Professor Ben Wadham

Professor

College of Education, Psychology and Social Work

place Education (5.08)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Ben is the Director of the Open Door: Understanding and Supporting Service Personnel and their Families research initiative in the College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work. Open Door is an Australasian research hub that brings together veterans, scholars, and practitioners together around key research, service provision, and policy/legislation initiatives. Open Door is connected to other veteran research hubs across the five-eye nations.

As a Veteran, Ben's research is focused on the health and wellbeing of serving personnel and Veterans. He conducts sociological and criminological research on the ADF and DVA including institutional abuse in the ADF, veteran suicide, and veteran transition into higher education. Ben also researches men's violence prevention. His expertise on men and masculinities underpins this research.

Ben writes about the cultural history of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Of particular interest are military culture and crime and the military. He is currently Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Grant titled "Institutional Abuse and Organisational Reform within the ADF (1969-). Ben has led 3 recent grants investigating veteran transition and education. These studies explore how effective tertiary education is as a transition pathway. Ben is currently leading an ARC Discovery project entitled Veteran Suicide: Investigating the Social and Histroical Dimensions.

Ben conceived of, and led, the development of the Military Academic Pathway Program (MAPP) at Flinders University, the only foundation course for veterans in Australia.

Current research projects also include male veterans and suicide funded by the Freemasons with the Men's Health and Wellbeing Research Centre. He is a CI on a Hospital Foundation grant led by Professor Sharon Lawn on female veteran wellbeing and military-civil transition.

Qualifications
BA Hons (Sociology),
PhD (Sociology)
Grad Cert Public Policy
Honours, awards and grants

Australian Postgraduate Award 1998-2002

Australian Defence Medal

Key responsibilities

Director, Open Door: Understanding and Supporting Service Personnel and their Families

Teaching interests
  • Qualitative Research Methodologies
  • Social Theory
  • Race, Gender, Nation
  • Militarism & Violence
  • Policy and Governance
  • Veteran and Military Studies
  • Military People and Culture
Supervisory interests
Crime, law and justice
Critical masculinity studies (scholarly distinction from masculinity or men's studies)
Military studies
Psychiatric problems of war veterans
Higher degree by research supervision
Current
Principal supervisor: Veteran transition (1), Veteran Wellbeing nad Moral Injury (1), Gay Principals, IB and Education (1), SurfLIve Saving and Leadership
Associate supervisor: Education and Autism (1), Mathematics and Critial Realism (1), Educational Policy and Social Justice
Completion
Principal supervisor: Critical Race and Education Studies (2), Critical Literacy (1), Indonesian Women in Higher Education (2), Globalisation, Development and Education (3), Critical Realism (1), Virtual Reality and Mens Violence Prevention (1), Academic Activism (1), Contemplative Education (1), Early Childhood and Neoliberalism
Associate supervisor: Diabetes and Stigma (1), Dyslexia Educaation Policy (1)
Higher degree by research student achievements
Katerin Berniz

Vice-Chancellor's Prize for Doctoral Thesis Excellence - JUN 2019

Interests
  • Institutional abuse
  • Masculinity
  • Military culture
  • Veteran Suicide
  • Veteran Transition and Wellbeing
  • Veterans in Prison
Further information

Ben Wadham is a member of the Australian Peacekeeping and Peacekeeper Veterans Association (APPVA), The RAR Assocatioan, The Miltiary Police Assocation of Australia and The Defence Force Welfare Association. He is the Vice President of he Defence Force Welfare Association - SA.