Meghan Lee

Thesis Title

Picture this: Mental wellbeing in Ballarat and the Wimmera from the perspectives of young people from English Additional Language (EAL) backgrounds

Description of PhD Project

Young people from English Additional Language (EAL) backgrounds living in regional Australia sit at the intersection of policy discourses and interdisciplinary research about youth, settlement, rurality, mobility, and aspiration. Working in the contexts of Ballarat and the Wimmera, my research will use Photovoice methodology to ask these young people how they understand and experience mental wellbeing in their regional communities. How could they be better supported by local resources and discourses to achieve situated, relational, and sustainable experiences of mental wellbeing?

Supervisors

• Professor Cathy Vaughan
• Dr Olivia Mitchell
• Dr Debra McDougall

Biography

Meg is a PhD student at the Centre for Health Equity and Melbourne Social Equity Institute. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Anthropology from the University of Melbourne. Meg has worked and volunteered across a range of cultural and multicultural organisations in Ballarat and Melbourne. As a mixed race young woman from Ballarat, Victoria, Meg brings her own lived experience of growing up in a regional community to her research in the Ballarat and Wimmera communities.

Funders/Scholarships

• Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship