Dr Lareen Newman

Bachelor of Arts (Honours Geography)
PhD by Research in Humanities and Social Sciences

Prizes awarded in the Bachelor of Arts:

• The John Lewis prize for Geography
• The Charles Fenner prize for Geography
• The Archibald Grenfell Price prize in Geography
• The Graham Lawton prize for Geography

After working as a bilingual secretary in London merchant banks, in my late 20s I felt ready to change career track and follow my other great interest of Geography. I went to the University of Adelaide and majored in Geography (with some Mandarin studies just to keep the language interest!). After completing my Bachelor of Arts, I worked with the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Adelaide, starting as a Graduate Assistant and working up to first-level supervisor. The Bachelor of Arts had given me statistical and analytical skills relevant to the work that ABS does.

I worked at the ABS for six years, during which time I took three periods of maternity leave to have my three children. Whilst on maternity leave I put a lot of energy into my local mothering and parenting groups, which eventually led to me becoming an active consumer advocate to improve maternity services. I also wrote my first book, a book on birth for the general public, and was amazed to find it instantly selling nationally through Dymocks.

When faced with returning to work after my third session of maternity leave, I decided that I really wanted to be involved in cutting edge research in my new area of interest, which was parenting and family size. I went on to complete my PhD thesis: 'Explaining Fertility and Family Size in Contemporary Australia' with an APA scholarship, part-time over four years. Being able to take the candidature and scholarship part-time meant I could combine my research with parenting my young children, which was important to me.

Near completion of my PhD, I became interested in working for the Department of Public Health at Flinders University, as some of the work they had published overlapped with my research interests. A position as a research fellow in their new Australian Health Inequities Program was advertised and after applying I was eventually the successful candidate.

I have worked on three projects since starting my position in April 2006. First, I have been using my research skills and knowledge of health to analyse policy documents from each health department around Australia to write a summary document on what they are doing to addresshealth inequities. Secondly, I am involved in conducting and analysing qualitative interviews with redundant workers and their families to find out what health effects there are on individuals and regions from the increasing globalisation of the South Australian manufacturing industry. Thirdly, I drew on my previous work experience as an administrator (prior to the PhD) to organise a one-day conference for 170 people about multi-disciplinary research on health inequities.