Centre Director
Professor Hannah Badland
Professor Badland's research examines how the environment is connected to health, wellbeing, and inequities in both adults and children internationally, with an interest in vulnerable groups. Her interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research program engages with end-users, typically policymakers and non-government organisations, to influence on-the-ground change. She is currently working on two major research themes. One is enhancing the social determinants of health for those with disability. The other focuses on reducing inequities in early childhood development. The emphasis in both these streams is investigating how local built and social environments support or hinder opportunity and understanding impacts of any inequity.
Theme leaders
Prof. Hannah Badland - Theme co-lead, Community wellbeing
Hannah Badland's research examines how the built environment is connected to health, wellbeing, and inequities in both adults and children internationally, with an interest in vulnerable communities.
Dr. Ellen van Holstein - Theme co-lead, Community wellbeing
Ellen van Holstein is a Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow researching who gets to be included in different spaces and networks of ‘community’.
Dr. Emma-Louise Seal - Theme co-lead, Community wellbeing
Emma’s research is driven by community-engaged research practices and participatory methodologies to establish a common purpose and collectively work towards social change.
Prof. Nicola Henry, Deputy Director - Theme co-lead, Gender and social change
Nicola Henry's work investigates the nature, prevalence and impacts of sexual violence, including legal and prevention responses in Australian and international contexts.
Dr Gemma Hamilton - Theme co-lead, Gender and social change
Gemma Hamilton is an interdisciplinary scholar in criminology and forensic psychology, internationally recognised for her work on family violence, sexual assault, policing, and investigative interviewing.
Melissa Laing - Theme co-lead, Gender and social change
Melissa Laing’s research investigates the intersection of housing and safety crises for marginalised pet owners (or companion animal guardians), and practice responses to support interspecies families.
Prof. Hariz Halilovich - Theme co-lead, Local global relations
Hariz Halilovich's research has focused on forced migration, diaspora studies, place-based identities and human rights (incl. right to education).
Dr. Elizabeth Kath - Theme co-lead, Local global relations
Elizabeth Kath investigates how people relate across boundaries of difference in the global era, including theories of migration, intercultural communication, reconciliation, and social/inclusion exclusion.
Dr Kathryn Daley - Associate Director and Co Theme Lead, Homelessness and Housing Insecurity
Kathryn Daley's work has examined issues of poverty, child abuse, homelessness, self-injury and mental health.
Centre members
Rojan Afrouz - Senior Lecturer, Social Work and Human Services
Dr Rojan Afrouz is a notable researcher with a proven track record in the field of Violence Against Women (VAW), family violence among migrant women and diverse communities and technology-facilitated abuse.
Dr Amanda Alderton - Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow
Amanda Alderton draws on her experience as a classroom teacher, researching across disciplines including public health, urban studies, and developmental psychology.
Dr Monica Barratt - Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow
Monica Barratt has over 20 years' experience in health and social research in the areas of drug harm reduction and policy reform, with a specific focus on digital technologies, drug market dynamics and drug monitoring systems.
Dr Alexis Bergantz - Senior Lecturer
Alexis Bergantz is a historian of Australia’s entanglements with France and the French Pacific.
Dr Tamara Borovica - Research Assistant
Tamara Borovica's work focuses on embodiment and psycho-social approaches to mental health, wellbeing, and belonging.
Dr Tuba Boz - Lecturer
Tuba Boz is a lecturer in Social Work and Human Services within the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. Dr Boz leads the Migration, Mobility and Security Research Network (MM&S RN) at RMIT University
Christine Craik - Lecturer - Social Work and Human Services
Christine is a family violence accredited social worker, researching and working in the gendered violence and abuse field for over 30 years. Christine developed, coordinates and teaches into the ‘Working with Violence and Abuse’ course in social work and human services.
Dr Elroy Dearn - Researcher
Elroy Dearn is a qualitative researcher focussed on the areas of human rights, homelessness, institutionalisation, disability and mental illness.
Dr Anamaria Ducasse - Senior Lecturer
Dr Anamaria Ducasse's research focus is on assessment and feedback and pedagogy in both in higher education and additional language learning.
Jessica Findling - Associate Lecturer
Jess’ research focuses on the intersections of social work and criminal justice, with particular interest in topics relevant to refugees and family violence.
Dr Maho Fukuno - Lecturer
Maho Fukuno is an applied linguist researching in the interdisciplinary field of translation studies, intercultural communication, applied ethics and language education.
Anahita Gangwani
Ana is a storyteller creating impact-focused content with ad rem creatives by placing people and their perspectives at the centre of every initiative.
Dr Rachel Goff - Lecturer, Early Career Development Fellow
Rachel Goff's work examines how design thinking can facilitate self-determination, particularly in communities subject to structural inequity.
A/Prof. Erika Gonzalez Garcia - Associate Professor
Erika Gonzalez´s research focuses on the professionalisation of community interpreting & translation, and the impact language barriers have on non-English speakers.
A/Prof Emily Gray - Associate Professor
Emily's empirically informed scholarship provides insights into educators' lived experiences in relation to gender, sexisms, sexualities and workplaces.
Prof Georgina Heydon - Professor
Georgina Heydon's research analyses the language of police interviewing and other forms of evidential language in the justice system.
Dr Belinda Johnson - Senior Lecturer
Dr Belinda Johnson explores intersections of social justice, bodies, places, emotions and creative practice, with a specific interest in disability.
Prof Katherine Johnson - Dean, School of GUSS
Katherine Johnson is a leading researcher in LGBTQ+ suicide prevention, transgender health, and early mental health interventions for LGBTQ+ youth.
Dr Natalie Jovanovski - Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow
Dr Natalie Jovanovski is an award-winning health sociologist and Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University. Her research focuses broadly on the social factors that influence people’s food practices.
Dr Godwin Kavaarpuo - Research Fellow
Godwin Kavaarpuo's research interests and publications are in affordable and social housing, real estate development and sustainability, and real estate innovation, with a geographic focus on Africa and Australia.
Prof Renata Kokanovic - Professor
Renata Kokanovic is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersections of critical mental health studies, critical social theory and medical humanities.
A/Prof. Ahmed (Bawa) Kuyini Abubakar - Associate Professor
Bawa Kuyini has broad social work practice experience in mental health, disability and with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities.
Dr Chen-Hui Miranda Lai - Senior Lecturer
Miranda Lai’s research interests cover public service interpreting and translation, police interpreting, forensic transcription, and vicarious trauma of interpreters and translators.
Dr Caroline Lambert - Lecturer
Caroline uses her intersectional lived and living expertise to investigate social phenomena that impact the everyday lives of mental health families, carers, supporters or kin. Her research practice and design engage participatory methodology and is rooted in inclusive feminist philosophies.
Dr Julian Lee - Associate Dean, Global and Language Studies
Julian Lee’s research has addressed the subjective experience of globalisation, and has sought to creatively explore themes in Global Studies through the use of popular culture.
Dr Iris Levin - Senior Lecturer
Iris Levin’s research focuses on housing for disadvantaged communities, including social housing, housing for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds, and socially mixed communities.
A/Prof. Robyn Martin - Associate Dean, Social Work & Human Services
Robyn Martin is a critical social work academic and her research and teaching is informed by post-structuralist, feminist and intersectional theories and concepts.
A/Prof. Kerry Mullan - Associate Professor
"Kerry’s main research interests are cross-cultural communication and differing interactional styles, particularly those of French and Australian English speakers. She also researches in the areas of intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, language teaching and conversational humour. "
A/Prof. Yasothara Nadarajah - Associate Professor
Yasothara Nadarajah's research covers a range of fields – and the question of how ethnography and fieldwork may open a space for difficult conversations about the past and injustices; and offer the potential for healing.
Dr Jindan Ni - Senior Lecturer
Jindan Ni is a senior lecturer in Global and Language Studies at RMIT University. Her research interests are Comparative Literature Studies and Translation Studies, mainly focusing on the Japanese and Chinese literary works.
Dr Sharlene Nipperess - Associate Professor, Social Work
Dr Nipperess is an experienced social work researcher with expertise in research ethics and qualitative research methods, including participatory, inclusive and human rights-based research methodologies. Her research focuses on social work policy and practice mainly in forced displacement, mental distress, disability and family/carer lived experiences, housing and homelessness.
Dr Caroline Norma - Senior Lecturer
Caroline Norma is a historian of modern Japan and a lecture in the Translating and Interpreting program.
Dr Patrick O'Keeffe - Senior Lecturer
Patrick O’Keeffe is a Senior Lecturer in the Social Work and Human Services Cluster at RMIT University. He is interested in how processes of marketisation, privatisation and financialisation affect young people, and how young people respond to these processes by creating subversive spaces.
Dr Nerkez Opacin - Research Fellow
As a researcher and educator, Nerkez adopts a multidisciplinary approach, specialising in nature-based solutions for social prescribing, peacebuilding education, and the critical analysis of intervention programs to foster community engagement and support at-risk populations.
Dr Sarah Polkinghorne - Research Fellow
Sarah Polkinghorne is an information science researcher focusing on how people become and stay informed, and on practices and systems that support access to information.
Prof Anastasia Powell - Professor
Anastasia Powell is a criminologist specialising in prevention, policy and practice reform addressing family and sexual violence.
Dr Jing Qi - Senior Lecturer
Jing's work is centrally concerned with epistemic and sociolinguistic justice through advancing and applying theories and practices of multilingualism, interculturalism, global mindedness, and digital and AI technologies. Jing is the SERC HDR Liaison.
Dr Bess Schnioffsky - Research Assistant
Bess Schnioffsky is a feminist researcher whose work explores the intersection of gender and race in sports in Australia and the Pacific region. With a background in international and community development, her research advocates for the transformation of sports into sites for positive social change.
Clare Thompson
Clare excels in delivering quality change and project management, building effective networks, understanding people and processes, and achieving stakeholder satisfaction.
Dr Karen Villanueva - Research Fellow
Karen Villanueva is focused on how urban neighbourhoods shape child health behaviours and outcomes.
Prof Aiden Warren - Professor
Aiden Warren's teaching and research interests are in the areas of international security, US national security and foreign policy, US politics , international relations , WMD proliferation, nonproliferation and arms control, and emerging technologies.
Dr Juliet Watson - Senior Lecturer
Juliet Watson's recent research projects have included investigations of pregnancy and homelessness, family violence and homelessness, housing support for older women, social housing, and feminist activism.
Prof. Bruce Wilson - Director, European Union Centre of Excellence
Bruce Wilson is Director of the European Union Centre of Excellence at RMIT, providing insights to and leading research and debate on EU-Australian relations, encouraging mobility for staff and students, and for building partnerships between Australian universities and organisations and their European counterparts
Margareta Windisch - BSW Field Education coordinator
Margareta Windisch is a qualified social worker and social work lecturer. Her research explores the intersection of gender and climate change, with a particular interest in older women and urban heatwaves.
Dr Alice Witt - Research Fellow
Dr Alice Witt researches the exercise of governing power in the digital age, focusing on the intersections of regulation, technology and gender.
Dr Maki Yoshida - Lecturer
Maki Yoshida is an applied linguist whose research interests lie in the field of language, gender and sexuality studies and foreign/second language education.
Honorary members
Prof. Guy Johnson - Professor
Guy Johnson’s research is focused on theoretical and applied questions relating to the dynamics of homelessness and housing – why some people become homeless, why some people remain homeless, and why some people exit homelessness.
