The Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) at La Trobe University is delighted to announce that Filip Djordjevic is the successful recipient of a joint PhD scholarship from La Trobe and Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom. Djordjevic is one of three successful scholarship recipients of the partnership.
Djordjevic, who will join the CAPR team in March, will undertake a comparative study of community influence on alcohol licencing in Australia and the UK. He will be enrolled in a PhD at both La Trobe and Sheffield Hallam Universities, allowing him to conduct fieldwork in two settings and benefit from the research community at both institutions. Valued at over $110,000 over the next 3.5 years, the scholarship allows for a truly international partnership, where Djordjevic will have funding and research support to spend up to 12 months at Sheffield Hallam over the course of his PhD.
By preparing a comparative case study of examples of community involvement in alcohol licencing processes in both countries, Djordjevic’s research will allow for greater understanding of how communities can be supported to limit the health and social harms from alcohol in their local areas.
Djordjevic will be supervised by CAPR researcher’s Dr Claire Wilkinson and Dr Robyn Dwyer, and Sheffield Hallam academics Dr Joanna Reynolds and Professor Paul Hickman. Djordjevic will build on previous work in this area, including as published by members of his supervisory team, in the International Journal of Drug Policy, and in Drug and Alcohol Review: Barriers to addressing alcohol-related harm, and Accessibility of ‘essential’ alcohol in the time of COVID‐19.
Dr Wilkinson said, “Currently little is known about how ‘top down’ or ‘bottom-up’ mechanisms influence licensing processes and whose voices are (and are not) heard when alcohol licensing decisions are made.”
“These processes and decisions have implications for the health and social inequalities faced by some disadvantaged groups in relation to alcohol harms.”
“The international nature of the scholarship will provide for greater understanding of different models of community engagement and participation in alcohol-policy making and support the translation of effective policies to reduce alcohol-related harms from other settings”, she said.
CAPR Director Emmanuel Kuntsche and team look forward to welcoming Filip in March.
Media contact: Susanne Newton, s.newton2@latrobe.edu.au or 03 9479 5693.
