Melinda is a social and political theorist who earned her Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) and Doctorate at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-a-St-Denis). Her most recent monograph, Counterrevolution: Extravagance and Austerity in Public Finance (2024) seeks to understand the countervailing influences that push governments towards permanent public spending austerity while at the same time allowing for a proliferation of monetary and fiscal backstops to private wealth. She is currently based in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University where she teaches classical social theory, feminist theory, Australian neoliberalism and theories of populism.

Melinda will join the Futures of Capitalism program at THE NEW INSTITUTE in the 2024/25 academic year.