context’, supervisor.  

Past

  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Women's experiences of health care in the prison system in Victoria: Do they align with through-care principles and human rights frameworks?’, associate supervisor.  
  • PhD student, Federation University, ‘Patriarchal control killings: Paternal filicide in the context of separation in Australia,’ associate supervisor.  
  • Honours student, ‘Exploring whether Melbourne and Sydney transition programs consider the specific needs of CALD young people transitioning from out-of-home-care,’ co-supervisor.  

  • Criminological theory 
  • Justice responses to marginalised groups 
  • Green criminology 
  • Youth justice 

Specialist roles

  • Course Coordinator. Bachelor, Associate Degree, and Diploma of Criminology and Criminal Justice 
  • Federation University Research Committee, Level A-C Representative (2026–2027) 
  • International Association of Vegan Sociologists Committee, Blog Editor   

Professional association memberships

  • International Association of Vegan Sociologists 
  • Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology  
  • International Society for the Study of Rural Crime 

Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC)

Cassie is part of the Future Regions Research Centre (FRRC), which aims to develop new knowledge and innovative solutions to the grand challenges facing our natural environments.
  • Publications

Teaching at Intersections: Cross-Disciplinary and Intersectional Trauma-Informed Pedagogies