Skip to main content
Add Me To Your Mailing List
Home9 ISA Transformative social science


Transformative social science:

a dialogue between evidence, policy and practice

Panel Discussion and Workshop

Friday June 23rd, 2023

2-5pm AEDT, Melbourne University
A free, hybrid event




This panel discussion and workshop explored the way that sociologists working in applied or ‘industry’ settings, such as the community or government sectors, generate and use evidence to inform practice, policy, advocacy, and program development, with the objectives to challenge inequalities and bring about social change.

The event also explored how evidence, policy and practice ‘talk’ to each other and the different ways that sociologists in applied settings navigate bringing practice to bear on research and evidence to bear on practice.

The a panel of presentations by speakers was followed by a facilitated round table discussion at which participants in person will and online were able to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Update Nov 2023 - We are please to announce the e-resource about this event is now available online:

Full report

Graphic recording of presentations

Graphic recording of discussion

Speakers



Catherine Robinson


Catherine is Associate Professor in Housing and Communities, School of Social Sciences and a committed public intellectual and community leader in the areas of homelessness, mental ill-health and child and youth well-being. A sociologist and qualitative social researcher with a broad interest in the relationship between vulnerability, suffering, embodiment, injustice and place, Catherine conducts research and advocacy for impact on social policy and social service design and delivery. Her current work focuses on understanding the experiences and support needs of Tasmanian children and young people who experience complex risk and vulnerability, including unaccompanied homelessness. Catherine is a board member of Homelessness Australia and is also known for her work with Blackfella Films as Series Consultant and Co-Host of the multi-award winning factual documentary series Filthy Rich and Homeless. Read on... 
A Woman with short cropped brown hair with dangly earrings and mustard coloured top smiles at camera

Jane Stratton


Jane Stratton is the CEO of the Think+DO Tank Foundation, an organisation she founded in 2013. From 2014 - 2017, Jane catalysed The Motion Room, a collaborative action-based inquiry in Green Valley, Liverpool with Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre, Liverpool Women’s Resource Centre and South West Sydney Local Health District.

In 2017, Jane created the highly successful social enterprise LOST IN BOOKS, a multilingual kids’ bookshop, creative community hub and safer space for women and children in Fairfield, South Western Sydney.

Jane works through the arts to elevate the voices of low-income and excluded community members to inform, and to model systems reform. She enables multi-disciplinary collaborative projects, enterprises and enquiries in low-income communities in response to the question: “What would make life here easier, better or more affordable?” Read on... 
Black and white photo of a woman with dark cropped hair and white earrings smiles at the camera

Jan Marie Fritz


Jan Marie Fritz, Ph.D., Certified Clinical Sociologist (C.C.S), is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association (ISA), the lead ISA representative to the United Nations, and a member of the Steering Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She also is a member of the Mayor of Cincinnati’s Gender Equality Task Force, editor of Springer’s Clinical Sociology book series, co-editor of the Clinical Sociology Review and a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee for graduate and undergraduate students to Scandinavia. Professor Fritz is a docent at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati and was recently selected as a Fulbright Specialist (consultant) for a four-year term (2021-2025).

Her research has been about the national action plans for women and girls that are
based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, environmental justice,
human rights, inclusion, conflict intervention, mandatory retirement of older adults and
the history of clinical sociology. Cincinnati City Council’s City for CEDAW ordinances resulted from a community effort that began as a class project in one of her courses - Social Justice and the City – at the University of Cincinnati (United States). Read on... 

A woman with blonde cropped hair wearing a black and cyan striped top smiles at the camera

Simone Casey


Simone Casey joined ACOSS in April 2021 as Senior Policy Advisor – Employment, and previously held a variety of roles in policy advocacy, research and communications where in the employment services and welfare sectors. Simone holds a PhD in employment services is an expert on marketisation, welfare conditionality, labour market program design, unemployment and related social security topics. Her campaigns and reports are underwritten by rigorous analysis and the use of up-to-date evidence and arguments. She has designed and contributed to many academic and normative research projects involving quantitative and qualitative research methods, where the publication outputs have been both scholarly and/or policy focused. Simone contributes lived experienced to the role of Senior Advisor and is passionate about amplifying citizen perspectives in policy development. Read on...  
A woman with brown shoulder length hair wears a mustard top & dark heart shaped necklace smiling

Anna Adcock 


Anna Adcock is a Ngāti Mutunga woman from Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a master’s degree in sociology from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, where she is currently a researcher and doctoral student in Te Tātai Hauora o Hine National Centre for Women’s Health Research Aotearoa. Anna does Kaupapa Māori (by Māori, for Māori) sexual/reproductive and family health research that centres the lived experiences and perspectives of Māori whānau (family collectives). The ultimate goal of this work is to inform health service transformation to better meet the needs and aspirations of Māori. Anna is passionate about health equity, data sovereignty, research ethics, and whānau. Read on... 
 

Other Event Details


Organisers: Dr Catherine Hastings (Macquarie University), Dr Sophie Hickey (Charles Darwin University), Sienna Aguilar (Australian Women's Health Network), & Dr Sonia Martin (Australian Catholic University).

The event will explore the way that sociologists working in applied or ‘industry’ settings, such as the community or government sectors, generate and use evidence to inform practice, policy, advocacy, and program development, with the objectives to challenge inequalities and bring about social change.


Update Nov 2023 - We are please to announce the e-resource about this event is now available online:

Full report

Graphic recording of presentations

Graphic recording of discussion

This event is being proudly sponsored by: 

MCB_Logo_Large.jpg
TASA_Logo_RGB_Large.jpg

XX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Melbourne, Australia | June 25 - July 1, 2023