My vision is to help build a more inclusive society where everyone, regardless of circumstance, is empowered to flourish.

As Director of the Social Equity Research Centre at RMIT University, I lead a large, high-performing interdisciplinary research team committed to understanding and redressing inequities through social justice. My research focuses on the built environment, health, wellbeing, and inequity—both in Australia and internationally—particularly among populations disadvantaged by systemic barriers or inadequate policies. My current major themes include enhancing the social determinants of health for people with disability and reducing inequities in early childhood development.

My career has been driven by a commitment to real-world impact, collaborating extensively with policymakers, government, and non-government organisations to translate research into positive change. I earned my PhD in public health researching the associations between the built environment and adult travel behaviours. Since then, I have held research and research leadership roles internationally, published over 180 articles in leading interdisciplinary journals, and secured more than $24M in competitive research funding.

I am privileged to have received over 40 national and international awards and prizes, and to contribute as an Associate Editor for Health & Place amongst other editorial appointments. Recognised as the inaugural Australian Health Promotion Thinker in Residence, a Salzburg Global Fellow, and among the Top 2% of Scientists worldwide, I am currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. My ongoing focus is on leading and enabling innovative, collaborative research that breaks new ground on social equity and improves lives.

Dr Alexis Bergantz is a Senior Lecturer in Global & Language Studies in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Dr Bergantz is a historian of Australia’s entanglements with France and the French Pacific, particularly New Caledonia. His first book, French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions was published by NewSouth in 2021 and won the 2022 NSW Premier's Australian History Award. Dr Bergantz's current research investigates aspects of Australia’s historical relationship with the French Pacific in the twentieth century. It has received support from the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in partnership with the French Embassy in Canberra. In 2025 Dr Bergantz will undertake a residential visiting Fellowship at the National Library of Australia, supported by the Stokes Family.

Dr Bergantz holds a PhD in History from the Australian National University (2016) for which he was awarded the ANU J. G. Crawford Prize for Academic Excellence, the John Molony Prize for best thesis in History, and was shortlisted for the Serle Award for best PhD thesis in Australian history by the Australian Historical Association.

Since 2020 Dr Bergantz has been leading the research efforts of the Institute for the Study of French-Australian Relations (ISFAR) as co-chair of its Research Committee (with Elizabeth Rechniewski). He also acts as General Editor of the French-Australian Dictionary of Biography and serves on the Editorial Committee of The French Australian Review. 

Dr Bergantz has written for Inside Story, Meanjin Blog, the Canberra Times, the Australian Policy and History Network and has provided expert commentary on historical and contemporary French-Australian relations for national and local radio programs such as SBS World News, ABC RN’s Late Night Live, Nightlife, Focus, ABC Weekend, 3RRR’s Uncommon Sense and SBS French.

At RMIT Dr Bergantz coordinates the French program, teaches across all levels of French and teaches the core subject Global History in the Bachelor of International Studies.

Judith Bessant is a Professor at RMIT University. Her fields of research include youth studies, sociology anthropology, politics, history, technology-media studies, planetary and public health and youth participation.

Distinctions and awards.

In 2017 I received an Order of Australia (AM) (Dept Prime Minister and Cabinet & Governor General)

In 2024 I was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Science in Australia

In 2024 my colleagues and I won the Australian Political Science Association’s (APSA) 2024 ‘Mayer Journal Prize for Best Article’ in the journal Australian Journal of Political Science. It was Bessant, J., Collin, P., & Watts, R., 2023, ‘Blah, blah, blah …[not] business as usual’: politics through the lens of young female climate leaders’. 58.4 :477–493 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2023.2224239

My career included a post-doctoral research fellowship and being a secondary school teacher. Since then, I’ve held various academic, research, teaching and governance positions in Australian universities. This included being appointed the founding Professor of Sociology and Youth Studies at RMIT University Melbourne Australia.

I have worked as a policy development advisor for the UN and as advisor for UNESCO. I have also worked as an advisor for various governments, NGOs and community organizations.  

For a number of years I served as a commissioner for The Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing working on a report titled A Wakeup call: the second Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing  (2025) https://www.thelancet.com/commissions-do/adolescent-health-wellbeing

I have authored and co-authored 15 books and edited and co-edited another 15 books, as well as many journal articles (ORCID  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7385-5358

I  have also received a number of Australian Research Council grants.

Please direct all mail to her RMIT address. Professor Bessant's CV is available from her on request.

Dr. Tamara Borovica is Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow and creative artist at RMIT University’s Social Equity Research Centre. Her work focuses on the sociology of emotion and health, particularly in the context of trauma and resilience. Using participatory and arts-based methods, she explores how emotions and lived experiences, including the collective ones, shape mental health. Tamara is an emerging leader in critical mental health research, continuously pushing the boundaries of how creative practice and arts can be utilised for social change. Her work addresses the emotional dimensions of mental health and informs training strategies for health organisations, emphasising empathy, connection, and social equity.

She is an incoming co-director of HealthTalk Australia, co-convenor of HASH Arts and Creative Practice for Wellbeing thematic group and member of Social Equity Research Centre and Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT.


Key activities
Qualitative Research.
Ethnographic Research
Psycho-Social Research and Design
Creative Practice and Research
Critical Mental Health

Dr Tuba Boz is a lecturer in the Social Work and Human Services Program in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. Dr Boz co-leads the Migration, Equity, Security and Humanitarianism (MESH) network (previously named, Migration, Mobility and Security Research Network, MMSRN) at RMIT University. She works on interdisciplinary projects with local and international academic institutions, and government and non-government organisations related to anthropological and sociological issues focusing on social cohesion, migration and intercultural communication. Dr Boz was Head of the Department of Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the International University of Sarajevo (2012-2015). She was Vice-Chair of the European Muslim Initiative of Social Cohesion (EMSICO) from 2010-2014 and adviser to the Chairperson at the Turkish Asian Centre for Strategic Studies (TASAM) from 2010-2016. She received her PhD in Communications at Monash University, where she examined the politics of independent documentary film production and distribution. Her research interests include multiculturalism, community arts and sports, documentary films, Muslim minorities, Turkish communities and diaspora.

Christine is a researcher and lecturer in the Bachelor of Social Work (Honours), Bachelor of Social Work (Honours)/Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) and the Master of Social Work. Christine's areas of expertise include domestic and family abuse, trauma and crisis work. 

Christine is a specialist Family Violence Accredited Social Worker and has been a social worker for over 30 years. She has worked in roles from family violence, sexual assault and trauma debriefing. Much of her work has been working in crisis situations, including crisis and response work in hospitals and health settings, with women and children experiencing with family violence and/or sexual abuse, Christine developed and teaches the 'Working with Violence and Abuse' subject. Christine is a past National President of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). Christine also volunteers as a survivor/advocate for Safe Steps where she shares her lived experience to assist in policy formation etc.

Christine's PhD focused on the extent, models and impacts of routine screening with women for domestic and family abuse in emergency departments of Australian public hospitals, and Christine's research focusses on family violence and sexual offences.  

Dr Kathryn Daley is the Assistant Associate Dean of Research and Policy Studies. She is also the co-theme lead of the Homelessness and Housing Insecurity research program with A/Prof Juliet Watson.

Kathryn was trained in psychology and social science. She is an academic with a background as a practitioner, having worked in direct service provision and in research and policy in the non-for-profit sector. Her work is focused on improving the wellbeing of people living on the margins, particularly children and young people. 

Kathryn enjoys teaching the next generation of youth workers and other welfare professionals, and teaches courses in alcohol and other drug interventions, advanced youth work practice, youth work ethics, and a course on critical understandings of youth 'wellbeing'. She is a qualified and experienced movement teacher and practitioner (Dance, Yoga, & Pilates) and is increasingly transferring these skills to youth work students to enable them to teach self-regulation and mindfulness strategies to young people experiencing complex trauma.

Kathryn has held various leadership roles in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, including as manager of the Research Training Unit, Program Manager of the Bachelor of Social Science (Honours), Program Manager of the Bachelor of Youth Work and Youth Studies and member of both the Human Research Ethics Committee and the College Human Ethics Advisory Network.

Dr Daley is heavily involved in the praxis between research and industry. She is Chair of the board of Youth Workers Australia and also a member of the board of the Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work (Australia). She has a ministerial appointment to the Women's Correctional Services Advisory Committee, and on the working advisory group for the update to the Victorian Code of Youth Work Ethics. Kathyn is a member of the forensic mental health services recommisssioning project and has provided consultation for the development of the the Victorian Youth AOD Strategy (2025-2035). She is a member of the Victorian Youth Affairs Council and also the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition. 

Daley is an award-winning academic known for her research translation, notably having won the 2024 Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Impact and Engagement and in 2025 was awarded the RMIT University Media Star of the Year Award. 

Dr Elroy Dearn completed their PhD in 2022 after 20 years of systemic advocacy in government and non-government organisations. Their PhD explored the experience of choice and control for people with psychosocial disabilities living in institutions over the first 18 months of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Elroy has held senior policy and research positions in local, state government and at the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate. Focal areas for their research and advocacy include homelessness, institutionalisation, psychosocial disability, and human rights. Elroy is bringing their expertise in policy, housing and human rights to two cross disciplinary research teams in their role as research fellow.

Professor Karien Dekker works at RMIT University in the school of Property, Construction and Project Management. She is currently a Chief Investigator on a project on housing solutions for temporary migrants in Australia. She writes about social infrastructure and affordable housing in diverse communities.

Karien's life revolves around a greater desire to create inclusive communities in which everyone feels welcome. She is also passionate about affordable housing for all. To inform policy and public opinion, she interprets large datasets, while making sense of the findings with interviews and observations.

I am an English/Spanish Bilingual/Bicultural Applied Linguist. As a fluent speaker of Spanish, French and Italian, in addition to English,  I have been deeply immersed in multilingual community activities in Melbourne. My challenge is for people to enjoy learning and using an additional language.

Coordinator Spanish Studies (2017 sem 1, 2018-20 & 2024-26) in Global and Language Studies, in RMIT's School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. I develop, teach and coordinate Spanish language and culture courses at all proficiency levels taught in Spanish, in addition to two sociolinguistics courses taught in English.

Director Spanish Resource Centre (2015-2017 & 2021-2023)

Scholarship of Learning and Teaching

As a reflective practitioner, I adapt and learn from teaching for extended periods across the education sector: in primary Italian; Spanish Yr 11 at Victorian School of Languages; Adult Education Italian  and Spanish; adult ESL/Literacy; ELICOS; IELTS exam preparation (and examination) and 25 years in Higher Education Language and Culture Education.

Since  being part of the HERDSA Vic Chapter on the organising committee for its Melbourne Conference in 2014, I have maintained  contact with a suppportive  TATAL network, from five institutions. In over a decade of group reflection and peer mentoring we have received a HERDSA grant, published papers and presented at conferences while becoming Fellows. In 2022 I was made Fellow of  the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia HERDSA  the first one awarded to a staff member while teaching at RMIT. Commencing 2002,  a HERDSA Fellowship provides recognition of teaching, based on a portfolio designed to support promotion appliactions.HERDSA site quote 'Most people completing the Fellowship agree that it is difficult and required a lot of persistence to finish it. They also express the value of the process that teaches the value of deeply reflecting on the work that they do''. 

Teaching awards:

Vice Chancelor's Award for teaching excellence awarded to the Spanish Program,  La Trobe University.

Citation for Outstanding contribution to Student learning: for developing innovative assessment and curriculum practices, La Trobe University.

Citation for Outstanding contribution to Student learning: developing effective communication skills and engage learning with content in a bilingual subject, La Trobe University.

EU Erasmus:

Twice awarded European academic mobility funding  EU Erasmus +  Mobility Projects  (2017, 2024) for teaching and research at RMIT partner universities in Spain. This initiative supports the exchange of knowledge, teaching methods, and cultural experiences between institutions in different countries by funding teaching staff  to spend time teaching at higher education institutions abroad. 

International Research Group Collaboration Work group (Equipo de Trabajo)

• University of Alcala de Henares Spain : (January 2014 -June 2018) EMO-FUNDETT - focus on persuasion, funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad . Its main area of research is the field of linguistic discourse-pragmatic studies. 

Key research grants:

IELTS Grant awarded Round 15:  Ana Maria Ducasse & Annie Brown

The role of interactive communication in IELTS Speaking and its relationship to candidates' preparedness for study or training contexts  

This study compares the  Speaking sub-test of the IELTS Test with speaking required in a university setting. IELTS Speaking was found to be largely dyadic (1:1) and structurally controlled, whereas university contexts demand less predictable, multi-participant, and more complex interaction.

TOEFL Committee of Examiners Research Grant  Annie Brown & Ana Maria Ducasse

Comparing TOEFL iBT Speaking Tasks with Realworld Academic Speaking Tasks: Tasks, Performance Features and Assessment 

Editorial Board member:

As an advocate for HDR and  ECR publishing I have served as Editorial Board member and reviewer since 2010 for Studies in Language Assessment (SiLA -formerly PLTA. A peer-reviewed research journal of  of the Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ) it is the only "Diamond Open Access" journal (with no charges for authors or for readers) in Language Testing.

Michael Emslie is a lecturer in the Youth Work and Youth Studies degree in the Social Work and Human Services discipline in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University.
 
Michael's extensive education, work experience and research demonstrates a long held passion and deep commitment to explore, pursue and promote good practice in human service and in particular youth work. Michael is particularly interested in questions concerning how practice is thought about, known, done, and supported in these fields. 
 
Michael's career in academia spans more than fifteen years during which time Michael has made a significant and positive impact that includes writing over forty peer reviewed publications, receiving four teaching awards, and demonstrating excellence in supporting students' learning particularly through facilitating theoretically grounded and practically relevant approaches to education.
 
Prior to taking on a permanent role in the university Michael had wide-ranging 'hands-on' experience in the youth, disability, and community work sectors for over fifteen years in a variety of roles including housing and crisis work, case work and counselling, and youth and family support, and Michael draws on this rich and diverse 'real-world' knowledge to enrich his teaching and research.
 
Michael thrives on engaging in adventurous and diverse intellectual pursuits and Michael's work as a researcher demonstrates a deliberate commitment to produce and share knowledge that will inspire imaginative and good practice and help to positively shape the world. This includes Michael's active involvement in the Edge/Centre Research Program that is a space of collaborative scholarly endeavours with a key focus on investigating and deploying creative research methods and innovative knowledge practices to generate and enhance the possibilities for inventive and ethical professional practice in human services, education and the arts.

I am a Social Epidemiologist and Research Fellow at the Social Equity Research Centre at RMIT University. I hold a PhD in Social Epidemiology and a Master’s in Public Health, specialising in Quantitative Research and Gender and Women’s Health. My work focuses on the social determinants of health and health equity, with particular emphasis on gender (in)equality, unpaid caregiving, employment, gender norms, and mental health. I use robust quantitative methodologies to understand and improve population health and wellbeing, with a focus on women and girls.

Much of my research seeks to quantify the mental health impacts of complex drivers of gender inequality, generating evidence that informs social policy and highlights critical but under-examined issues.

Beyond individual-level analysis, I have contributed to the development of a composite gender equality index through the IMAGINE Gender Equality Project, applying index construction methods to measure and track gender inequality across multiple domains. I have also contributed to research and policy initiatives aimed at strengthening the integration of sex and gender considerations in health research and clinical practice guidelines. Prior to academia, I worked as a clinical veterinarian and later as a technical consultant in a large international corporation, bringing a combination of analytical expertise, commercial experience, and leadership to my research career.

Jess is a Lecturer in Criminology and Justice studies at RMIT University. She is a qualified social worker and criminologist, with a particular interest in the connections between theory and practice. She has ten years experience in community based organisations as a counsellor, caseworker and advocate, with a focus on victim-survivors of domestic and family violence and disability.

Jess' areas of research include family violence and trauma informed practice. She currently coordinates Case Management Practice and teaches into the Graduate Certificate in Domestic and Family Violence and the Inside Out program.

Lisa Given is Director & Co-Founder, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments; Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform and Professor of Information Sciences in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies and the School of Computing Technologies.

Professor Lisa Given is an interdisciplinary researcher in human information behaviour whose work brings a critical, social research lens to studies of technology use and user-focused design. A Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and of the international Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), her studies embed social change, focusing on diverse settings and populations, and methodological innovations across disciplines. A former President of ASIS&T, Prof Given has served on the Australian Research Council’s (ARC’s) College of Experts. She holds numerous grants funded by ARC, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, working with university and community partners across disciplines. She is lead author of the 5th edition of Looking for Information: Examining Research on How People Engage with Information (2023) author of 100 Questions (and Answers) about Qualitative Research (2016), and editor of The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (2008).

Selected current grants:

2025-2030 Australian Research Council, Industrial Transformation Research Hub. $4,750,000 (AUD). Co-Investigator (Lead, Program 1: Socially Responsive, Ethical Design to Support User Adoption of Innovations). “ARC Research Hub for Intelligent Contaminant Sensing in Complex Environments (IC-SensE Hub).” Lead Investigator (ITRH Director): Prof Sumeet Walia, RMIT University. Co-Investigators (Program 1): Prof Rachel Ankeny, University of Adelaide; and, Prof Priya Rajagopalan & Dr Saffron Bryant, RMIT University.

Selected awards:

2021-2025 Stanford University/Elsevier’s Top 2% Most Cited Researchers Globally

2025 Vice-Chancellor’s Award, RMIT University – Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision
2025 RMIT University, Media & Communications – Media Hall of Fame Award

Selected scholarly appointments:

- Editor-in-Chief, Annual Review of Information Science and Technology

- Member, Science and Methodology Committee, International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE)

- Distinguished Member, Association for Information Science and Technology

- College of Experts, Social, Behavioural and Economics Panel, Australian Research Council (2011-2014)

- President (elected), Association for Information Science & Technology (2016-2019)

- Panel Member, Canada’s Interagency (SSHRC, CIHR, NSERC) Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (2010-2012)

- Panel Member, Council of Canadian Academies, Expert Panel on Research Integrity (2009-2010)

- President (elected), Canadian Association for Information Science (2005-2008)

I am a social sciences and social work educator and researcher in the Social Work & Human Services cluster at the City Campus, RMIT University in Melbourne. I completed my industry-funded PhD in 2021 (Federation University), focusing on the experiences and aspirations of families with who have involvement with family services in community-based support. I bring my practice in design thinking to my research and prioritise projects that are participatory and community-driven. 

My practice background includes working with children, young people and families, First Nations communities, with the LGBTIQA+ community. Other industry experience informing my work includes consulting in human-centered service design, equity and inclusion and board membership of a not-for-profit LGBTQIA+ organisation.

Dr Erika Gonzalez is an Associate Professor in Translating and Interpreting and a Senior Fellow at Advance HE (SFHEA).

Erika brings over two decades of experience teaching translation and interpreting at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Europe and Australia. Before relocating to Australia, she served as Deputy Dean for National and International Work-Integrated Learning at the University of the Basque Country (Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea/Universidad del País Vasco, Spain). Her academic background and teaching career span institutions across the Americas, Europe, and Australasia.

Her research centres on the professionalisation of community translation and interpreting, with a particular focus on the impact of language barriers on non-English-speaking populations. Erika’s work advocates for the promotion of high-quality, professional language services to ensure equitable access to public systems for individuals who cannot communicate in the dominant language(s) of their host societies.

Erika´s academic expertise and knowledge gained as an active interpreter & translator have allowed her to develop strategies to professionalise translation & interpreting services in Australia. Her involvement in academia, government, the Professional Accreditation Authority (NAATI) and Professional Association (AUSIT) have been paramount in achieving this goal.

Industry Experience:
Erika worked as a legal interpreter in Spain with English-speaking migrants and asylum seekers (mainly with the Sub-Saharan population). Currently she is also an active senior conference interpreter who has worked at high-level diplomatic international meetings such as the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting; the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; the International Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Leaders Forum and Cochlear Australia among many others. Erika also holds Advanced Translator professional credentials.

She served as the Chair of the Professional Development Committee at the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT) (https://ausit.org/) from 2015-2017, was the Vice-President from 2017 to 2019 and National President from 2019 to 2022. AUSIT is the national professional association for the translating & interpreting profession in Australia. Currently the organisation has 2,000 members approximately.

Erika was the recipient of the Paul Sinclair Excellence Award in 2022, in recognition of her leadership and distinguished contribution to community engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic. Erika played a leading role in the development of the AUSIT-FECCA Recommended Protocols for the Translation of Community Communications.(https://ausit.org/general-guidelines/) She has served as an advisor in industry and government  Committees, such as the Department of Health and Aged Care´s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities Health Advisory Group. (https://www.health.gov.au/committees-and-groups/culturally-and-linguistically-diverse-communities-health-advisory-group) and the Home Affairs Language Sustainability Forum.

Awards:
RMIT Research Award for Engagement and Impact -Team (2023)
Premier´s Sustainability Award Finalist. Social and Economic Justice Category (2021)
Design and Social Context College Learning and Teaching Award -Student experience that supports diversity and inclusive practices (2021)
Europe Endeavour Award. Department of Education Science and Training (2006-2007)

Professor Rachael Hains-Wesson is the Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Rachael is passionate about innovative educational practices, enhancing student learning experiences, and leading transformative teaching strategies. Dedicated to fostering academic excellence, she integrates Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) into higher education to bridge the gap between academic theory and practical application.

Rachael began her career working in the not-for-profit sector for three years, focusing on social employability initiatives for disadvantaged travellers across Europe and Israel. Following this, she served in the Navy, where she developed a strong sense of discipline, leadership, and resilience. These experiences broadened her understanding of global challenges and fuelled her commitment to creating inclusive educational pathways. With a strong background in entrepreneurship, the creative industries, and international education, she has worked as an editor, publisher, and practitioner in diverse local, national, and global enterprises. She has also held visiting scholar and research expert positions at prominent institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Southern California, Elon University, and the University of Waterloo (Canada), further contributing to her expertise in higher education research and practice. 

Rachael holds two PhDs: one in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia and another in Higher Education Teaching and Learning from Deakin University. She also holds a Diploma in Health Sciences from Charles Sturt University and a Diploma in Theatre Studies from Swinburne University, as well as a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Graduate Diploma in Higher Education from Murdoch University.

Rachael is an active member of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), serving as a fellowship mentor, past branch co-secretary, and committee member. She is also part of the Academy of Reviewers for its high-impact journal, HERD. Rachael has received numerous awards, including a National Citation for Teaching and Learning, a QS Re-imagined (Gold) award, and is a Senior and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). She has published extensively in education research, contributing significantly to the field.

Connect with Rachael via LinkedIn or view her creative and academic works via the following social media sites:

Google Scholar

Research Gate

Academia.edu

Youtube.

Dr. Gemma Hamilton is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Justice Studies. Dr. Hamilton is an interdisciplinary scholar in criminology and forensic psychology, internationally recognised for her research on family violence, sexual assault, policing, and investigative interviewing. She is the lead author of the book, The Intersections of Family Violence and Sexual Offending (2022: Routledge). Her research has received recognition with the Australia Prize for Distinctive Work in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and RMIT's Award for Research Excellence. She is currently working on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) on sexual offence interviewing and victim-survivor justice and well-being (2024-27). Dr. Hamilton has received an RMIT Award for teaching excellence. She teaches subjects such as Introduction to Criminal Psychology, Criminal Behaviour Analysis and Forensic Interviewing. Dr. Hamilton has recently finished a 3-year term as Editor-in-Chief of Investigative Interviewing: Research and Practice (II:RP), the official journal of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIIRG). She now serves as an Associate Editor at Legal and Criminological Psychology, a high-impact journal with The British Psychological Society. She also leads the Gender & Social Change Theme of RMIT's Social Equity Research Centre.

Suzi Hayes has been working in the social sector for over twenty years. Suzi has held positions in public and community health, local government, performing arts and higher education across advocacy, research, teaching and service provision. Suzi brings a lived experience lens to professional practice, combining lived and learned expertise for feminist oriented justice focused systems change. 

Suzi is the Queer Futures theme lead for the RMIT LGBTIQA+ Research Impact Network.

Professor Nicola Henry is Deputy Director of the Social Equity Research Centre at RMIT University. She is a socio-legal scholar with over 25 years research experience in the gender-based violence field. Her research, focusing on the prevalence, nature and impacts of online and offline sexual abuse, has had a significant impact on law, policy and educational reform in Australia and internationally. Nicola is a member of the Australian Office of the eSafety Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group. She regularly provides advice to technology companies to help shape their policies and practices around sexual violence and harmful online content. She was Expert Advisor on the development of the eSafety Office’s image-based abuse portal as well as the award-winning eSafety Women: Online Training for Frontline Workers.

Nicola's ARC Future Fellowship project (2021-25) examined the role of digital tools, services and platforms for detecting, preventing and responding to image-based sexual abuse. She is leading two Google-funded projects, including one involving a survey on image-based sexual abuse in ten different countries, and the other investigating the prevalence, nature and harms of AI-generated image-based sexual abuse (also known as “deepfake pornography”). She was also a Chief Investigator on several projects on alternative reporting options for sexual assault survivors (led by Prof. Georgina Heydon, RMIT), and is working in collaboration with La Trobe University on a sexual violence prevention project (led by Prof. Leesa Hooker, LTU).

Nicola's books include: War and Rape: Law, Memory and Justice (2011: Routledge); Preventing Sexual Violence: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Overcoming a Rape Culture (2014: Palgrave Macmillan; co-edited with A. Powell); Rape Justice: Beyond the Criminal Law (2015: Palgrave Macmillan; co-edited with A. Powell & A. Flynn); Sexual Violence in a Digital Age (2017: Palgrave Macmillan; co-authored with A. Powell); Image-Based Sexual Abuse: A Study of the Causes and Consequences of Non-Consensual Nude or Sexual Imagery (2021: Routledge; co-authored with C. McGlynn, A. Flynn, K. Johnson, A. Powell & A. Scott); and The Emerald Handbook on Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse (2021: Emerald; co-edited with J. Bailey & A. Flynn). She has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior, Violence Against Women, Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, Gender & Society, and The Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Nicola completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in Criminology in 2005; a Masters of Arts in Political Science in 2000; and a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Hons) in 1997.

Georgina Heydon is a Professor in Criminology and Justice Studies, and a forensic linguist. She was the 2025 recipient of the RMIT University Award for Research Engagement and Impact (Open Category) for her work on alternative reporting mechanisms for sexaual violence offences (see www.alternativereportingproject.com)

In 2005, Professor Georgina Heydon published the first monograph to analyse the language of police interviewing in Australia from a linguistic and discourse analytic perspective. Her foundational work on the linguistic structures of police interviews and moral frameworks in questioning provides new insights into investigative interviewing by revealing the language strategies used by police and suspects to construct evidentiary narratives. Over the last twenty years, her research has contributed a new level of detail to the analysis of legal-societal issues in policing by focusing on the discursive phenomena that underlie testimonial integrity, methods of detecting deception, formality and the right to silence.

Georgina has applied her expertise in investigative interviewing to the context of anonymous and confidential reporting options for victim-survivors of sexual violence and she is the Lead Chief Investigator on a series of major research projects investigating the use of alternative mechanisms for reporting sexual violence, including a Criminology Research Grants project examining the use of anonymous and confidential reporting of sexual assault and the use of these reports by police in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, a Victorian Government project examining an online reporting portal proposal and a Scoping Study for the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department on alternative reporting Australia-wide. This work has resulted in recommendations to provide alternative reporting pathways from the Victorian law Reform Commission and the South Australia Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. 

Throughout her career, Georgina has examined questioning procedures across a broad range of contexts, including tribunals, courtrooms and the media. She believes that there is much to be learned from the extensive research underlying modern police interviewing training, and that these insights can help to improve questioning practices in other contexts. She is particularly interested in improving practices for eliciting information from vulnerable members of the community (e.g. victim survivors of sexual assault, refugees) and in providing basic interviewing training for police in post-conflict and post-colonial regions. As a linguist, she hopes to expand best practice cognitive interviewing methods to operate effectively in multi-lingual and multi-ethnic communities.

Georgina is a Past President of the International Association of Forensic Linguists (http://www.iafl.org/) , a member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (https://www.iiirg.org/) and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and she was a co-convenor of the Gendered Violence and Abuse Research Alliance in GUSS. (https://gevara.net.au/) 

Georgina is also the Lead Chief Investigator on a Legal Services Board grant with Professor Bronwyn Naylor (GSBL, RMIT University) and Stan Winford (Centre for Innovative Justice) in partnership with Woor Dungin Aboriginal organisation to investigate the impact of criminal record checking on Aboriginal employment in Victoria. This follows similar research in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

From 2009–2013, Georgina was a chief investigator with Prof Bronwyn Naylor, Prof Marilyn Pittard and Dr Moira Paterson (Law Faculty, Monash University) on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project 'Living Down the Past' (LP0990348 2009–2012) that examines the impact of police record checking by employers on ex-offenders and their rehabilitation. Earlier work on the project received funding through the Law Services Board Small Grants Scheme.

Industry Experience:
Professor Heydon provides expert testimony in cases involving language analysis, including authorship of documents and trademark disputes.  She regularly provides expert forensic evidence (reports and court testimony) in court cases and police investigations in Australia.

She has designed and delivered programs of investigative interviewing training for the Australian Federal Police, South Australia Police, the European Police College and police academies in Canada, Belgium, Sweden, the Philippines, Mozambique, South Africa and Indonesia, as well as interviewing and language training sessions for the National Judicial College of Australia, the Judicial College of Victoria, the Victorian Law Institute and the Refugee and Migration Tribunals (Australia).

Media experience:
Prof Georgina Heydon is an expert in police interviewing, language use and forensic linguistics. She has been interviewed many times for radio and print news stories and has appeared as a guest speaker on ABC and SBS TV and Channel 31's Life of Crime programme. She has been a guest panel member at the Melbourne International Writers' festival, the Sisters in Crime Law Week Conversations evening and many industry events.