My research focuses on gender-based violence and aims to ‘translate’ community-based ways of knowing and being into academic scholarship. This trajectory had its antecedents in my work as a sexual assault counsellor/advocate and practice-based researcher which attuned me to the ways in which ‘large’ seemingly abstract social theories and concepts are embedded in organisational structures and enacted through everyday practices. This has evolved into three key areas of research and scholarship, which draw on long established community relationships and networks and are all collaborations with universities, communities in Greater Metropolitan Sydney, Australia and internationally. 

 1.Feminism, trauma, and gender-based violence

This research programme began with my doctoral research which investigated the place of feminism and the trajectory of sexual assault as trauma (as PTSD or complex trauma) in Australian feminist sexual assault services. My current work centres on a staged project which examines the emergence trauma informed practice and the influence of neuroscience in policy and practices in the sexual assault and domestic violence in Australia and Germany. I have produced multiples publications from this research theme including a monograph Putting Feminism to Work. Theorising Sexual Violence, Trauma and Subjectivity.

2. Sexual violence in higher education. Policy, practice and prevention. 

This work has included a commissioned project for Full Stop Australia (co-researcher S. Dagestani) which redeveloped and expanded a violence prevention programme, to make it suitable to a wider academic audience and to incorporate a more intersectional approach and policy changes. This project was an extension of my work in researching and developing the programme, Ethical Pedagogical Practices: Developing Respectful (HDR) Supervisory Relationships while employed at FSA. The programme has already run in several Australian universities and been presented internationally. Our collaborative work continues through joint publications and conference presentations. My next step in developing this research theme will focus on university complaints processes framed by the deceptively simple research question, what happens during an investigation of sexual harassment or sexual assault?

3. Young people, education and social justice

My third area of research began initially as a practice-based researcher in community settings with a focus on issues of inequity and social justice in the educational experiences of young people from marginalised backgrounds, ‘anger management’ programmes for young people, primary school aged students and school refusal in Southwest Sydney. A highlight of my university based research and project management roles for has been the opportunity to develop this interest via my work as a Research Associate on the Learning from Country (LFC) project a three-stage community led project investigating the efficacy of cultural immersion or learning from Country in urban contexts (CI’s Prof. Cathie Burgess (Usyd.) and A/Prof. Katrina Thorpe (UNSW). We have co-authored a number of publications including a monograph Aboriginal Community-Based Educators. Teaching the Teachers, and my learnings from the project, as a non-Indigenous researcher continues to inform my thinking, teaching and subject development.

Teaching 

I have experience teaching across a range of social science subjects with a particular focus on gender, class, and race-based inequalities, as well as qualitative research methodologies and methods. A key aim in my teaching approach is to design learning experiences that promote student engagement with complex social theories through active engagement with how such concepts are ‘put to work’ in the applied settings in which social science graduates typically gain employment.

Engagement

I currently co-convene (with Sally Hourigan) the Gender and Sexuality thematic group of the Australian Sociological Society, previously served on the executive of the Australian Women and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA) and am an active member of my School’s (School of Social Sciences) Sexualities and Genders Research collaboration. I enjoy organising and participating in workshops and seminars that bring together people from disparate backgrounds and interests including co-facilitation of an interdisciplinary, interuniversity reading group. An edited book we produced based on the reading group is available via Open Access. Remy YS Low, Suzanne Egan and Amani Bell (eds). Using Social Theory in Higher Education  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-39817-9