Potential Supervisors

Below you will find a list of researchers who are active within the school. You will find a summary of their research expertise and interests along with their contact details.

To learn more about program offerings and graduate education with the School of Psychology, please visit our courses page.

Geography and Urban Studies 
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Professor Kevin Dunn

Kevin Dunn is Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Psychology and a Professor of Geography and Urban Studies.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0873
Email: k.dunn@uws.edu.au
  • Geographies of racism, anti- racism and transnationalism   
  • Social and Cultural Geography
  • Urban Studies

Professor Phillip O'Neill

Phillip O'Neill is a Professor of Economic Geography

Phone: +61 2 8833 5988
Email: p.oneill@uws.edu.au
  • Economic geography
  • Urban geography
  • Large urban infrastructure
  • Regional economic development
  • Regional labour markets
  • Spatial data analysis

Associate Professor Michael Darcy

Michael Darcy is Associate Professor and  the Director of the UWS Urban Research Centre and Director of Research 

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6797
Email: m.darcy@uws.edu.au

 

  • Housing markets and affordable housing
  • Social housing and the lived experience of tenants
  • Homelessness

Dr Rae Dufty

Rae Dufty is a Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0872
Email: r.dufty@uws.edu.au
  • Human geography
  • Urban and housing studies
  • Rural studies

Dr Awais Piracha

Awais Pirachais is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Geography and Urban Studies Group.

Phone: +61 2 4736 0049
Email:a.piracha@uws.edu.au

  • Liveability in Urban Planning
  • Sustainable Transport Planning
  • Spatial Analysis in Planning
  • Urban Design

Dr Emma Power

Emma Power is a Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0107
Email: e.power@uws.edu.au
  • Cultural geography
  • Everyday practices of sustainability and homemaking
  • Human-environment relations
  • More-than-human geographies

Dr Felicity Wray

Felicity Wray is a Lecturer in Geography and Urban Studies

Phone: +61 2 8833 5913
Email: f.wray@uws.edu.au
  • Impediments to employment generation amongst Arabic businesses in Sydney’s West Central region
  • geographies of money and finance, particularly venture capital, entrepreneurship, plus urban and regional development strategies.

^Back to Top

                                                                                                                                                   
Peace and Development Studies 
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Associate Professor Debbie Horsfall

Debbie Horsfall is a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Development Studies.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0093
Email: d.horsfall@uws.edu.au

  •        
  • Inclusive qualitative research
  • Arts-based or creative research; community development
  • Social activism/social change
  • Feminisms/gender
  • Caring at end of life
  • Disability and social justice

Dr Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin is a Lecturer in Social Psychology and Director of the Our Future Project (SSAP)

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0124
Email: t.griffin@uws.edu.a
  • Disability and aging
  • Blended learning and e-learning

Dr Debra Keenahan

Debra Keenahan is a Lecturer in Peace and Development Studies.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0045
Email: d.keenahan@uws.edu.au

  • Dehumanization and moral politics
  • Humanitarian and social health work-based projects

^Back to Top

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Psychology 
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Associate Professor Tanya Meade

Tanya Meade is Associate Professor and a Director of Clinical and Health Psychology Academic Programs

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6266
Email: t.meade@uws.edu.au
  • Deliberate self- harm
  • Pain, depression and coping in rheumatoid arthritis

Dr Emilee Gilbert

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6416
Email: e.gilbert@uws.edu.au

  • Reproductive Health

Dr Jo Milne- Home

Dr Jo Milne-Home is the Director of Academic Program (Head of Discipline Psychology - Undergraduate)

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6715
Email: j.milne-home@uws.edu.au
  • Emotional Intelligence and Positive Psychology
  • Dance Research - Creativity and Improvisation
Dr Glenn Newbury
Phone: + 61 2 9772 6680
Email: g.newbery@uws.edu.au
  •  Motivation
Dr Janette Perz
Email: j.perz@uws.edu.au
  • PMS
  • Cancer care
  • Women's reproductive health psychology
  • Gender & mental health

Dr Agnes Petocz

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6624
Email: a.petocz@uws.edu.au
  • Conceptual Metaphor

Professor Jane Ussher 

Email: j.ussher@uws.edu.au 
  • Women's reproductive health psychology
  • Gender & mental health

Dr Tamara Watson

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6006
Email: t.watson@uws.edu.au 

  • Visual Stimuli

Dr Gabrielle Weidemann

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6669
Email: g.weidemann@uws.edu.au
  • Associative learning and classical conditioning
  • Evaluative conditioning
  • Implicit learning paradigms such as temporal and contextual cuing
Associate Professor Jeanna Sutton  E:  j.sutton@uws.edu.au  

^Back to Top

                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Social Work, Welfare and Therapy Studies 
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Associate Professor Brian Stout

Brian Stout is an Associate Professor in Social Work and Director of Academic Program for Social Work and Community Welfare and Therapy Studies and Counselling.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6299
Email: b.stout@uws.edu.au

  • Criminal Justice Social Work
  • probation
  • Correctional practice
  • Youth justice

Professor Natalie Bolzan

Natalie Bolzan is Professor of Social Work.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6531
Email: n.bolzan@uws.edu.au
  • Social inclusion and participation
  • Social resilience
  • Mental health

Associate Professor Jane Mears

Jane Mears is Associate Professor of Community Welfare.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6250
Email: j.mears@uws.edu.au

  • Ageing
  • Community care and the ageing population
  • Elder abuse protocols

Dr Fran Gale

Fran Gale is a Lecturer in Social Work.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6745
Email: fw.gale@uws.edu.au

  • Citizenship and civic connectedness of marginalised groups
  • Social advocacy
  • Spirituality and social justice
  • Human rights

Dr Neil Hall

Neil Hall is Lecturer and Course Advisor for the Bachelor of Social Work.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6591
Email: n.hall@uws.edu.au
  • Young people
  • Social inclusion and participation
  • Men’s studies
  • Sport

Dr Mick Houlbrook

Mick Houlbrook is a Lecturer in Adult and Community Education.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6348
Email: m.houlbrook@uws.edu.au

  • Work-based learning
  • Adult education
Dr Sheridan Linnell      

Sheridan Linnell is a Lecturer in Art Therapy.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0605
Email: s.linnell@uws.edu.au
  • Feminist and postcolonial theory
  • Discourse analysis
  • Arts-based and writing methodologies

^Back to Top

                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Sociology 
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Professor Stephen Tomsen

Stephen Tomsen is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6649
Email: s.tomsen@uws.edu.au
  • Violent crime, hate crime, youth crime
  • Masculinities
  • Access to justice and legal services
  • Social theory and ethnography

Associate Professor Mary Hawkins

Mary Hawkins is an Associate Professor and Director of Academic Program Sociology and Criminolgy

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6352
Email: m.hawkins@uws.edu.au
  • Cross-cultural and global studies
  • Social Justice and Faith in the Context of Religious and Spiritual Change
  • Kinship, families and gender

Dr Michael Kennedy

Michael Kennedy is a Senior Lecturer in Policing.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0868
Email: m.kennedy@uws.edu.au

  • Ethics in policing
  • Moral panics
  • Zero tolerance policing
  • Policing education

Dr Alphia Possamai-Inesedy

Alphia Possamai-Inesedy is a Lecturer in Sociology.

Phone: + 61 2 9772 6321
Email: alphia.possamai@uws.edu.au

  • Women’s health
  • Sociology of reproduction
  • Sociology of religion

Dr Erin Kruger

Erin Kruger is a Lecturer in Criminology.

Phone: + 61 2 4736 0874
Email: e.kruger@uws.edu.au

  • Criminal Law
  • Corporeality
  • Legal theory
  • Science/technology

Dr Jane Durie

 

Email: j.durie@uws.edu.au

       

 

       

 

  • Culture, difference and relations of power
  • Whiteness as structure of authority and whiteness as identity
  • Indigenous education
  • Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations

^Back to Top 

Tourism and Heritage Studies 

         
Name, Title and Role
Contact
Areas of Research Expertise and Interest

Associate Professor Robyn Bushell

Robyn Bushell is an Associate Professor of Tourism and Heritage Studies and Director of Academic Program Geography and Urban Studies, Peace and Development Studies, Policing and Tourism and Heritage.

Phone: + 612 4736 0113
Email: r.bushell@uws.edu.au

  • Tourism planning
  • Community development
  • Conservation of cultural and natural heritage

Dr Corazon Sinha

Corazon Sinha is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Heritage Studies.

Phone: + 612 4736 0104
Email: c.sinha@uws.edu.au

  • Nature-based and wildlife tourism
  • Biodiversity and natural heritage conservation
  • Visitor impact and protected area management

Dr Russell Staiff

Russell Staiff is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Heritage Studies.

Phone: + 612 4736 0146
Email: r.staiff@uws.edu.au

  • Museums
  • National parks
  • Built heritage
  • World heritage sites

Dr Julie Wen

Julie Wen is a Lecturer in Tourism and Heritage Studies.


Phone: + 612 4736 0041
Email: j.wen@uws.edu.au

  • Tourism and tourism development in protected areas
  • Spatial distribution of tourism
  • Environmental economics and sustainability
  • Regional economy, international business and China studies

Dr Amie Matthews

Amie Matthews is a Lecturer in Sociology and Heritage and Tourism Studies.

Phone: + 612 9772 6224
Email: a.matthews@uws.edu.au

  • Sociology of tourism (including backpacking, youth travel, volunteer and socially responsible tourism and tourism impacts)
  • Contemporary rites of passage and rite of passage theory
  • Youth cultures and identities
  • Everyday cosmopolitanism and transnationalism

Dr Emma Waterton

Emma Waterton is a Lecturer in Tourism and Heritage Studies.

Phone: +612 4736 0056
Email: e.waterton@uws.edu.au

  • Critical heritage studies
  • Dark tourism or ‘thanotourism’
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • Cultural policy and tourism