Dr Jane Wangmann's research is primarily concerned with legal responses to domestic and family violence. Jane has particular expertise in understanding how law defines, understands and conceives of this harm.

Jane’s research is multi-disciplinary, drawing on socio-legal research methods and feminist legal theory to investigate the intersection of law and domestic violence and improved access to justice. For example, Jane (with UTS colleagues Professor Tracey Booth and Miranda Kaye) completed a research project on the impact and effect of self-representation in family law proceedings involving allegations of family violence. The project, funded by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), made a number of important recommendations to improve the safety and experiences of those involved such proceedings. The report from this research was awarded the 2022 Non Traditional Research Output Award, Australian Legal Research Awards. More recently, Jane with collegaues Associate Professor Miranda Kaye and Kate Thomas were engaged by NSW Legal Aid to evaluate the Hearing Support Pilot Project which provided support to victim/survivors whose criminal or AVO proceeding was being defended in in the Local Court of NSW.

Jane’s expertise in this area is illustrated by her continuing contributions to public policy. For instance, Jane is currently a non-government sector expert appointed to the NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team (2014- present), which is responsible for reviewing domestic violence related homicides in order to examine any gaps in the service delivery system and to make recommendations to enhance safety.

In her research, Jane draws on almost 30 years of experience in the field of domestic violence and the law. Jane has previously worked as a solicitor in a community legal centre, as a senior policy officer in the NSW Attorney General's Department (as it was then called) and at the Australian Law Reform Commission. Her deep commmunity based work is recognised for example in 2024 she was awarded, with Ashlee Donohue CEO of Mudgin-Gal, the UTS Law Faculty First Peoples Community Partnerships Award.

Photograph by Andy Roberts