Postgraduate projects

Contact Person: Dr Andrea Simpson

Supervisors: Dr Andrea Simpson

Suitable for: PhD

Project Location: Flexible

Project Summary:
Contextual factors have been recognised as an important component in determining the experience of a person with hearing loss. These factors can act as either barriers or facilitators on the person’s rehabilitation journey. This project develops an Art-based practice-led methodology to explore how hearing loss affects self-identity and self-evaluation. Art can offer a remedy for the experience of isolation that may come with hearing loss – and open new possibilities for thinking about the impact of language in the experience of living with hearing loss. Integrating phenomenological art therapy methods of inquiry into the art making process will enable a deeper reflection on questions of identity.

Project Impact:
Development or adoption of new indicators of health and wellbeing - contributing towards a greater understanding of the experiences of people with hearing loss and how meaning is made in the self-evaluation of hearing rehabilitation.

Contact Person: Associate Professor Bea Staley

Supervisors: Associate Professor Bea Staley

Suitable for: PhD

Project Location: CDU Casuarina Campus

Project Summary: 
The aim of this research is to investigate about parent and caregiver experiences of having a child with a disability in Darwin and surrounding areas. This research is interested in the way families navigate the health and educational systems to meet the needs of their child(ren) and the changes that are needed to better support families access services including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This is a longitudinal study and we are in our third round of interview.

Project Impact: 

• Change in health and education practices for children with disabilities and their families
• Influence or shaping of relevant legislation
• Generating new ways of thinking about children and families experiences of disability across the lifespan 

Principal Supervisor: Dr Daniel Liu 

Contact Person: Dr Daniel Liu | Email: daniel.liu@cdu.edu.au

Associate Supervisors

• Prof Benjamin Tan
• Dr Alison Wang 
• Prof Daniel Bressington

Project Summary

Previous studies have reported that cancer patients have a ten-fold greater risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality than the general population (Sturgeon et al., 2019). Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most frequent concomitant diseases among lung cancer patients (30.9%) (Sun et al., 2020). Lung cancer patients with pre-existing CVD are at a higher risk of non-cancer-related deaths and are less likely to receive any modality of cancer treatment. However, limited evidence is available to achieve the optimal self-management of lung cancer patients with CVDs to improve cardiovascular health outcomes and wellbeing. Therefore, this study addresses the lack of evidence for providing non-pharmacological self-management to lung cancer survivors with CVDs. Following the Medical Research Council (MRC) Framework for Developing and Evaluating Complex Interventions, this project aims to develop and test a non-pharmacological self-management for improving cardiovascular health and reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in lung cancer patients with CVDs. In Phase I of the study, a non-pharmacological self-management protocol will be developed. In Phase II, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be utilised to assess the feasibility and preliminary effects of the evidence-based non-pharmacological self-management protocol for improving cardiovascular health and reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in lung cancer patients with CVDs.

Supervisors: Dr Sarah Ireland (contact: sarah.ireland@cdu.edu.au) 

Suitable for: PhD & MRes

Project Location: Galiwin'ku, NT

Project Summary

Our project is about setting up and studying Australia’s first ‘Birthing on Country’ very remote, demonstration site in Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, Arnhem Land. We will work with Yolŋu community and health service providers, to redesign (change) maternity health services to better meet the needs of Yolŋu women and families. Service redesign will focus on improving midwifery care and making it easier for services to connect and work well together. It includes Yolŋu djäkamirr (Indigenous doula) to support women during pregnancy, childbirth and until the baby turns 2 years old. We will increase
Yolŋu engagement, governance, and control, and develop community reproductive health reports to strengthen awareness of reproductive health. We will evaluate the redesign process, clinical outcomes, woman and family experiences, cost-effectiveness, and cost-benefit of the very remote ‘Birthing on Country’ service.

We are currently seeking passionate Master's and PhD students who are willing to undertake intellectual adventures and work on complex intercultural reproductive health topics. Our students become skilled in using decolonising, quantitative and qualitative methodologies; and gain firsthand experience working in genuine relationships with the community. We offer students a super supportive learning environment with expert Yolŋu mentorship and the chance to contribute towards making a more equitable World!