School-based Researchers

Charles Barbour is an Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and a school-based member of the Institute. His research falls into two broad fields: Marx and Marxism, and especially the intellectual history of the young Marx and his contemporaries; contemporary social and political theory, with a particular emphasis on questions of secrecy and deception.

Alison’s researches the differing roles graphic design plays in the mediation, construction and communication of everyday life. Alison often uses creative methods and has developed innovative interdisciplinary geo/graphic methodologies drawing on graphic design, cultural geography and anthropology.

Brett M. Bennett is an Associate Professor in Modern History in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. He investigates how the interaction of human actions and natural processes created contemporary ecosystems, scientific ideas, and conservation policies.

Dr Hart Cohen is Professor in Media Arts in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and a member of the Institute for Cultural and Society and the Digital Humanities Research Group at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Hart's research focus is Visual Communications, Indigenous Media and Digital Cultural Heritage.

Associate Professor David R. Cole, Centre for Educational Research, focuses on the inter-linked areas of globalisation, critical thinking, literacies, the philosophy of education, and the work of Gilles Deleuze.

Professor Ann Dadich, School of Business, is a registered psychologist, a full member of the Australian Psychological Society, and a Justice of the Peace in New South Wales. Ann's research focus is health service management, notably knowledge translation.

Associate Professor Youqing Fan, School of Business. Driven by the value of accountability, the key focus of his research is to address the inquiry that: how business and management can be done in a way that is accountable to the broader society and to nature?

Dr Beatriz Garcia is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law. Prior to WSU, she has worked for Forests Alive, a carbon markets company based in Sydney, and also for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. She is also a Nationally Accredited Mediator.

Dr Garrido is a senior lecturer within the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. He is a bassist, composer and producer who has worked with some of Australia’s top musicians. Dr Garrido has produced two solo albums, Dejame Tocarte (Sony) and Loco (Festival/Mushroom).

Dr Sheree Gregory is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resources and Management at the School of Business, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, supervising higher degree candidates, and mentoring early career researchers.

Associate Professor Stephen Healy's research has concentrated on the relationship between economy, subjectivity and the enactment of new econo-socialities exploring various topics: health care reform policy, cooperative and regional development, and the solidarity economy movement.

Professor Kate Huppatz is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University and a School-based member of the Institute for Culture and Society. Her research explores the relations between gender, social class, occupations and mothering.

Associate Professor Jorge Knijnik is Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Research and member of the School of Education. He researches positive youth development health and wellbeing promotion programs; gender equity in sports and education; sport, globalisation and society; critical pedagogy; and sports, media and fandom.

Dr Alana Lentin is a Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis at Western Sydney University within the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. Alana works on the critical theorization of race, racism and antiracism.

Dr Thomas Longden is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University. His work on energy and technological change has been published in leading international journals (including Nature Energy, Climatic Change, Energy,

His current research investigates how AI works across different scales of human subjectivity, social stratification and geopolitical organisation. He has contributed to studies of intersectional bias and cultural understandings of AI, and techniques for analysing AI via interviews, media analysis and code experiments.

George Morgan is a school based member from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. George's research interests range from urban studies to Aboriginality and post-colonialism, to youth and precarious labour, to the politics of moral panics.

Nicky Morrison is Professor of Planning and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. She is a leading academic authority on overcoming barriers to securing affordable housing through the planning system and ways to deliver sustainable communities and inclusive growth through participatory planning practices.

Dr Nicholas Ng is an ethnomusicologist and musician specialising in Australia-China musical exchange. Nicholas researches Chinese music in diaspora, particularly in Australia from pre-Federation to contemporary times. At WSU, his main research project documents the lives of Australian-Chinese musicians.

Associate Professor Nicholas directs the genders and sexualities research grouping at WSU. Their research has two streams: gender and sexual diversity including non-binary and queer ethics; and men and masculinsm, including men's use of violence, its intersection with radicalisation, anti-feminism backlash and men's behaviour change

Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, where he specializes in Resilient Construction and Infrastructure. His research interests encompass a wide range of topics, including smart materials and structures, resilience-based design, artificial intelligence, modular construction, and digital twins in construction.

Tanya Notley is from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts. Her recent and ongoing research projects examine young people and media literacy, adults and media literacy, young people and news media, misinformation on social media, the relationship between digital and social inclusion, media representation, the politics embedded in digital media infrastructures and emotion mapping.

Dr Joanne Orlando, School of Education, researches in the areas of technology, education, children, and digital culture. Joanne takes an informed and positive position to consider: the potential of technology to enhance learning, shifting knowledge in the digital era, understanding digital family life, the impact of digital on childhood.

Neil is an Associate Professor in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. He specialises in progressive economics approaches to environmental economics and policy and in ecological economics, an interdisciplinary field of research emphasising the interdependence of economic and ecological values.

Melissa is a practitioner-academic (pracademic) who has previously worked for the United Nations and for international NGOs in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa (Kenya and Ethiopia), Libya and the Middle East. She has also worked with asylum seekers in immigration detention in Australia and managed a refugee resettlement project.

Emma Power is an Associate Professor at the Institute. Emma’s programme of research is concerned with urban living and the politics of care. It envisions a world of more caring and just cities, asking how cities can better support human life and the practice of care through studies of housing systems and governance, urban planning and cultures of home.

Dr Quah Ee Ling (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Culture and Society, School of Humanities and Communication Arts. She is a fire dragon feminist. Ee Ling's research draws from decolonial, transnational and intersectional feminist perspectives and centres around community-based research, inequalities and social justice.

Juan is a researcher, author and videographer who engages with communities and places where the environmental and cultural challenges of living sustainably are starkly exposed. His work explores the coupled dynamics of social-ecological change and is underpinned by a collaborative ethos across the arts, artists, science and activism.

Associate Professor Pejman Sharafi is the head of the Modular Prefab Design Laboratory (MPD-Lab) and a principal research academic in the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering (CIE) and Urban Transformation Research Centre (UTRC).

Karen Soldatic is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences and an ICS Institute Fellow. Karen's research on global welfare regimes builds upon her 20 years' experience as an international, national and state based senior policy analyst and practitioner. Karen is on leave from Western until 2026.

Corrinne Sullivan is an Aboriginal scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West of New South Wales. She is a Professor in Human Geography, and the Associate Dean (Indigenous Education) in the School of Social Sciences. Her research interests are multi-disciplinary and focus broadly on experiences and effects of body and identity in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Professor Dimitris Vardoulakis works on political, social and cultural philosophy. His is primarily interested in how materialist philosophy conceives democracy and sovereignty, with a particular focus on conceptions of technology.

Megan Watkins is Professor in the School of Education and Institute Fellow at the ICS. Her research interests lie in the cultural analysis of education and the formation of human subjectivities. In particular, her work engages with issues of pedagogy, embodiment, discipline and affect and the interrelation of these to human agency.

Dr Vanita Yadav is a Senior Research Fellow (Senior Lecturer- Research) at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University. She specialises in Sustainable Business Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Innovation Strategy and Business Model Innovation.