My research envisions a world of more caring and just cities, investigating how the capacity of people to meet their needs for care and to live a good life can be better supported within cities and through the broader housing and welfare systems. My work is motivated by an interest in what makes cities liveable and is driven with concerns about the implications of growing urban and housing inequity, the residualisation of social welfare systems in western liberal welfare states and urban liveability in changing climates.

I have gained an international reputation through providing new approaches to housing, welfare and urbanism that place care and human flourishing at the centre. 

• I lead the ARC Discovery Project ‘Shadow Care Infrastructures: Sustaining Life in Post-welfare Cities’ (2021-2025) which asks how people reliant on government income support make ends meet. It investigates whether and how ‘shadow care infrastructures’ – a wide range of formal and informal material and social supports – enable the survival, well-being and flourishing of income support recipients. Focusing on people with disabilities, unemployed and asylum seekers, the research evaluates the benefits and harms such infrastructures produce for those receiving and providing care, and the wider community.
• I am also part of the Cooling the Commons team and CI on the related ARC Linkage Project ‘Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate-Ready in Social Housing (2022-2025), investigating what it means to live well in cities in a time of climate change.
• I have a long-standing commitment to housing equity for older low-income people in Australia. I am CI on the ARC LP 'Housing Australia's Ageing Population: Delivery solutions that meet older people's housing aspirations', and which is led from Curtin University. My ARC DECRA fellowship 'Ageing, Home and Housing Security Among Single, Asset-poor Older Women' (2015-2019) investigated how housing policy and governance, and ongoing housing mobility, inform how single older women who do not own a home create and maintain a sense of home and security. The project raised questions about the care work of housing, and explored how older women can find housing security and a house that is a home.

Equity and fairness are the driving forces behind my research and engagement. My work brings particular focus to the experiences of marginalised communities including single-parent families, older women and low-income households, highlighting the challenges they face making ends meet and securing appropriate and stable homes. I partner with community organisations and stakeholders across all my projects (including ARCs) to ensure that my research is not only academically rigorous but also responsive to the needs of communities, particularly those facing housing insecurity and systemic disadvantage.

My collaborations with community organisations and stakeholders are grounded in a commitment to justice, ensuring that research translates into meaningful policy and practice. This commitment extends beyond my funded projects, as seen in my pro bono work with organisations like the National Foundation of Australian Women, where I have co-authored the housing section of their annual Gender Lens on the Federal Budget since 2020. I am currently a Board Member of WESTIR, a not-for-profit research organisation committed to enhancing accessibility to social research and data in Greater Western Sydney and beyond.