About the Doctoral Academy
Melbourne Social Equity Institute’s pioneering Doctoral Academy enhances the experience of advanced research training and aids post PhD pathways.
In September 2025 the Doctoral Academy was relaunched as a year-round program. The revitalised Doctoral Academy is open to PhD students from across the University of Melbourne researching social equity issues. It also incorporates the Institute’s highly successful interdisciplinary PhD Program in Migration, Statelessness and Refugee Studies, which ran from 2017 to 2025.
The Doctoral Academy aims to support students through peer-learning opportunities and mentoring from experienced academics. Participation in the Academy enriches the PhD experience by creating a strong cohort and intellectual community.
Membership of the academy will expose doctoral students to different disciplinary perspectives and research methodologies that can inform the development of their own research.
Photo: The Doctoral Academy Welcome Event in September 2025
Program
Masterclasses, workshops and seminars will include a focus on ethics, research methods, approaches for communicating research to diverse audiences across and beyond the academy and developing post-doctoral pathways.
Semester 1, 2026 activities include:
Shut Up and Write
Run every two weeks, these focused writing sessions are a great way to beat procrastination and to meet other graduate researchers
Practising Decolonial Community Engaged Research
12.00pm – 1.30pm, Wednesday 25 February
This workshop with Associate Professor Liz Dean will begin with an introduction to decolonial methods, followed by activities and discussion.
Researcher Positionality and Reflexivity
2.00pm – 3.30pm, Wednesday 25 March
How can we navigate and meaningfully understand research relations, power, and ourselves as researchers for social equity?
Accessible Research Dissemination
12.30pm – 2.00pm, Monday 4 May
Hear from our Doctoral Academy members Bella Choo and John Cruz, as well as the wonderful Heidi Peart, in this interactive workshop on accessible research dissemination.
Left Write Hook Film Screening and Q&A: Across Research and Practice
2.00pm – 4.30pm, Thursday 21 May
Associate Professor Donna Lyon is an award-winning film producer, academic, and the Founder and CEO of Left Write Hook, a national charity delivering research-informed expressive writing and trauma-informed boxing programs for survivors of child sexual abuse and gendered violence.
It truly felt like home meeting people at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute Doctoral Academy. I feel like I’ve found a community where I can listen, be heard, and belong. Reihaneh Moniri, PhD Candidate, Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing
Eligibility
To be eligible to join the Doctoral Academy, students must have at least one supervisor based at the University of Melbourne and be undertaking doctoral research on a topic that relates to social equity.
Doctoral Academy members remain enrolled in their current faculties. The program is designed to support the PhD experience and timely completion of a PhD remains the priority.
Participants can join the program at any time during their candidature and remain part of the program until the completion of their doctoral studies.
If you are not a current student at the University of Melbourne and would like information about how to apply to undertake a PhD at the University, please visit the Future Students website.
Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis and early completion of the application form is encouraged.
Melbourne Social Equity Institute's Doctoral Academy has been a highlight of my candidature thus far and offered a uniquely enlivening opportunity to connect with peers and colleagues across faculty and disciplinary divides. It is a testament to all involved that, speaking frankly about the injustices faced by communities and the challenges for sustaining socially responsible and community-engaged research, I left our time together nourished, motivated, and eager to continue our conversations. Alan Bechaz, PhD Candidate, School of Languages and Linguistics
Current Members
Caleb Adams
Understanding and unlocking financial capital: empowering First Nations leadership in and for a green economy
Roger Rofiq Ul Alam
Exploring men’s understanding of and attitudes to intimate partner violence in Rohingya communities in Australia
Kathi Ammann
On the future of the past - colonial echoes and premature Black death in the wake of German memory culture
Nida Anees
Navigating borders and bodies
Senza Arsendy
Learning to labour: school-to-work transitions of working-class youth in Indonesia
Sana Ashraf
Silence behind the locked doors: a qualitative study on the domestic violence experiences of Pakistani married immigrant women in Australia
Bekele Molla Ayele
Navigating and adapting cultural parenting beliefs and practices: the experience of Ethiopian parents in Melbourne
Humberto Barrera-Jimenez
Investigation on the effects of road pricing on road safety
Jasmine Barrett
Disability in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea: political narratives and social inclusion
Eroni Batikawai
Evolving housing dynamics and housing capabilities in Fiji
Eyayu Bayu
Inclusion of persons with disabilities in higher education in Ethiopia: lessons from Australian universities and Indigenous communities
Alan Bechaz
Talking about mental health and wellbeing in multilingual and transcultural contexts: a collaborative case study with members of communities from Afghanistan
Jane Beilby
Exploring Indigenous-settler political relations through ‘Indigenous Justice Agreements’
Chethna Ben
Exile at home: informal housing access and adaptation in coastal areas
Zhenya Bourova
‘Fair in all the circumstances’ and the dynamics of coercive control: strengths and limitations of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority in responding to coerced debt
Kate Bradley
The commercial determinants of health and aged care
Symon Braun Freck
Designing death differently: technology, ethnography, and end-of-life autonomy
Amarens Breteler
Sexual extractivism: the global political economy of congregational prostitution in post-conflict societies
Megan Brodie
The gendered dynamics of household debt and wellbeing in Australia
Joanna Brooke
Singing as collective care: the design, creative process and value of group experiences of improvised vocal expression
Nell Butler
The collective lie: understanding media contributions to genocide
Sarah Chang
Meant for good: spiritual abuse and misuse of power in religious settings within Australia
Ishika Chatterjee
‘Staking a claim’: refugee resistance and state violence in the India-Bangladesh borderlands
Jane Chen
Pragmatic ambition: the Institutional life of intersectionality in the Victorian public service
Carol Christophersen
Returning the gaze: An investigation of collection and repatriation of ancestral human remains in the Northern Territory: 1965 – the present
Libby Dai
Health system responses to partner violence in intimate relationships between women
Elahe Derakhshan
Suicide bereavement experiences and support needs of Muslim suicide loss survivors and individuals with an Islamic cultural background living in Australia
Ally Drinkwater
A different kind of ‘present’: The gift of perspective and insight from children and young people with disability who are absent from school
April Edwards
Understanding how Master of Teaching students’ lived experiences shape how they interpret culturally responsive pedagogies
Bernadette Egan
Human rights and the built environment
Megg Evans
Domestic resilience: psycho-spatial narratives of solo mother-headed homes
Prasakti Ramadhana Fahadi
Reconfiguring resistance: histories and practices of digital activism against gender-based violence in Indonesia
Dorsa Fatourehchi
Leveraging students’ experiences and perceptions in purpose-built student accommodation in Melbourne
Kat Ferrer
Exploring institutional enablers and barriers affecting implementation of the itinerant teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing service in general education settings
Jesse Franklin
Conceptualising the meaning(s) of school-belonging to students interested in autism and neurodiversity, and exploring processes to establish their voice to co-design school-based supports
Sandra Olivia Frans
Looking at experiences of Indonesian midwives in providing cervical screening using health systems dynamic framework
Shambel Desale Gashaw
Bringing women survivors of sexual violence to the community: exploring community attitudes, social and mental health challenges and recovery mechanisms in northern Ethiopian conflict settings
Nicole Gatt
Fostering student connectedness: developing and developing a music-based intervention to foster international students' social connection
Monal Gera
Gender variant identities and the Indian criminal justice system
Ramin Ghasemishaya
MR-derived measures of glymphatic function in prediction of secondary neurodegeneration in stroke
Aurora Greane
Transforming engineering education with threshold learning in First Nations Australian engineering
Jack Greig
Becoming a trauma-informed school leader: exploring school leaders’ experiences of trauma-informed whole school change
Olivia Hally
Does artists really have to struggle? The political feasibility of a basic income policy for artists in Australia
Ambrin Hasnain
Examining colonial histories and imagining decolonial futures through video games
Anila Hasnain
Spatial practices of belonging, placemaking and community-building in ‘ethnic’ shops: a comparative analysis of Melbourne’s and Frankfurt’s Pakistani diasporas
Jessica Haugh
Exploring institutional enablers and barriers affecting implementation of the itinerant teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing service in general education settings
Ellen Hodgson
Kinship beyond occupied states: film as a vessel for Anishinaabe philosophies in land rematriation
Jet Hodgson
Transgressing the binary: Centring trans knowledges for equity in engineering education
Sophia Htwe
The missing peace: Understanding the role and potential of local civil society actors in Myanmar's Rakhine State Conflict
Yantong Huang
A criticism of techno-Orientalism and its cultural phenomena
Seid Hassen Hussien
Indigenous healings and peace building efforts in Ethiopia: re-integration of survivors and offenders
Lakhte Hyder
People, place and progress: mitigating social impact of foreign direct investment in cities
Clare Iacono
Instruction in metacognition and self-regulated learning to improve spelling skills in students in the middle primary school years with literacy learning difficulties
Luke Ingram
Communicating the Autistic voice in drama activities
Amna Iqbal
Poetic perspectives: crossing borders, blurring lines
Hrishika Jain
Critiquing constitutions as legalist texts
Sandi James
Harm and adverse experiences from eating disorder treament
Farzaneh Janakipour
Measuring the well-being of households living in social housing in Australia
Sara Javadian
Co-developing a mindfulness-based art intervention with and for children from migrant and refugee backgrounds
Amodini Jayawardena
Journeying towards a praxis of cultural reflexivity through self-identity exploration in music therapy
Zeqing Jiang
Social norms and human capital accumulation
Hongyu Jin
Fair and efficient large language model for healthcare
Ally Joseph
The causes and consequences of barriers for women with complex drug and alcohol issues accessing care: the nexus between harm reduction and reproductive justice
Kenneth Juma
Assessing the quality of post-abortion care: analysis of health system capacity and patient experiences in Africa
Chitrangi Kakoti
Women’s stories as counter-narratives: building feminist digital archives against sexual violence in India
Gagandeep Kaur
Impact of access to oral healthcare on social inequalities in oral health outcomes among working age Australians
Nicole Kinnane
Creating a contemporary evidence-informed and consumer co-designed follow-up pathway plan for people with high-intermediate and high-risk endometrial cancer
Nathasha Kugenthiran
Exploring the application of implementation science in diabetes research to improve equity in outcomes
Brianna Lee
Rethinking independence in the transition to adulthood for young adults with neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-designed study
Robert Lees
Sustainable livelihoods: Infrastructure as an enabler of alternative economies in remote settlements
Kinkino Legide
The constitutional promise and politics of self-determination in Ethiopia: a comparative study
Alex Li
Understanding the impact of sports on Asian international students’ social integration
Luo Li
Quantifying wellbeing for adolescents globally
Longqi Lin
What would make her walk more? Factors influencing modal shifts from and to walking
Devi Lir
The dangerous erotic on film: ecstatic viewing and queer actualisation
Chi Liu
Developing digital cultural heritage practices with Olkola people through an Indigenous-led participatory process
Ana Machado Colling
Exploring and evaluating the potential of new and emerging integrated models of HPV self-collection cervical screening in Australia to increase equity.
Rassela Malinda
Fictitious commodification of land and labor among Indigenous people in West Papua: understanding capitalist transformations from below
Hanna Manoilenko
The continuing relevance of the “Women, Peace and security” agenda? The rescaling struggle in wartime Ukraine
Camilla Mattaliano Belforti
Who cares? Migrant women’s experiences of microaggressions in the Australian care sector
Jemima McKenna
Making sense of irregular migration governance: relations of domination within third-state externalisation?
Monique McLellan
Makeshift meaning: How translation, captioning and audio description transform the messageMakeshift meaning: How translation, captioning and audio description transform the message
Tara Meadows
Understanding Indigenous identities and experiences through their relationship with prison education and labour
Melak Menberu
Suicide prevention through a faith-based approach in Ethiopia
Jude Merric-John
Mothering, mentoring, and the intimate entanglements that (re)produce trans femininity
Norfiza Mohd Zali
'Learning don't just take place in schools': critical pedagogies of student and teacher activists of colour
Gouri Mondal
The efectiveness of extreme poverty reduction measures: the ‘graduation approach’ in Bangladesh fisheries
Reihaneh Moniri
Implementation of responsible suicide reporting in low- and middle-income countries
Kayla Morgan
How does queerness impact on music performance anxiety?
Jack Muir
Facilitating political dialogue: Philosophy for children pedagogies in Australian secondary classrooms
Charan Naidoo
Young people in elite professional service firms in Australia: Who gets in? Who gets on?
Nasalifya Namwinga
The role of AI in supporting burnout in culturally responsive practitioners
Noushin Nazarian
Digital health empowerment to support healthy aging
Shannon Nolan
The role of Aboriginal community controlled health organisations in supporting children with intellectual and other developmental disability
Fleur O'Hare
Meeting access and inclusion needs: the MAIN project enhancing accessibility and acceptability in the informed consent process for clinical research using an implementation science approach
Yue Pan
Developing and evaluating a life crafting intervention to promote meaning in life and wellbeing of Chinese older adults
Laura Aurelia Raicu
Dealing with the effects of past violent conflict to support social healing and peacebuilding in Papua New Guinea
Stephanie Pecora-Burne
Supporting survivors: responding to sexual harm in schools
Nathalie Parry
Understanding and assessing early numerical competencies
Davor Petreski
Student data cooperatives: an alternative approach for ownership, sharing, and managing learner data in higher education
Sonia Pranatha
Understanding the role of migration experiences on Southeast Asian immigrant early childhood teachers' professional identities and career decisions
Daniel Prichard
Rights through their eyes: a child-centred approach to assessing and envisioning children’s rights
Bonny Ross
Understanding engineering identity as part of an intersectional approach to marginalised student retention
Justine Sakurai
Values in numeracy
Gayathri Sandarekha
Designing for equity: redesigning tools to improve makerspace access and participation
Melanie Scammell
Changing the screen story: a screenwriting framework for addressing gender-based violence (creative work and dissertation)
Lydie Schmidt
Disability law at a critical juncture: Aotearoa New Zealand legal capacity law reform
Cassandra Seery
Unsettling epistemologies in Australian legal education: protocols for the decolonisation of curriculum in Australian law schools
Zunaira Shafiq
Online hate speech discourse in Pakistan
Eleanor Hui-Reng Shao
Immersive participatory experiences increasing collective action towards decarbonisation and social equity
Ashjayeen Sharif
Gentrification without gentrifiers? Young adults, sharehousing and neighbourhood change
Ashleigh Shipton
Looking back to move forward: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and policy responses on maternal and child health and developmental outcomes in Victoria, Australia
Marali Singaraju
Community, gender, and disease: a mixed-methods One Health study of malaria susceptibility among women in Thailand
Katyayani Sinha
Relational contracts and dispute resolution in the polyamorous and kink communities in India
Yen Siow
Expanding digital access and equity for displaced learners in Malaysia through non-formal education
Marya Yenita Sitohang
Male partner involvement in preventing perinatal HIV transmission
Ana Paula Soares Müller
Defining accessibility metrics for equitable and inclusive micromobility: an approach based on needs and capabilities
Haruna Suzuki
Bordered feelings: critical exploration of the emotional governance of migrants in Japan and Australia
Sara Taha
The lived experience of Muslim migrant women with gynaecological cancer: Insights into mental health, psychosocial wellbeing, and oncology social work interventions
Gemma Tarpey-Brown
Women’s experiences of temporary labour migration between Australia, Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste: Exploring transnational health, social & relationship impacts
Megan Thompson
The role of teacher professional associations in mediating truth-telling and decolonial knowledge in Australian education
Kyaw Thu Hein
Healthcare service access and lived experiences of Myanmar migrants in Thailand
Caleb Triscari
Exploring the possibilities and limits of other-gender friendships as a mode for gender transformative change
Carrie Van Rensburg
Using a reproductive justice framework to develop an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care in Australia
Kavindi Walpita Gamage
The inflammatory mediators underpinning socioeconomic inequalities in childhood cardiovascular health measures
Sarah Walmsley
Exploring inequities in cervical screening, HPV vaccination and cervical cancer incidence and mortality for people with disability using data from Australia’s Person Level Integrated Data Asset
Guanyu Wang
Digital journeys of Asian international students: examining their use of digital platforms to support wellbeing
Eli Ward-Smith
Effects of low-dose testosterone on mental and physical health outcomes in non-binary individuals
Nadishka Weerasuriya
Stories of interstitial lives: the hybrid identities, (multi)literacies and experiences of (un)belonging of first-generation Sri Lankan migrants in Australia
Alice Wighton
Anticolonial work within, against, and beyond Australian universities in times of genocide
Georgina Williams
Cross-cultural contextual considerations for perinatal singing in Australia
Jan Wisniewski
Dialling down the gas in a just and equitable way: a study of residential gas phase out in Australia
Arden Wong
The impact of gender-affirming hormones on cardiac health and fitness in transgender adults
Yifan Xie
Transition of Chinese engineering students in Australia into the Australian professional engineering workplace
Bohan Yang
Student agency in higher education: Chinese students’ self-formation in the context of social inequality
Rhomir Yanquiling
Politics, hydraulics and water flow: the afterlife of dams in the northern Philippines
Lu Ye
Family relationships and mental health of young people with disability
Dana Young
Social capital development for migrant background women via sports participation in Australia
Edward Zhang
Socioeconomically disadvantaged Chinese international students’ motivation, aspiration, and transition in Australian universities
Xiaoyi Zhang
Linguistic citizenship of young Malaysian Chinese migrants in Australia
Xinyi Zhang
Exploring the neural rorrelates of binge eating with MRI
Yuhang Jasmine Zhang
Identifying adaptations required to facilitate patients from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to participate in primary care-based cancer clinical trials.
Alice Yukangran Zhao
From procurement reform to professional inclusion: rewriting public sector incentives for disability equity in engineering
Noha Khalaf
From "demand-drive" to "job ready": discursive reconfigurations of Australian public universities' national contributions
The Doctoral Academy was truly eye-opening for me. The most inspiring thing was the diversity of ideas and experiences that I was exposed to. Davor Petreski, PhD Candidate, School of Computing and Information Systems
Enquiries
Please direct any questions regarding the relaunched Doctoral Academy to:
Dr Meg Lee
Academic Convenor
meg.lee@unimelb.edu.au
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