Current Research in Disability & Community Inclusion at Flinders University
Staff and post graduate research students are undertaking a number of research projects. Some of them are listed below. Information is also available from staff home pages.
Dr Caroline Ellison is the author of Exploring Retirement and Leisure of Adults with Intellectual Disability (Lambert Publishing). She is currently working on a research project considering the policies, frameworks and models that support people living with disability participating in the Arts, micro businesses or affirmative enterprises as an alternatives to traditional employment options.
Dr Paul Jewell is the author of Disability Ethics - a framework for professionals, practitioners and policy makers (Common Ground Publishing). As well as his ongoing work in ethics, he conducts research in humour. He recently gave a paper to the Australian Humour Scholars Network - Some contrasting examples of Asperger syndrome in popular humour. He is currently in the process of developing a research project that aims to facilitate access to information technology for school students with intellectual disabilities.
There is ongoing research associated with the Up the Hill Project , which facilitates the participation of people with intellectual disabilities in the social and educational life of the Flinders University.
The following postgraduate students are undertaking research projects leading to PhDs.
- Matthew Bennett - Life experiences of people with Asperger Syndrome . Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Philip Dowd - The developing culture of disability: an evaluation of the impact of disabled writers on the 'culture of disability' . Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Cindy Eggington - using the theoretical construct of postmodernism to explore the relationship between secondary trauma and disability, to develop sustainable psychosocial recovery through action. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Paul Glaze - Embodied relationships between people with disabilities and the nurses who care for them. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Geraldine Lane - Gone to the dogs? Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Nivashine Mohan - Examining the nature of resilience and executive functioning in people with brain injury and people with multiple sclerosis. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Fiona Redgrove - The impact on parents/carers of young people with intellectual disabilities of their sons and daughters passing through the transition phase between childhood and adult status. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Graham Webber - Reiki in people with disabilities. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Mary Wilcock - Autism spectrum disorders and gifted education. Principal supervisor Paul Jewell
- Peter Cookson - Disability support workers. Pricipal supervisor Caroline Ellison
- Edward Evans - Service quality in community access services. Principal supervisor Brian Matthews
- Judith Opolski - Private Speech of People with Down Syndrome. Principal supervisor Paul Jewell
The LifeSpan Project
This is a collaborative project on Dual Disability (Intellectual Disability and Mental Illness) being undertaken by Monash University in cooperation with Disability Services SA, Minda Inc., and DECS. Barbara Pennington and Phil Flint are undertaking postgraduate research in the project and have asked that the support from Flinders University is acknowledged. Barbara writes "We have been supported to attend the post graduate workshops and these have proven to be wonderful opportunities not only to access important information but to network with other post graduate students. We hope to be able to return the favour at a later date by sharing our research outcomes with others from Flinders who are interested." .
Click the following links for newsletters and other information on the project:
