Research students
The Centre for Sport and Social Impact has a vibrant postgraduate research culture, with a wide range of professional development events and expert supervision.
To discuss the possibilities of undertaking postgraduate research at Masters or Doctoral level with the Centre, please contact the Director of CSSI, Professor Russell Hoye.
CSSI PhD Candidates
Kirsty Forsdike
Title: Participation in Sport, Women's Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing and Connections with Social Capital: an Ethnographic Study of a Women's Hockey Club
Supervisors: Professor Tim Marjoribanks and Dr Anne-Maree Sawyer
Summary: I am exploring how women understand and perceive their sport participation in terms of their mental health and emotional wellbeing and what connections can be made with social capital. I am also looking at how women use the sporting context to construct their identities; how they understand and manage their mental health and emotional wellbeing through their sport participation; and whether this can be linked to features of social capital. This is being done through a combination of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods, including interviews and observation within a hockey club.
David Gallant
Title: The role of sport in Australian Prisons
Supervisors: Associate Professor Matthew Nicholson (Principal), Professor Russell Hoye (Co-Supervisor)
Summary: The role of sport and recreation in rehabilitating prisoners within correctional facilities is largely unexplored within the academic literature, despite sport and recreation being present within these facilities for more than a century. The growth in the Australian prison population, the resources allocated to the rehabilitation of prisoners and the little known about the efficacy of sport and recreation within correctional facilities suggests that there is a significant research gap in this area. The purpose of my research is to document the provision and efficacy of organised sport and recreation within Australian adult correctional facilities at the policy level, the administrative level and the inmates experiences.
Youtube clip of my research - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I28g8B59zxs
David Lowden
Working Title: Homosexuality in the AFL
Supervisors: Associate Professor Matthew Nicholson (Principle) and Dr Paul O’Halloran and Dr Lawrie Zion (Co-Supervisors)
Summary: David Lowden is a senior lecturer and also completing his PhD. He is investigating why same-sex attracted AFL players are not open about their sexuality. David's research cuts across a number of academic disciplines and as such his principal supervisor is Dr Matthew Nicholson from the Faculty of Business, Economics & Law, with associate supervision from Dr Paul O'Halloran from Health Sciences and Dr Lawrie Zion from Humanities.
BiJu Philip
Title: The Influence of Structured Sport Coaching in Children’s Social Integration and Leadership
Supervisors: Professor Russell Hoye (Supervisor) and Dr Emma Sherry (Co-Supervisor)
Summary: This research study proposes to investigate the potential of sport to foster children’s development, mainly in areas such as social integration and leadership. As part of this investigation, this study will conduct a cross-cultural case study comparing two cohorts of soccer players, an Australian group comprising middle-class urban (or suburban) children from varying socio-economic backgrounds and an Indian group comprising impoverished urban and rural children. The knowledge gained through this study will help to explore further on the topic to ascertain whether sport is just a flypaper to attract participants to broader social development programs, or an educational medium.
Erica Randle
Title: A stakeholder perspective on the efficacy of regulations controlling commercial tourism operators in Victorian National Parks
Supervisors: Professor Russell Hoye and Dr. Warwick Frost
Summary: This research considers the efficacy of regulations controlling commercial tourism operators in Victorian National Parks from a stakeholder’s perspective. The objective of National Park systems is to facilitate conservation of environmental and cultural assets, and to provide natural areas for recreation. Changes are currently being made to the regulations controlling commercial tourism operators in Victorian National Parks which essentially will allow private investment and development of tourism infrastructure, such as jetties and accommodation facilities, within National Park borders. Tourism industry groups are adamant tourism management has matured to ensure sustainable development in protected areas occurs, but conservation groups; the community; and recreation groups; propose such changes will have a long term detrimental effect on environmental protection and ensuring these areas remain accessible to all the community.
Merryn Sherwood
Title: The Mixed Zone: How Australian Media Managers influence the Production of Sports News
Supervisors: Associate Professor Matthew Nicholson and Professor Tim Marjoribanks
Summary: This research aims to explore the Australian sports communication workforce, an increasingly influential body in the production of sports news in Australia, using multi-method approach of surveys, interviews and ethnography. While this PhD thesis is mostly exploratory given the lack of current research on this area, it will include a focus on the organisational roles and work practises of Australian sports communication professionals.
