Katharine Gelber is a professor in the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland, and a former ARC Future Fellow (2012-2015). Her expertise is in freedom of speech and speech regulation, with research projects into the operation of hate speech laws and the ways in which counter-terrorism policies have limited freedom of speech. Her 2011 book, Speech Matters, was shortlisted by the Australian Human Rights Commission in the 2011 Human Rights Award Literature (Non-Fiction) Category.