Emeritus Professor Colin MacDougall
Academic Level E
College of Medicine and Public Health
I was awarded Emeritus Professor status in public health following my retirement in 2019. Before joinig Flinders in 1999 my practice background included clinical experience as a psychologist, the founding director of a community based service for children and families and as a chief planning officer in a health system. I have taught child. health and educational psychology and public health at tertiary level. My academic appointment involved teaching public health at undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels and in the medical course. My research focusses on healthy public policy, the social studies of childhood and more recently the relationship between public health and climate change. I was an inaugural Executive Member of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity and also have honorary appointments at the University of Melbourne in the Child and Community Wellbeing Unit, Centre for Health Equity and the University of Pokhara in Nepal.
Vice Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Award (Teaching Team) 2000
Visiting Expert in the New Zealand Social Science Research Capacity Building program 2007
European-Australian Public Health Award to teach and develop curriculum at Hamburg University of Life Sciences, Germany and Jagellonian University, Poland. (November 20 to 3 December 2010)
Visiting Professor, Social Sciences Research, University of Rennes 2, Rennes, France; in the Research Group on Space and Society. (September 12 to 31 October 2011)
Citizen Child Collaboration (Flinders University, University of Melbourne, The University of Auckland (NZ), Gunma University (Japan) Multidisciplinary research experiences promoting children as citizens in the making can increase understanding of the potential for, and limits to, how children negotiate agency in disaster contexts. (2012-)
International Advisory Board of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal. (Jan 2012-)
For current research projects please see http://www.flinders.edu.au/medicine/sites/public-health/research/current-projects/
Executive Committee, Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University
Chair, Discipline of Public Health Curriculum Committee
Co-ordinator, Undergraduate Public Health
I am an Executive member and Secretary of the Council for Academic Public Health Insitutions in Australasia.
Prior to my formal retirement I teaught at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level and supervise DrPH and PhD research.
My teaching interests revolve around combining developing knowledge and understanding with reflection on practice with the aim of contributing to a fairer, more sustainable world. This fits the views of Paulo Freire who, writing in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, said that "Education either functions as an instrument ...to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
I have participated in developing new curricula and courses: eg at Flinders Master of Primary Health Care; Doctor of Public Health; Master of Remote Health; Health, Professions and Society in the Flinders medical course, public health major in the Bachelor of Health Sciences. Internationally, the MPH at University of Western Cape, South Africa; mental health courses jointly with Flinders and University of Queensland; a School of Public Health (with an MPH) at Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal. Since retirement ai have fpcussed on research and educational capacity development in public health at Divine Word University, Madng, Papua New Guinea. In all these endeavours I have worked to combine theory and practice, drawing on my own primary health care practice background. Crucially, this has involved thinking carefully on the pedagogy and practice of distance education: from print and post to fax to email to web and now to phones and wireless devices. I have taught at universities in New Zealand, France, Germany and Poland.
Much of my community engagement happened through the Southgate Institute at Flinders. In the Southgate I have played a role in initiating or organising a Journal Club, Theory Club and Policy Club which have successfully engaged practitioners and policy makers with researchers in discussions about contemporary health questions. I continue my work with the Southgate in retirement.
Partnership with the Divine Word University in Madang, PNG to help develop research and teaching capacity.
Secretary of the Council of Acdemic Instutions of Australasia 2013-19.
Co-convener of the Child Health Special Interest Group in the Public Health Association from 2010-17.
I visited Nepal regularly as a member of the International Advisory Board of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, devreloping a medical degree and Master of Public Health and teeaching at Pokhara University
I contribute to the public health community by conducting workshops and community based research.
Grant Assessor for NHMRC, ARC and other grants.
Journal reviewer and member of edfditorial panels.
I have chaired Early Career Fellowship selection commmittees for the National Health and Medical Research Council.
- Community/Public Health
- Universities
- Childhood, Public Health and climate change
- Public Health
- University Teaching
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
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