Researchers
The Institute for Culture and Society, incorporating the Young and Resilient Research Centre and the Urban Transformations Research Centre, is made up of a cohort of researchers on staff and a number of Western Sydney University School-based members. Institute members work in a broad range of fields, including cultural studies, sociology, media and communication studies, human geography, anthropology, history, museum studies, heritage studies, and urban studies.
The Institute is led by Director Professor Juan Francisco Salazar, supported by Deputy Director Professor Brett Neilson, Research Director Professor Ned Rossiter, and HDR Director Professor Louise Crabtree-Hayes.
Associate Professor Charles Barbour
Charles Barbour is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. His research falls into three broad categories: the intellectual history of the nineteenth century, especially of the young Marx and his contemporaries; contemporary political philosophy, with an emphasis on questions of secrecy and deception; and theories of technology and society, including artificial intelligence.
Associate Professor Alison Barnes
Alison is an Associate Professor of Design in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Alison researches the differing roles graphic design plays in the mediation, construction and communication of everyday life. Alison often uses creative methods and has developed innovative interdisciplinary geo/graphic methodologies drawing on graphic design, cultural geography and anthropology.
Dr Valentina Baú
Valentina is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She conducts research on the application of communication for development in peacebuilding with a focus on realities affected by violent conflict.
Associate Professor Brett Bennett
Brett is Head of Discipline, Politics, History and Philosophy in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He investigates how the interaction of human actions and natural processes created contemporary ecosystems, scientific ideas, and conservation policies.
Associate Professor Fiona Cameron
Associate Professor Fiona Cameron is Principal Research Fellow, Contemporary Museologies and HDR Director at the Institute. Working at the intersection of social, ecological crises and digital transformation, Fiona researches contemporary global transformations in culture and society for positive change.
Dr Simon Chambers
Simon Chambers is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the MARCS Institute and an Institute-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He works primarily in cultural sociology, focussing on the dynamics of music scenes and how they are produced, curated and engaged with by audiences. Simon is also part of WSU’s media literacy research team, having contributed to the design, analysis and reporting of a range of research projects on the news and media literacy of young people and adults.
Professor Michael Chapman
Michael is the Chair and Professor of Architecture and Design in the School of Built Environment and Design and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Michael has an extensive research track-record with a focus on architectural theory and politics, architectural drawing, surrealism, Marxism and industrial heritage. He has numerous publications in respected journals such as Architectural Design, DMJ, ARQ and Interstices and is the co-author of Residue: Architecture as a Condition of Loss (Melbourne: RMIT, 2007). His creative practice research has been widely exhibited and published, including at the Venice Architecture Biennial, Museum of Melbourne, Federation Square, Tin Sheds Gallery, Customs House and the State Library of NSW.
Bhavya Chitranshi
Bhavya Chitranshi is a PhD fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society. She has completed her Masters in Gender Studies and MPhil in Development Practice from Ambedkar University Delhi. She is the co-founder of an adivasi (Indigenous) single women's collective, Eka Nari Sanghathan, in Odisha, India.
Professor Hart Cohen
Hart is a Professor in Media Arts in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Hart's research focus is Visual Communications, Indigenous Media and Digital Cultural Heritage.
Associate Professor David R. Cole
David is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. David is based in the Centre for Educational Research and focuses on the inter-linked areas of globalisation, critical thinking, literacies, the philosophy of education, and the work of Gilles Deleuze.
Professor Philippa Collin
Professor Collin is a Principal Research Fellow at the Institute and Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre and the Intergener8 Living Lab. She researches the role of the digital in the social, cultural and political lives of young people, with a focus on health and wellbeing.
Dr Jenna Condie
Jenna is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Society in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Jenna is a transdisciplinary scholar-practitioner of care, community and climate justice. Her research examines how communities organise care, redistribute resources and build collective capacity through everyday digital, material and place-based practices. Situated across human geography, feminist political economy, environmental communication and critical technology studies, Jenna leads participatory research on community-led childcare, reuse, repair and resource sharing. She co-leads the Caring Futures Strategic Research Collaboration in the School of Social Sciences and Festival of Action, a student-staff-community coalition organising campus-based events and practices grounded in climate justice.
Professor Louise Crabtree-Hayes
Louise is the Director of HDR and a Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society. Her research focuses on the social, ecological and economic sustainability of community-driven housing developments in Australia; on housing innovation in practice and policy; on complex adaptive systems theory in urban contexts; and on property rights, institutional design and democracy.
Professor Ann Dadich
Ann is a Professor in the School of Business and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Ann is a registered psychologist, a full member of the Australian Psychological Society, and a Justice of the Peace in New South Wales. Ann's research focus is health service management, notably knowledge translation.
Dr Daniele Fulvi
Daniele is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He specialises in Modern and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, and Ethics of New Technologies.
Dr Waldo Fabian Garrido
Dr Garrido is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He is a bassist, composer and producer who has worked with some of Australia’s top musicians. Dr Garrido has produced two solo albums, Dejame Tocarte (Sony) and Loco (Festival/Mushroom).
Associate Professor Alison Gill
Alison is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, working as a design educator and researcher. Alison is the co-convenor of the research program Urban Futures in the Institute. She is a co-editor and contributor to the book Design/Repair: Place, Practice and Community (2023, Palgrave Macmillan), and her research explores the many roles for design in mediating social relations and practices.
Distinguished Professor Gerard Goggin
Gerard Goggin is an internationally renowned scholar in communication, cultural, and media studies, whose pioneering research on the cultural and social dynamics of digital technology has been widely influential. He has held appointments at the University of Sydney, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, University of NSW, and the University of Queensland. Goggin has made benchmark contributions to the understanding of mobile media and communication, national and international Internets and their histories.
Associate Professor Benjamin Hanckel
Dr Benjamin Hanckel is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Benjamin is based at the Young and Resilient Research Centre. His work examines youth health and wellbeing, social inequalities in health, and social change.
Dr Catherine Hastings
Dr Catherine Hastings is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society. Her research examines the role of intersecting mechanisms of structural inequalities and events experienced by individuals in producing social harms. Her current ARC DECRA investigates how, why and in what context types of legal needs develop for marginalised and disadvantaged populations in Australia. In addition, Catherine studies housing precarity and homelessness. Critical realism informs her research. For over 15 years, she has delivered applied social research and evaluation for government and not-for-profit organisations.
Associate Professor Stephen Healy
Stephen is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Stephen's research has concentrated on the relationship between economy, subjectivity and the enactment of new econo-socialities exploring various topics: health care reform policy, cooperative and regional development, and the solidarity economy movement.
Professor Kate Huppatz
Kate is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her research explores the relations between gender, social class, occupations and mothering.
Associate Lecturer Dariush Izadi
Dariush is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. His research explores the ways language, materiality, and social interaction shape everyday life, identity, and belonging across diverse contexts, including markets, retail spaces, and digital platforms.
Dr Joshua Kalemba
Joshua is a Lecturer in Youth Work in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Joshua obtained his PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Newcastle in 2021. His PhD thesis explored the experiences of migrant Black African youth (18-30) in de-industrialising Newcastle, focusing on their pre-migration and post-migration experiences, particularly their experiences of looking for, finding work, and being in the workplace, and how these experiences impact their sense of belonging to place.
Associate Professor Amer Kanngieser
Amer Kanngieser is an Associate Professor in Environmental Futures at ICS. Their research and creative practices combine political geography and environmental humanities to understand how communities navigate ecological and social crises.
Associate Professor Jorge Knijnik
Jorge is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Research. He researches positive youth development health and wellbeing promotion programs; gender equity in sports and education; sport, globalisation and society; critical pedagogy; and sports, media and fandom.
Dr Sharon Ingrid Kwok
Sharon is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She specialises in Chinese organised crime, including but not limited to triad societies. Her research provides rare ethnographic insights into the structure, governance, and evolution of Chinese criminal networks and their transformation into transnational enterprises. Recently, she focused on the expansion of Chinese organised crime networks into Southeast Asia, particularly within casino and special economic zone environments. Dr Kwok has published in leading journals, including British Journal of Criminology, and is internationally recognised for her contributions to organised crime research.
Dr Norma Lam-Saw
Norma is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her past research examined the political praxis of passive resistance at the nexus of literature and philosophy. Her current research explores interdisciplinary approaches to language, technology and concepts of agency. She's currently involved in collaborative research projects examining the interrelations of Large Language Models with forms of knowledge and agency, which resonates with current technological and pedagogical discourses informing her teaching practice.
Professor Alana Lentin
Alana is a Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Alana is a teacher and writer, and a Jewish European woman who is a settler on Gadigal-Wangal land. She works on the critical theorization of race, racism and antiracism. She has previously lived and worked in countries including the UK, France, Italy, Ireland and the US. She speaks English, French, Italian and Hebrew. Her work has been cited over 5,600 times.
Associate Professor Marissa Lindquist
Marissa is an Associate Professor in the School of Built Environment and Design and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is an award-winning architect with extensive practice and research experience in architecture and design, supported by research funding over $1 400 000. She is chief investigator for the NHMRC project Intergenerational Learning and Living Campus Models for Healthy Senior Living and Integrated School Communities and has juried national and regional architecture awards. Marissa holds a PhD in the area of neuro-imaging (fNIRS) and spatial experience. Her research and practice expand across neuro-architecture, stadia design, intergenerational design, creative practice in experimental re-use materials, architecture, furniture and fashion.
Dr Thomas Longden
Dr Thomas Longden is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University. His work on energy and technological change has been published in leading international journals (including Nature Energy, Climatic Change, Energy)
Associate Professor Liam Magee
Liam is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Liam is currently on extended leave. His current research investigates how AI works across different scales of human subjectivity, social stratification and geopolitical organisation. He has contributed to studies of intersectional bias and cultural understandings of AI, and techniques for analysing AI via interviews, media analysis and code experiments.
Associate Professor Milad Milani
Milad is an Associate Professor of Religion in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He is the academic lead of the Humanities Religious Studies Research Collective, a research concentration located within the School of Arts, and Co-Editor of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion.
Professor Greg Morrison
Greg is Head of Discipline, Architecture and Industrial Design in the School of Built Environment and Design at Western Sydney University and a member of the Urban Transformations Research Centre.
Professor Nicky Morrison
Nicky Morrison is Professor of Planning and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. She is a leading academic authority on overcoming barriers to securing affordable housing through the planning system and ways to deliver sustainable communities and inclusive growth through participatory planning practices.
Professor Brett Neilson
Professor Brett Neilson’s research and writing aim to provide alternative ways of conceiving globalisation, with particular emphasis upon its social and cultural dimensions.
Associate Professor Lucy Nicholas
Lucy is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Lucy directs the genders and sexualities research grouping at WSU. Their research has two streams: gender and sexual diversity including non-binary and queer ethics; and men and masculinities, including men's use of violence, its intersection with radicalisation, anti-feminism backlash and men's behaviour change.
Associate Professor Ehsan Noroozinejad
Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, where he specializes in Resilient Construction and Infrastructure. His research interests encompass a wide range of topics, including smart materials and structures, resilience-based design, artificial intelligence, modular construction, and digital twins in construction.
Professor Tanya Notley
Tanya is a Professor of Digital Media in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her recent and ongoing research projects examine young people and media literacy, adults and media literacy, young people and news media, misinformation on social media, the relationship between digital and social inclusion, media representation, the politics embedded in digital media infrastructures and emotion mapping.
Associate Professor Olayide Ogunsiji
Olayide is Head of Discipline, Postgraduate Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society.
Associate Professor Joanne Orlando
Joanne is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Joanne researches in the areas of technology, education, children, and digital culture. Joanne takes an informed and positive position to consider: the potential of technology to enhance learning, shifting knowledge in the digital era, understanding digital family life, the impact of digital on childhood.
Dr Raksha Pandya-Wood
Raksha is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health in the School of Medicine and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University Malaysia. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on climate change and health, community engagement, and participatory approaches to research and policy. With over 20 years of experience across the UK, Southeast Asia, and Australia, she works closely with communities, policymakers, and researchers to co-produce solutions that promote health equity, sustainability, and social justice.
Associate Professor Alexie Papanicolaou
Alexie is an Associate Professor at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and an Institute-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He blends the frontiers of molecular biology and computer science to secure Australia's agricultural and natural ecosystems in the face of a changing climate. He is a genome bioinformatician working on ecological and economically important species, such as the Heliconius butterflies, Helicoverpa armigera the cotton bollworm moth, invasive Tephritid fruit flies and eucalyptus trees.
Associate Professor Neil Perry
Neil is an Associate Professor in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the School of Business and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He specialises in progressive economics approaches to environmental economics and policy and in ecological economics, an interdisciplinary field of research emphasising the interdependence of economic and ecological values.
Dr Melissa Phillips
Melissa is a Senior Lecturer in Humanitarian and Development Studies in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is a practitioner-academic (pracademic) who has previously worked for the United Nations and for international NGOs in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa (Kenya and Ethiopia), Libya and the Middle East. She has also worked with asylum seekers in immigration detention in Australia and managed a refugee resettlement project.
Professor Emma Power
Emma is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Emma’s programme of research is concerned with urban living and the politics of care. It envisions a world of more caring and just cities, asking how cities can better support human life and the practice of care through studies of housing systems and governance, urban planning and cultures of home.
Associate Professor Quah Ee Ling
Ee Ling is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is a fire dragon feminist. Ee Ling's research draws from anti-colonial and transnational feminist perspectives and centres around dismantling coloniality, racial capitalism, neoliberalism and white supremacy.
Dr Maria Rashidi
Maria is Director, Research in the School of Engineering at Western Sydney University and a member of the Urban Transformations Research Centre.
Patcharapar (Katherine) Rojanakit
Patcharapar (Kate) is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, with a background in software engineering, finance, international business, and the sharing economy. Her research focuses on the nexus of mobile communication and artificial intelligence (AI) and their development as part of the 'After the Smartphone' project, with a specific focus on the Southeast Asian region.
Professor Ned Rossiter
Ned Rossiter is Professor in the School of Arts, ICS Institute Fellow and the Director of Research at the Institute. Ned is a media theorist noted for his research on network cultures, the politics of cultural labour, logistical media and data politics.
Dr Emily Rytmeister
Emily is an Associate Lecturer in Communications in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is a writer and filmmaker. She has several degrees, including two Masters degrees and a PhD, and has won awards for both her teaching and research. Her PhD film, ‘Roger Frampton Comes Alive!’, focused on the life and work of her musician father, and she is currently working on her second film. Her research interests include documentary film, family biography, Australian jazz, creative practice and grief. She has taught across the university’s Arts, Communications, Media and Design programmes since 2017. She has also worked behind-the-scenes in the Australian film, television, music and live entertainment industries.
Professor Juan Francisco Salazar
Juan is a researcher, author and videographer who engages with communities and places where the environmental and cultural challenges of living sustainably are starkly exposed. His work explores the coupled dynamics of social-ecological change and is underpinned by a collaborative ethos across the arts, artists, science and activism.
Dr Jacinta Sassine
Jacinta is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Law and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is an admitted lawyer of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. She conducts interdisciplinary research and teaches across legal philosophy, political theory, literature, and data and privacy law. Her research draws on ancient rhetorical traditions and contemporary technologies to explore the intersections of law, language, and power, with a particular focus on how authority is constructed and contested. Jacinta has managed several research projects with industry and government partners that have reflected her interest in justice and communication-based projects, particularly surrounding digital rights and responsible technologies.
Dr Madison Shakespeare
Madison is a Lecturer in the School of Arts at Western Sydney University and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society.
Professor Pejman Sharafi
Professor Pejman Sharafi is the head of the Modular Prefab Design Laboratory (MPD-Lab) and a principal research academic in the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering (CIE) and Urban Transformation Research Centre (UTRC).
Dr Erika K. Smith
Erika is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Their research interests include anti-colonialism, genders and sexuality research, and student-to-academic sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying.
Professor Karen Soldatic
Karen is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Karen's research on global welfare regimes builds upon her 20 years' experience as an international, national and state based senior policy analyst and practitioner. Karen is on leave from Western until 2026.
Professor Corrinne Sullivan
Corrinne Sullivan is an Aboriginal scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West of New South Wales. She is a Professor in Human Geography and the Associate Dean (Indigenous Education) in the School of Social Sciences, and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her research interests are multi-disciplinary and focus broadly on experiences and effects of body and identity in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Associate Professor Malini Sur
Malini Sur is an Associate Professor in Anthropology at the School of Social Sciences and an Institute fellow. Her research addresses three lines of inquiry – agrarian borders, urban space and environment.
Professor Amanda Third
Professor Third is also the Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre. Her research focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of young people's technology use; on children's rights in the digital age; the intergenerational dynamics; and vulnerable young people's technological engagements.
Dr Ryan Thorneycroft
Ryan is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. His research covers three broad areas: sexuality studies, disability studies, and crip/queer criminology. He has published in many leading journals, including Sexualities, Sex Education, Theoretical Criminology, and Crime, Media, Culture.
Dr Cris Townley
Cris is the Deputy Research Lead for SAGE (Gender Equity) and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. A sociologist whose research explores what happens when we put the child, young person and family at the centre of the nexus between service delivery and education. This requires an intersectional approach, that recognises the multiplicity of identities lived by children, young people and families, and requires listening to their voices.
Dr Khandakar Al Farid Uddin
Farid is an academic in the School of Social Sciences and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He is an emerging social scientist, strategic policy analyst, and early-career researcher. He also previously served as an academic and researcher at the Centre for Administrative Research and Innovation (CARI) at the University of Dhaka, the Asian Institute of Business and Technology, Daffodil International University, and Stamford University Bangladesh. His research interests encompass government, governance, public policy, urban planning, regional development, sustainable cities, and resilient communities. Dr Farid has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships and has published substantively in scholarly journals.
Professor Jacqueline Ullman
Jacqueline is a Professor of Adolescent Development, Behaviour and Wellbeing in the School of Education and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Her mixed-methods research investigates schooling and workplace cultures with respect to gender, sexuality, and marginalised identities. She has won four ARC Discovery Project grants in the field of education, including the 2026-2029 “Supporting and Retaining Gender and Sexuality Diverse Early Career Teachers” which she leads with colleagues from Monash and USYD.
Professor Dimitris Vardoulakis
Dimitris is a Professor in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He works on political, social and cultural philosophy. He is primarily interested in how materialist philosophy conceives democracy and sovereignty, with a particular focus on conceptions of technology.
Associate Professor Jessica Weir
Dr Jessica K Weir is an Associate Professor at ICS. Jessica's research focuses on socio-ecological justice, knowledge practices, and public sector governance.
Dr Vanita Yadav
Dr Vanita Yadav is a Senior Research Fellow (Senior Lecturer- Research) at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University. She specialises in Sustainable Business Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Innovation Strategy and Business Model Innovation.
Dr Ping Yang
Ping is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics in the School of Arts and a School-Based Member of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. He received his PhD from Macquarie University. His teaching, research, HDR supervision and publication areas are integrated, including intercultural verbal communication, intercultural nonverbal communication, cultural linguistics, educational linguistics, language teacher education, and English-Chinese translation studies.