Krishna K. Shrestha is a Professor of Global Development at the School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) in Australia. Previously, he was the Program Director for Urban and Regional Planning and Policy at the University of Sydney. He also held visiting scholar positions at several universities, including the University of Cambridge in the UK and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Krishna is an Indigenous scholar of global development, social justice and public policy, with global recognition and local grounding. His core interests encompass critical development studies, public policy, environmental governance, global Indigenous studies, and climate change, in particular, the intersection of these five with his work on social and environmental justice.

Krishna’s work blends moral philosophy and theories of justice with global development, justice, capability, and transformative action. His research on these themes simultaneously engages with grand theory and real-world societal challenges. Krishna’s scholarship works alongside a commitment to activism and public engagement, addressing urgent questions concerning inequality, individual vs collective rights, social justice, public policy, and the everyday and systemic struggles that continue to dominate the lives of marginalised communities worldwide.

Most of his work is interdisciplinary and empirically grounded. He is also passionate about disruptive innovation and entrepreneurship, catalysing capability and co-producing solutions to improve international education discourses, policy and practice, as he advocates for meaningful engagement and change within Western systems, institutions and society. He is deeply committed to evidence-informed and contextually grounded activism, public engagement, and policy development, addressing questions about capability and entrepreneurship in a cultural context, challenging hegemony and catalysing recognition for real change.