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Social work academics at the School of Allied Health are engaged in research projects that respond to a wide range of social justice issues.
Our social work staff undertake research that is designed to inform culturally responsive, evidence-informed practice which is relevant to current and changing social work practice in health and human service settings.
With a strong social justice and social work practice orientation, we partner with industry, practitioners and community organisations to conduct research that is relevant and responsive to current issues in policy and practice.
Professor Helen McLaren is National Head of Discipline (Social Work) at Australian Catholic University (ACU), based at St Patrick's Campus, Melbourne. A leader in social work research and education, she builds research excellence, engaged scholarship, and societal impact aligned with ACU's mission.
Helen's research focuses on trauma-informed care, child protection, and social work practice with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. She advances evidence-based approaches to practitioner wellbeing, secondary trauma, and sustainable community care, collaborating nationally with practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.
Internationally, Helen partners with governments, NGOs, and institutions to co-develop culturally responsive interventions. Her contributions to child protection and women's empowerment programs in Asia, and foster care innovation in Australia, reflect the breadth of her commitment to human flourishing and wellbeing. She also examines fear, moral panic, and social exclusion, engaging directly with communities affected by Islamophobia, gendered violence, and patriarchal structures.
Previously in leadership at Flinders University, she built interdisciplinary research teams and co-designed projects with end-users. At ACU, Helen is leading cross-campus and international initiatives to strengthen research capacity in social work, advancing trauma-informed, community-led solutions to complex social challenges.
Associate Professor Jessica Russ-Smith (she/her) is a sovereign Wiradyuri Wambuul woman, Associate Professor Social Work, Assistant Deputy Head of School Allied Health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Curriculum and Pedagogy Co-ordinator of Social Work and Chair of the Indigenous Research Ethics Advisory Panel at ACU. She is also an elected non-executive Director for the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and member of the ACU Human Resources Ethics Committee (HREC). Jess is a member of IAHA Research Advisory Committee, the Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) First Nations Advisory Committee and is a two-time University Medallist.
Throughout her career, she has been committed to creating decolonising, critical learning and practice spaces for students, researchers and practitioners which honour and are guided by First Nations sovereign knowledges. Jess's research relates to Indigenous sovereignty, Wiradyuri sovereignty, decolonising higher education and social work, critical disability justice, ethics, and Artificial Intelligence. She has current research partnerships with the Wiradyuri community and Government bodies including Office of the Senior Practitioner in the ACT. Jess has a passion for fostering critical research communities grounded in social justice.
Sonia Martin is an experienced academic having held positions in universities in Melbourne and Adelaide and policy, and practice and research positions in the community sector. Sonia's experience in Higher Education includes program management of post-graduate and undergraduate social work degrees, Honours coordination, extensive teaching in social policy, social research and sociology, as well as work on a range of research projects. Sonia recently joined ACU in 2023 to coordinate the Masters of Social Work online program.
Sonia's scholarly work is primarily concerned with poverty, inequality and social inclusion informed by a commitment to social justice. Building upon her PhD, her research focus is primarily on social policy issues, state welfare, stigma, the underclass thesis, and research methodologies that capture lived experience. Sonia's research track record includes work on several ARC and other federal government grants, presentations at national and international conferences, formal training in spatial methodologies and a co-authored book on lived experiences of welfare.
Sonia is firmly committed to advancing a higher education system that focuses on innovative research and teaching practices that are responsive to diverse student learning needs, to contemporary social, economic and environmental challenges and to improving the lives and well-being of those experiencing social disadvantage.
Eliana is an accredited mental health social worker with extensive experience across diverse social work fields, including community development, disability, homelessness, substance use treatment, elder abuse, family violence, and mental health. She has worked in urban, regional, and remote settings across Australia, such as homeless shelters, courts, helplines, and community legal and mental health services. Currently, she is the Field Education Manager and a Lecturer in Social Work at ACU's Canberra Campus, where she also supervises Honours students. Her research interests focus on inclusive higher education for students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, alcohol and drug treatment experiences in the criminal justice system, suicide prevention, and the experiences of migrants in accessing health and social services. She teaches in both the Master of Social Work (MSW) and Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programs. The subjects she has taught include social work theories, research in social work, and mental health. Additionally, she facilitates integrative field education seminars that run alongside placements.
Dr Aniqa Farwa brings 23 years of extensive domestic and international expertise in social work practice, research and teaching. Having completed her PhD with The University of Queensland, Australia, her research is focused on Mental Health, Decolonising Knowledge, and Social Work Practice and Ethics. Aniqa has contributed significantly to practice spanning Mental Health, Hospital Social Work, Human Rights advocacy, and citizen/system-level advocacy in Government and International Non-Profit organisations. Her teaching portfolio encompasses undergraduate, postgraduate, and interdisciplinary programs, where she instructs units on mental health, skills-based learning, and research methodologies. As the Discipline Lead and Co-Convener of the School of Allied Health Research Network (SOAHRN), she actively fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Additionally, she serves as the Social Work Lead for the School of Allied Health's Inter-Professional Education (IPE) core working group.
Aniqa has a number of current research partnerships with universities, government and non-government organisations. She has extensive experience in collaboration with domestic and international universities, having previously coordinated programs in various capacities. Since 2019, she has been a pivotal member of the Australian Catholic University, where she presently serves as the Assistant Deputy Head of School and Course Coordinator for the Master of Social Work Qualifying program at the Strathfield campus.
Miriam Bevis joined ACU in 2024 as a lecturer at the Strathfield campus in the Bachelor and Master of Social Work programs.
Miriam has extensive experience working in community services and Non-Government sectors using community development and collaborative partnerships. Miriam's research has grown out of these practice-based contexts and is focussed on developing knowledge and practice for social change. While working with women in prison in Central Australia she worked in partnership to produce research exploring the trauma experiences of women in Central Australia who ended up in prison. This researched helped to highlight the system gaps experienced for women and the need to understand the significance of undiagnosed trauma in response and recovery approaches.
Miriam has also conducted research looking at community preparedness for natural disasters with a particular focus on at risk population groups with an aim to increase knowledge needed to improve communication and community systems.
Recently she has been conducting research using community ripple mapping and qualitative interviews with co-researchers of all abilities. This research explored a grassroots program for the DeafBlind community and applied a human rights lens to discourses of inclusion of people living with diabilities.
Miriam is currently competing her PhD entitled, Talking about Life and Work: Exploring Aboriginal employee' experiences of the fit between Central Australian lifeworlds and NGO workplace practices and service delivery models. This research uses Narrative Inquiry to explore understandings of social justice and the recognition of First Nations local knowledge systems within the human service context in Central Australia.
Professor Plath has a long-standing interest in the integration of social work research and practice. She has developed international and national standing as a leader in the critical and practical application of evidence-informed practice approaches to social work. This has comprised funded research and publication, including a large Australian Research Council funded project, as well as engagement with organisations as a consultant to develop research-informed organisational cultures.
In the area of social policy, Professor Plath has undertaken research into the impacts of the shift toward individual budgets for accessing services in the fields of disability, aged care, and child protection. She has also worked with practitioners to research and publish on their practice with Anorexia Nervosa, infertility, and parenting education.
Adjunct Professor Joanna Zubrzycki is a senior academic with 30 years-experience in the field of social work education. Her research expertise spans the fields of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work, Cultural safety in health and social care, Cultural safety in higher education and the lived experiences of Asylum seekers and refugees. Her national and international publications are highly valued and extensively cited. She is currently a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Grant Indigenous Discovery Grant that seeks to develop co-designed Simulation Curriculum aimed at preparing social work students to be culturally responsive practitioners in regional and remote Aboriginal communities. She has successfully supervised 14 PhD students to completion.
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