Professor
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
My work centres on familial and intimate relationships as lived experiences and as sites of policy intervention. Specifically, I use qualitative methods to analyze how people make sense of the joys and challenges of negotiating intimate relationships in the context of personal and social change.
I am currently undertaking an Australian Research Council Linkage Project with South Australia's Department for Child Protection, Anglicare SA and Life Without Barriers on applying the idea of home to improve the experiences and outcomes of young people in state (out-of-home) care (with Dr Kate Seymour and Dr Sharyn Goudie (Flinders University) and Dr Michelle Jones (University of South Australia)). I have also undertaken research on young people's understandings of ‘home’ when their parents separate/ divorce; young women's experience of violence and homelessness; and gendered power and abuse in familial contexts, including post-separation relationships.
Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), The University of Queensland
Honours, First Class (Sociology), The University of Tasmania
PhD (Sociology), The University of Queensland
Co-Convenor, Senior Sociologist Career Group, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) (with Professor Raelene Wilding).