Postgraduate Studies in Gender Studies and Social Analysis

Where are they now?  Great news from former students.
Current postgraduate research topics
Recently completed theses
Who to contact

The discipline has an active postgraduate body of students, making our postgraduate seminars a lively exchange of ideas. We have been able to provide a workstation for each postgraduate student who has needed it.  New research focuses for the discipline in which postgraduate students will be invited to participate are:

• Neoliberalism and its impact on women
• Work, communities and social change
• Colonialism , post-colonialism, gender and whiteness
• Health and gender (including masculinities and social theory in relation to health, illness and healing)
• Critical obesity studies

Apart from the faculty's structured program, we also provide seminars to new and continuing Ph.D. students on topics such as:

• ‘Being a Ph D student': Discussion about time organisation, planning
• Developing your Research Proposal
• Finding your voice
• 'Maintaining momentum at the road blocks'
• 'Presenting a seminar'
• Ethical issues
• Getting published
• A writing workshop
• Chairing a seminar and being part of a conference panel
• ‘The Next Steps' (after the Ph.D. for example preparing a c.v., applying for jobs, applying for postdoctoral fellowships)

Students are also provided with support for their research, for example to give papers at conferences or to travel interstate or overseas for research purposes.

Where are they now? 

Dr Janette Hancock -
Senior Manager, Organisational Development UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide

'Gender Studies and Social Analysis, I believe, offers a fantastic environment for scholars to ‘think outside the square’ and explore research topics that have impact beyond the university walls. As an undergraduate, postgraduate, Tutor and Online Instructor in GSSA for 8 years I found it to be a great space for innovative and reflective thinking. It was this environment, and the wonderful support of Professor Margaret Allen, which influenced my decision to undertake my Honours at GSSA in 2001 and subsequently my PhD, which was awarded in May 2007.

The skills, knowledge and friendships I developed while at GSSA have been invaluable and have enabled me to achieve more than I would have thought possible.' 

Dr Jessie Gunson -
Research Fellow, Gender Studies and Social Analysis

'After studying Sociology in the UK I moved to Adelaide to do my PhD in Gender Studies and Social Analysis from 2003 to 2006. I studied the ways in which menstrual suppression was discursively constructed through public debates about extended cycle oral contraception. The collegial support throughout my PhD was great; I was lucky enough to find lifelong friends among my peers and drew inspiration from the research and teaching of the GSSA staff. The interdisciplinary nature of GSSA helped me to develop a strong sense of how my own interests in Sociology and Gender Studies sit in relation to the broader context of the Social Sciences. 

Greg Ogle -
Senior Policy & Research Officer, SACOSS

Former Legal Co-ordinator of The Wilderness Society and PhD in Gender Studies and Social Analysis; Greg says: 'The analysis which underpinned my thesis continues to influence my approach to my work - both in terms of dealing with governments, organisations and people, as well as in my theory and practice of social change. My environmental and legal work continues on the same principles of social analysis - that research and learning should make a difference in the real world.'                       

Current Postgraduate Research Topics

Tara Bates    The effects of weight gain on women after taking antipsychotic medication

Karina Bria    Prevalence of Postnatal Depression in New Fathers

Kanchana Bulumulle   Gender Dynamics of Career Mobility Among Women Academics in Sri Lanka

Anne Burger    Resource Policy in neo-liberal times:electricity in Ashlu Canyon,British Columbia and water for mining at Olympic Dam,South Australia

Jennifer Caruso   A Study of Aboriginal Responses to the 1967 Referendum

Thomas Cole    Organisational Change Processes: A Study of Australian Football League Clubs

Damian Creaser   Masculinities,Mood and Finitude:A Phenomenology of Coronary By-Pass Surgery

Helen Ewart    Gender in 19th Century Australian Rural Towns

Sharyn  Goudie  Creating better pathways for young people experiencing homelesness through sustainable accomodation and support program models

Nadine Levy Relating, Being and Knowing: Visions of Mutual Support and Connection Women's Lives

Connie Musolino Desire and Denial: why do people with eating disorders delay seeking treatment

Ruthie O’Reilly    An Investigation of the Meaning of 'Solo Living' for Concepts of Intimacy and Connectedness

Jillian Schedneck     Gender, Modernity and Nationalism in the United Arab Emirates

Kirsty Whitman    Masculinity, Class and Australian Popular Culture

Gabriella Zizzo   Breast Milk Banks

Recently completed PhDs (since 2006)

Jane Andrew  Beyond the creative fix: Towards an understanding of creativity's place in South Australia's economic development agenda

Clare Bartholomaeus  (joint with Politics) Rethinking Masculinities and Young Age: Primary school students constructing gender

Penelope Eate Walking wounded: Cinematic representations of masculine,post-modern anxiety in the urban space 

Pauline McLoughlin Tenuous guests: Couch surfing through homelessness in the lives of Australian Youth 

Kathyrn Davidson   Monitoring Systems for Sustainability: What are they Measuring?

Keri Chiveralls  Exploring the Missing Links: A Critical Inquiry into the Role of Social Capital in Australian Regional Development

Ros Averis  Averting the Crisis - or Avoiding the Compromise? A Regulation Approach to Social Inclusion Policies and Practices in the Australian Context.

Pam Papadelos   Derridean Deconstruction and Feminism: Exploring Aporias in Feminist Theory and Practice

Alia Imtoual   ‘Taking things personally': young Muslim women in South Australia discuss identity, religious racism and media representations

Janette Hancock   A Not So Innocent Vision: Re-Visiting the Literary Works of Ellen Liston, Jane Sarah Doudy and Myrtle Rose White (1838-1961).

Jesica Gunson   The Trouble With White Pants: Medicalisation and Agency in the Context of Menstrual Suppression

Lareen Newman   Images and Impacts of Parenthood. Explaining Fertility and Family Size in Contemporary Australia.

Anne Morris  Optimising the "spaces in-between": The maternal alienation project and the politics of gender in macro and micro contexts.

Sally Gibson  Creating Controversy: Sex Education and the Christian Right in South Australia.   

Toni Delany   To entrap and empower: Maternal responsibility in an age of neoliberal health

Contact

For further details on postgraduate study please contact:

Dr Megan Warin
Postgraduate co-ordinator
Tel: +61 8 8313 4864.
Email: megan.warin@adelaide.edu.au

And/or Ryan Cortazzo 
Discipline administrator

Tel: +61 8 8313 3737
Email: ryan.cortazzo@adelaide.edu.au