Research Students

A higher degree by research is a way of exploring health inequalities in greater depth.

Students may also wish to undertake a PhD focusing on public health issues.

Our Senior Research Fellows are available for PhD supervision.

More information on undertaking a graduate research degree at the University of Melbourne is available on the Future Students Website.

Research Students

Dr Rosalind McDougall is a Senior Lecturer in Health Ethics in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She has expertise in philosophical bioethics and qualitative research.

Ros's current research students:

PhD, Cade Shadbolt: Ethics of opioid use after orthopaedic surgery
PhD research project, Robyn Clark: How do paediatric social workers sustain their practice with bereaved families?
PhD, Carol Ong: How do community-based palliative care clinicians experience moral distress?
PhD, David Silkoff: Ethical issues for health practitioners working with marginalised clients with complex needs around alcohol and other drugs.
MPH research project, Chanelle Warton: A systematic review of ethics literature on fertility preservation for transgender young people.

Ros's past research students:

Population Health Honours, Feilian Wang: What are the views of junior Victorian doctors about providing care in hospitals when the voluntary assisted dying legislation comes into effect?
Philosophy Honours, Isabella Holmes: What is the value of genetic kinship?
MD research project, Timothy Lai: Clinicians’ experiences of providing fertility counselling to transgender children and young people.
MD research project, Sarah Dahlgren Allen: The impact of a nurse-led clinic on transgender children’s wellbeing.
MPH research project, Danielle Cody: How, if at all, should doctors consider climate change when caring for patients?
MPH research project, Jessica Snir: Victorian nurses’ expectations of the impact the Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation will have on their practice.

Dr Natalie Jovanovski is a health sociologist, her research has focused specifically on how cultural messages about food are marketed to women, and the way that these messages normalise disordered and restrictive eating behaviours.

Natalie's current research students:

MPH research project, Bridget Parris: Discussion of body weight in academic research about women with PCOS: A qualitative meta-synthesis.
MPH research project, Jacqueline Skott: Science vs Lived Experience: A discourse analysis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome comparing biomedical and social scientific perspectives in peer-reviewed journal articles.
PhD, Robyn Delbridge (external supervision): Representations of diversity in the Australian dietetics community

Professor Janet McCalman, AC, FAHA, FASSA, and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor is an Australian social historian, academic, population researcher and author at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.

Janet's current research students:

PhD, Neville Yeomans: Foreign Doctors in Victoria (with SHAPS)
PhD, Mary Sheehan: The 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic in Victoria (with SHAPS)

Janet's recent past research students:

PhD, Sue Silverberg: ‘A networked community: Jewish Melbourne in the Nineteenth Century’ (with SHAPS). Just published as a monograph by MUP https://www.mup.com.au/authors/sue-silberberg

Dr Bridget Pratt is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. She is also Associate Faculty in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Brigdet's current research students:

MPH research project, Josephine Borthwick How can communities be meaningfully involved when setting research agendas for biomedical and genomic research?
Medical student research project: Natalia Everstz What comprises justice and fairness in data sharing in global health research?

Brigdet's former students:

PhD, Syntia Munung Developing a principles-based framework to link the governance of genomics research and biobanking in Africa to global health justice. (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
MPH research project, Adrian Harper Breaking traditions of neocolonialism in research: What can Aboriginal research ethics teach global health research ethics?
MPH research project Erica Gunadasa Does the “small cutting” approach address the motivations for performing female genital mutilation in the communities to which it is targeted as a harm reduction strategy?
MPH research project, Jessica Snir: Victorian nurses’ expectations of the impact the Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation will have on their practice.
Population Health Honours, Feilian Wang: What are the views of junior Victorian doctors about providing care in hospitals when the voluntary assisted dying legislation comes into effect?

A/Prof Louise Keogh is a health sociologist. Louise specialises in qualitative methodology, risk and technology and her current areas of research include: the decriminalisation of abortion, both intended and untended consequences; the use of genetics in cancer prevention. A new area of research she is currently exploring is the place of conscientious objection in health care, in relation to both abortion and voluntary assisted dying. She has taught into the Master of Public Health since 2010, contributes to a number of undergraduate breadth subjects, coordinates Honours in Population and Global Health and currently co-chairs the Academic Programs Committee of the University.

Louise's current research students:

MPH Research Project student, Elsie Lardner, ‘Understanding the barriers to accessing and providing abortion services in regional areas in Victoria’ - Co-supervising with Hennie Williams
MPH Research Project student, Alice Ghazarian, ‘What are Enhanced Maternal and Child Health nurses' experience of using telepractice (phone and video) to support families during COVID-19?’ – co-supervising with Richard Chenhall
PhD, Alice Kim, Exploring the experience of workplace learning in genomic medicine in Victoria, Australia.
PhD, Georgia Dempster, How is controversial science translated and communicated through mainstream news media in Australia?
PhD, Monika Dryburgh, Sleep, fatigue, illness, and gender: negotiating normative assumptions about sleep.

Co-supervision MSPGH:

PhD, Jessica Franks, Understanding young peoples’ social media detoxes.
PhD, Amie Bingham, Social determinants of sexual health/STIs.
PhD, Alan Woodward, Lifeline Caller Research Study.

Co-supevision external to MSPGH:

PhD, Leanne Griffin, Marketing and management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Understanding How and Why Organisations Implement Pay Secrecy. Submitted July 2020.
PhD, Lubna Meempatta, Engineering, Faculty of Science, Understanding the decision-making by irrigators, irrigation water supply authorities and environmental managers.

Co-supervision external to University of Melbourne:

PhD, Rigmor Johansen, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), Exploration of ethical standards and views on the future use of genetic testing in breast cancer screening programs for participating women and stakeholders.
MPhil, Wanda Cui, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Ovarian Function Endpoints in Breast Cancer.
PhD, Jocelyn Lippey, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, DEFINE – Development and Evaluation of a decision aid to Facilitate decision making about INdividualised breast scrEening based on personalised breast cancer risk.
PhD, Rowan Forbes, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Coming of age with Li-Fraumeni syndrome: perspectives of young people and health professionals. Submitted June 2020.

Past Research supervision:

Master of Mental Health Science student, John Coburn, ‘University allied health students and their lived experience of stress and coping in the final year of their course’.
Master of Social Policy student, Batool Moussa, ‘Quantifying the Reproductive Body: A Critical Analysis of Fertility-Tracking Apps’ – co-supervised with Claire Tanner
Honours student, Casey Haining, Understanding the Reasons Behind Healthcare Providers’ Conscientious Objection to Voluntary Assisted Dying in Victoria, Australia
MPH research project student, Phoebe Saunders, Motivations and Concerns of CPR-Trained Victorians registered for Ambulance Victoria’s GoodSAM platform
Dorothy Wright, PhD, Telling the sexual Health stories of young people experiencing homelessness. Awarded 2015
Sufia Begum, MPhil, Sex workers talk about sex work, Awarded 2009
Catherine Acton, PhD, The impact of traumatic life events on perinatal mental health: a longitudinal Australian cohort study. Awarded 2015
Eunice Bruce, PhD, Periodic presumptive treatment of common curable STIs in Papua New Guinea. Awarded 2010
Judy Gold. PhD, Burnet Institute & Monash University, Methods of communicating health messages. Awarded 2010

Dr Richard Chenhall is Professor in Medical Anthropology and has worked with Indigenous Australian communities around various issues related to the social determinants of health, alcohol and drug misuse and treatment and youth sexual health. In addition, Richard has published in the fields of sensory studies, sleep studies and Japanese alcohol misuse and recovery.

Richard's current research students

Due to submit, 2022. Jessica Franks. Understanding young peoples’ social media detoxes. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Louise Keogh.
Due to submit, 2022. Ratih Pertwi. Understanding the role and place of alcohol consumption amongst young people in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall; Dr Cathy Vaughan, and Prof. Robin Room.
Due to submit, 2021. Shane Harrison. Humanitarian responses to the protection needs of adolescent boys in emergencies. PhD. Dr Cathy Vaughan; Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Karen Block.
Due to submit, 2020. Emily Munro-Harrison, Urban invisibility: Identities of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in urban Victoria. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Cathy Vaughan; Dr Richard Chenhall and Prof. Shaun Ewen.
Due to submit, 2020. David Silkoff, The theories, roles and practices of alcohol and other drug professionals in their encounters with clients with multiple and complex problems in the midst of addiction. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall; Prof. Marilys Guillemin and Dr Rosalind McDougall.
Due to submit, 2020. Daniel Perkins. Health and wellbeing effects associated with the use of ayahuasca tea in ceremonial settings. MPhil. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Robin Room.

Richard's past research students:

Awarded, 2019. Hannah Gould. The Meanings and Materiality of Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan. PhD. Supervisors: Prof. Tammy Kohn and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2019. Naomi Brockenshire. An ethnography of clown doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. PhD. Supervisors: Prof. Fiona Newell; Dr Helen Shoemark and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2019. Rosalind Beadle, How do Ngaanyatjarra women in Warburton describe meaningful engagement in programs and services? PhD.Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall; Dr Ernie Stringer; Dr Bill Genat.
Awarded, 2018. Mythily Meyer, Medical Pluralism and Mental Distress in Sydney's Congolese Community. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Tammy Kohn and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2018. Greg Connolly, Cancer patients, complementary medicine, and the hospital system, PhD, University of Melbourne. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall; Dr Hans Baer and Dr Martha Macintyre.
Awarded, 2017. Marcela Gonzales, Young people and chronic disease in Chile. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Cathy Vaughan.
Awarded, 2015. Deidre Pinto, Patient advocacy groups: their contribution to rare disease research and treatment. MPhil. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Dominique Martin.
Awarded, 2015. Monique Dalgleish, Art, ~~schizophrenia~~ and becoming. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Helen Cahill and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2015. Kristen Smith. Health, Power and Inequity: Contested Understandings of Health in Medical Tourism Discourse in India. PhD. Supervisors: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Hans Baer.
Awarded, 2013. Sally Warmington. Engaging stories: an ethnographic study of the social domain of medical students’ encounters with patients in a teaching hospital. PhD. Supervisors: Prof. Marilys Guillemin, Prof. Geoff McColl and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2013. Assunta Hunter. The Many Meanings of Traditional Medicine. PhD. Supervisors: Dr. Richard Chenhall, Prof. Martha Macintyre and Dr Andrea Whittaker.
Awarded, 2013. Rebecca Corerra, Primary healthcare workers’ perceptions of the barriers and enablers to the implemention of alcohol Brief Intervention in Chile. MPhil. Supervision: Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Sarah Maclean.

PhD and MPhil Supervision – Outside University of Melbourne

Awarded, 2019. Rachel McMahon. Case conferencing, quality of life and palliative care for clients from remote communities in the Northern Territory. PhD, MSHR, Darwin. Supervisors: Dr Kate Senior; Dr Richard Chenhall; Dr Emma Kowal and Prof. Ciaran O’Boyle.
Awarded, 2018. Kishan Karippon, Changing social reality through social media. PhD, University of Wollongong. Supervision: Dr Kate Senior and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2014. Sue McMullen, Young people and sexual health in Borraloola. PhD, Charles Darwin University. Supervisors: Dr Kate Senior; Dr Vicky Burbank and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2009. Eva Macrae-Williams. The Other-Side of the Roper: Work ideology in Ngukurr. PhD, CDU, Darwin. Supervisor: Dr Kate Senior and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2019. Ratchakorn Kaewpramkusol. Exploring normalisation of alcohol consumption in Thailand, and investigating influences of alcohol marketing, advertising and promotion of young Thai people’s drinking, atttitudes and perceptions. PhD, Wollongong University. Supervisors: Dr Kate Senior and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2012. Megan Lawrance. Whole of Government Approaches to Suicide. PhD, MSHR, Darwin. Supervisors: Prof. Peter d’Abbs, Dr Richard Chenhall and Dr Penny Mitchell.
Awarded, 2010. Bill Ivory. Indigenous Governance: Challenges, Opportunities and Outcomes for the individual and the community. PhD, MSHR, Darwin. Supervisors: Dr Kate Senior, Prof. John Taylor and Dr Richard Chenhall.
Awarded, 2010. Paul Burgess. Where the dreaming changed shape: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Adult Health Check in a remote Aboriginal community. PhD, MSHR, Darwin. Supervisors: Prof. Ross Bailie, Prof. Kerin O’Dea, Dr Christine Connors and Dr Richard Chenhall.