Meet the team

Professor Sarah Wendt

Director

Professor Sarah Wendt practised in the field of domestic violence. She has published on violence against women and social work practice. Her current research projects explore the impact of domestic violence on women’s citizenship, service provision for Aboriginal communities experiencing family violence, and engaging men to address domestic violence. In particular, Sarah has been researching rural women’s experiences of domestic violence for over a decade in Australia and more recently how domestic violence work shapes practitioners living and working in rural communities.

Hayley Anderson has 15+ years’ experience working with child protection, health and community services in an administrative management capacity. Hayley plays a key role in driving the strategic direction of the SWIRLS Research Centre, supporting the Members to excel in the delivery of its strategic and operational outcomes in research and impact. Hayley works closely with the Director and Members and has oversight of SWIRLS administration, governance, and operations.

Dr Carmela Bastian is committed to improving the lives of children. She has over twenty years’ experience in the field of child protection and human services as a social work practitioner and academic. Carmela's employment history exemplifies a wide range of experiences, including as a front line practitioner, policy and program manager, and involvement in service development. Her PhD research—called The moral status of children in child protection: the case for emerging from our moral ignorance—engaged in philosophical deliberation to assert that children are valuable members of the human community and illuminate the criticality of relationships, rights and obligations.

Dr Kate Seymour is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and, previously, in Criminology. Known for her contribution to the critical study of masculinities and men's violence, her research expertise spans the fields of social work and criminology with a focus on the intersecting discourses of gender, masculinities and violence. Kate is especially interested in the ways in which the framing of violence, across the realms of policy, prevention, and practice, reflect and reinforce structural inequalities and social hierarchies. She is a skilled qualitative researcher with a background in direct social work practice and management in the areas of housing and homelessness, child protection, and adult offending including work with male perpetrators of domestic and family violence.

Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan has been a social worker for over 35 years and an advocate for people with disability issues for over 25 years. She is a social worker, researcher and person with lived experience of disability. She is strategically pushing for change across disability policy, adoption law, and workers' rights across human and health services.

In 2019, Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan was appointed National Research Director for the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability to set up the Royal Commission’s research framework. Associate Professor Hallahan has an extensive background in social work practice and leadership. She has contributed to disability policy for many years, including helping to develop and evaluate the National Disability Insurance Scheme trial and was Independent Reviewer of the SA Adoptions Act (1988) in 2015.

Dr Debra Bateman is an Adjunct Professor to the College of Medicine and Public Health. She has previously held several senior University leadership roles at Flinders University, RMIT University and Deakin University. Debra has relocated from overly theoretical analyses and critiques of abstract phenomena that impact on the lives of disadvantaged individuals to lived agency and advocacy of indigenous people in far remote north easter Arnhem Land. Her nominal appointment in community is one of a registered school principal which cedes its authority to a community Yolgnu Principal. As the registered principal, Debra is responsible for all school programs, design and student engagement, external government department relations, food security, health service provision and logistics coordination.

Debra’s previous research has explored the intersection of policy, schooling, individual and group identity, advocacy and agency. She has been particularly interested in the images that young people hold with regards their futures and the ways that social structures and agencies impeded and/or enable notions of choice or the courage to explore alternatives. Outside of her formal employment, Debra frequently acts as an advocate for young people who experience hardship or disadvantage. In her work with SWIRLS, she explores the education and training of practitioners and managers charged with the responsibility of social care, welfare, and human services reform.

Associate Professor Kris Natalier is a sociologist with expertise in the design and implementation of mixed method and qualitative research and evaluation. Her work maps the relationship between policy and practice in lives of vulnerable populations and those who work with them. Her approach emphasises the value of working with practitioners to identify the strengths and challenges of their work. She is a highly skilled interviewer with extensive experience in interviewing vulnerable children and young people, survivors of domestic and family violence and women living in poverty.

Luke Cantley has family connections to the Gunditjmara nation of Victoria and is a Research Associate located within the Social Work Innovation Research Living Space (SWIRLS) at Flinders University. Through his research Luke seeks to understand the role Indigenous culture plays as a protective factor within the child protection system, whilst also exploring the nuances between child safety and cultural safety. Luke has gained extensive experience working as an Aboriginal Health Worker using a strengths-based approach across diverse sectors including Prison Health, Primary Health Care, Public Housing and Mental Health Services. Luke’s developing expertise includes culturally appropriate and ethical ways of engaging with community members, health and wellbeing assessment methods fostering participatory action research, and social inequities generated by reduced access to services or resources.

Dr Ben Lohmeyer is a Youth Sociologist and Youth Worker. He has over 10 years’ experience working in non-government youth service sector with young people around issues of violence and justice in alternative education and accommodation sectors. His research is at the intersection of youth sociology and the sociology of violence and considers the implications for youth policy and youth work practice.

Rather than looking for a cause of violence inside young people’s minds and bodies, Ben’s research reveals the hidden forms of violence that follows the patterns of violation deeply embedded in our societies and our stories. Ben’s research amplifies young people’s voices and experiences on issues such school bullying, violence and political protest. Ben is the Chair of Youth Work SA, a Professional Association for Youth Workers in South Australia.

Professor Gerry Redmond’s research is concerned with inequalities between young people, and the societal and policy factors that influence these inequalities. A sociologist by training, Gerry has led policy-focused projects that involve in-depth research with children and young people, coupled with large scale survey design and analysis. His work aims to cut across the policy silos the impact young people’s lives, for example, education, health, and family policy. He is currently leading an ARC funded project on social exclusion and wellbeing in adolescence, with a focus on the experiences of materially disadvantaged young people, young carers, and young people with disabilities.

Associate Professor Lana Zannettino is currently the Teaching Program Director for Social Work in the College of Psychology, Education and Social Work. Lana has practiced as a social worker in child protection and in early intervention programs supporting families and children at risk of entering the child protection system. Her research is concerned with gender and family relationships across the life course with a particular focus on domestic and family violence and elder abuse. Her most recent research has focused on family violence in refugee and migrant communities in Australia, and on older women’s experiences of domestic violence and help seeking. She is especially interested in how domestic violence against older women intersects with elder abuse, particularly in terms of how gender becomes increasingly invisible in the lives of older women experiencing violence, and the impact of loneliness and diminishing social connections in later years.

Professor Sally Robinson is a Professor of Disability and Community Inclusion in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University. Her program coordinates multiple projects, focusing on the development of innovative interdisciplinary research and teaching which privileges the participation of people with disability and draws together conceptual interests around inclusion, belonging and safety. Sally conducts these projects in collaboration with high profile academic, industry and community partners, bringing into dialogue with others my expertise on abuse, children and young people, regionality and rurality, and inclusive methodologies.

Associate Professor Catherine Kevin is an Associate Professor in History at Flinders University, whose research is focused on the histories of reproductive and maternal health in a range of contexts in Australian history. She is the author of Dispossession and the Making of Jedda, Hollywood in Ngunnawal Country (Anthem Press, 2020) and is currently working with Zora Simic and Ann Curthoys on an ARC-funded history of domestic violence in Australia since 1850.

Dr Alhassan Abdullah is a Lecturer in Social Work in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. Dr Abdullah’s research focuses on child protection, child abuse and neglect, family violence and community response to address child maltreatment. He has conducted research projects and published over 40 peer-reviewed articles on child protection and family violence issues in Africa and Asia (Nepal, Hong Kong, Korea and China). His current research focuses on developing early intervention and preventive measures to address child neglect, abuse and intimate partner violence, through the use of community-based cultural resources within child protection. A number of his research projects has been supported by grants from UNICEF and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Dr Abdullah’s approach to research and scholarship brings theoretical and methodological rigor to the study of child maltreatment and family violence. He has expertise in conducting qualitative and quantitative research. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Practice: Social Work in Action.