Belinda is an Education + Research applied sociology academic. She is a Senior Lecturer in applied sociology and human services in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Belinda is a member of the Community Wellbeing group in the Social Equity Research Centre (SERC).
As an educator, Belinda is passionate about creating innovative and inclusive first year learning experiences.
As a researcher, Belinda contributes to creating a better world with and for people with disabilities.
Belinda is an experienced and passionate Higher Education educator. She is particularly interested in first year belonging pedagogies. She has expertise in designing and teaching in large multi-disciplinary courses. She teaches on the sociology of the self, intersections of sociology and psychology, and on understanding organisations sociologically for good practice.
Belinda is committed to inclusive and innovative teaching and learning experiences to create purposeful belonging for students. She designs curriculum that creates peer cultures of learning that value students’ diversity. Her teaching brings together social theory with contemporary social issues and events, and students' own experiences of the world for students to develop their ability to think and act well.
Entwined with her teaching practice, Belinda engages in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). She explores the application of imaginative, experiential learning and creative practice pedagogies to social science learning.
Belinda is the winner of two RMIT Vice Chancellor Teaching Awards. In 2020, she won the RMIT Vice Chancellor's Award for “Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Higher Education”. In 2009, she was part of a group award for “Programs That Enhance Student Learning: The First Year Experience” (with Chris Davies and Kathryn Kriewaldt).
She has co-authored 2 chapters in the book "Tutorial ideas for educators on the run: Innovative, engaging, and social justice teaching approaches for social work and human services" (2024). At the TASA Conference 2024, she presents on 'Choreographies of Learning Spaces: Challenging Hierarchies of Face-to-face Sociology Tutorials Through Radical Dance Theories', as part of the Teaching Sociology Thematic Group.
Belinda is a researcher in disability studies and creative practice at the Social Equity Research Centre. Her research interests explore intersections of social change, bodies, places, emotions and creative practice, with a specific interest in disability and Down syndrome. Belinda's further scholarly interests include: carer experience; fashion discourses; women and work; and precarity.
Belinda is widely published internationally in scholarly books and journals. Drawing from critical disability studies, new materialism and posthuman feminism, she is curious about the valuable insights gleaned from less-considered lives. Her concerns often return to the politics of everyday and creative actions.
Belinda brings a lived experience perspective to her research through her personal connections with the Down syndrome community. This lived experience informs her understanding of the value of body diversity and her insight into the importance of creative work and creative participation for cultures of Down syndrome.
Her current and recent research projects include:
Other research activities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yH1I6JbBy8
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.