ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1373-3978
Current Organisations
Flinders University
,
Queensland University of Technology
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Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 16-06-2014
Abstract: This is a report on how (pro)feminist social workers might use the qualitative research methodology, memory work. The first section acknowledges the pioneering work of Frigga Haug in the conception and use of memory work and considers the underlying assumptions of the methodology and prescribed uses of the method. In the second section, we use a recent memory-work project conducted with women social science students/graduates, who come from low-socio-economic backgrounds, to illustrate memory-work processes in action. Here, we emphasise the potential benefits of using the method, which include its ability to inspire trust and solidarity in a group setting and connect the personal with the political.
Publisher: Sydney University Press
Date: 16-05-2013
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-11-2018
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 24-03-2023
DOI: 10.1177/10497323231163723
Abstract: While animals have long been a focus in therapeutic spaces for young people via approaches such as animal-assisted therapies, there is a sense in which such approaches overlook the broader contribution that animals play by being present in young people’s lives. In this article, we explore how the presence of animals (both physical and psychological) in interactions with healthcare professionals may hold specific meaning for trans young people living in Australia. Participants were recruited through Parents of Gender Diverse Children. Interviews were conducted in November 2021 with 17 trans young people and one of each of their parents living in Australia. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Two main themes were developed: (1) how healthcare professionals respond to conversations about animals and (2) the beneficial role of the presence of animals. The article concludes by discussing the importance of thinking about the presence of animals beyond existing frameworks and recognizing the value placed on the presence of animals by trans young people.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 21-04-2018
Abstract: Over the past three decades, a growing body of research has focused on experiences of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) among people of erse genders and/or sexualities. Missing, however, has been a focus on what is known as “the link” between DVA and animal cruelty with regard to people of erse genders and/or sexualities. The present article reports on a study of 503 people living in either Australia or the United Kingdom, who reported on both their intimate human relationships and their relationships with animals, including relationships that were abusive. In terms of “the link,” a fifth of respondents who had experienced violence or abuse also reported that animal cruelty had been perpetuated by the violent or abusive partner. Statistical interactions were found between having witnessed animal cruelty perpetrated by a partner, gender and sexuality, and both psychological distress and social connectedness. Female participants who had witnessed animal cruelty reported greater psychological distress and lower levels of social support, and both lesbian and bisexual participants who had witnessed animal cruelty reported lower levels of social support. The article concludes by considering the implications of these findings for future research and service provision.
Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society
Date: 11-07-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-04-2016
DOI: 10.1002/9781118663219.WBEGSS128
Abstract: Gendered time refers to the historical and contemporary conceptualization and valuing of time in men and women's actual and symbolic lives.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-09-2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-01-2016
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 25-11-2015
Abstract: Why should social workers care about vaginal fistulas? Why should we turn our attention to a health problem mostly experienced by materially impoverished young Black women, especially those in Africa? Using a critical perspective, which we define, we argue that vaginal fistulas are much more than a gynaecological health issue but symptomatic of the gender-, race-, class- and age-based oppressions many young Black women in the ‘Third World’ suffer. Affecting very few White western women but plenty of subjugated Black women forced to live in chronic poverty, and exposed to multiple levels of control from early in their lives, vaginal fistula sufferers often have little, if any, access to adequate health services. Our aim is to put vaginal fistulas on the global social work agenda. It is a call to work towards ending a problem that produces much shame and suffering for far too many women.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 15-12-2020
Abstract: This article has been written for qualitative researchers inclined towards in-person, narrative interviewing with members of groups designated ‘inconvenient’ or ‘hard to reach’, about sensitive or controversial topics. The aim is to critically reflect on narrative research interviewing practices we have undertaken in Australia with (1) women who had recently survived domestic violence and had relocated with ‘their animal companions’ and (2) dairy farmers discussing challenges to their wellbeing and that of ‘their livestock’. The themes of affect, iteration and assemblages guide our discussion. Affect speaks to emotions iteration to researchers raising prior interview content with subsequent participants and assemblages to the process of piecing together an analysis that later appears seamless. With some caveats, we argue that (in-person) narrative interviewing has the potential to generate rapport with erse participants that enables the production of ‘good data’, that is, data that are rich in detail but also politicised.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2004
Abstract: This article seeks to contribute to discussions about how narrative analysis might be undertaken. I do this by exploring one method of narrative approach to analyse personal stories. Before considering some of the issues associated with narrative research, I comment on the rise of the ‘narrative moment’. I then provide ways to conceptualize narrative research. In the final part of the discussion, I discuss ways to conduct narrative research. In so doing, I provide concrete details about how personal stories might be analysed line by line.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-1999
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-02-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S10896-023-00503-Z
Abstract: The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to explore the role of animals in buffering against cisgenderist violence experienced by trans young people. Interviews were conducted with 17 Australian trans young people and one of their parents who spoke with us about their relationships with their animals living in the home, including in terms of animals providing a protective function against the negative effects of cisgenderism. The transcribed interviews were analyzed thematically. Thematic analysis resulted in the development of three themes. First, at the psychological level, animals helped young people to combat feelings of dysphoria, wrought by the violent effects of social norms about gender. Second, at the interpersonal level, animals helped to soothe young people when they were faced with less than supportive or indeed hostile responses from family members and other people in their lives. Third, at the community level, the companionship provided by animals offered a buffer against feelings of marginalization premised on cisgenderist social norms. All three themes speak to the importance of conceptualizing violence in family contexts as more than just the obvious: as encompassing more subtle forms of marginalization that in their net effect may constitute forms of violence or microaggressions. As a counter to these subtle forms of violence, animals are thus perceived as playing an important role as confidantes, as offering a place of non-judgemental safety, and as a touchstone to the more-than-human.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 20-10-2022
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780192848185.013.18
Abstract: The business of meat eating and other forms of animal consumption has been globally institutionalized, with most governments such as those in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, providing large subsidies to ensure their continued viability. This transfer of public funds continues in spite of extensive evidence of animal agricultures environmental impact with justifications on the protection of rural and regional jobs—especially for traditional, non-Indigenous men. This reflects how animal farming is still etched in the dominant masculine representations of ‘true’ ‘Kiwi’ and ‘Aussie’ national identities. Carnism, or the assumed naturalness of meat eating, and associated practices of animal consumption are, however, being challenged. Worldwide there has been a notable rise in veganism, especially by women, who have long been part of animal welfare and rights movements. These competing discourses about the ethics and morality of using animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and testing have been enlivened by social media, where discussions can become intensely emotive, if not hostile. The chapter explores the competing discourses about animal consumption promoted by dairy farmers and vegans respectively based on analysis of The Dairy Farmers’ Wellbeing Project (2017–19) and the Vegan Wellbeing Project (2019–20). From this data, the tendency for dairy farmers to portray vegans as feral and vegans to portray dairy farmers as barbaric are explored. And as the chapter shows, this struggle over morality is not only gendered and very active in public life but there is a significant impact on markets, jobs, and future industry directions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-01-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-12-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-02-2019
DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2019.1568577
Abstract: Extensive literature reveals the many health benefits animal companions can bring to the humans who live with them. However, much of this work has taken place with heterosexual and cisgender populations. To address this gap, we conducted qualitative interviews with 19 trans and cisgender women of erse sexualities in Australia who reported having significant relationships with animal companions. In this article, we explore the benefits of healthcare providers (e.g. doctors, counsellors) recognising the potential significance of interspecies companionship for the health of trans and cisgender women of erse sexualities. Findings relating to interactions with animal service providers are used to further illustrate themes of recognition and non-recognition as they relate to the women's genders, sexualities, and relationships with animal companions. In the discussion we consider some of the contextual challenges for such recognition to occur in service provision. Suggestions are then offered in relation to how providers might think about service provision which is both inclusive of all women and takes into account close connections with animal companions.
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Date: 2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-02-2017
Abstract: The link between domestic violence and animal abuse has now been well established, indicating that where there is one form of abuse, there is often the other. Research on this link, however, has almost exclusively focused on heterosexual cisgender people’s relationships. Lacking, then, is an exploration of the possibly unique links between domestic violence and animal abuse in the context of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people’s relationships. In this article we adopt a feminist intersectional approach informed by Critical Animal Studies to advocate for a non-pathologising approach to understanding LGBT people’s relationships with regard to the link between domestic violence and animal abuse.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 15-08-2005
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-06-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GWAO.12246
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Date: 2016
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2009
Abstract: • Summary: For new social work researchers — especially those committed to using research to create a better society — research can entail a daunting series of challenges. In this article I review some of the lessons I have learned from the research I have undertaken over the last two decades, including those associated with, getting started creating a focus acquiring the requisite resources using theory using supervision handling ethical dilemmas writing up and finishing the research. • Findings: Knowledge creation activities involve many potential opportunities and stumbling blocks. Emotions and politics are part of the process. Appreciating some of the easily overlooked dimensions of the research process may help new researchers avoid some of the problems. • Applications: This article is dedicated mostly to new researchers hoping to avoid commonly experienced problems associated with undertaking socially just and politically sensitive research. More seasoned researchers might use the article as guide to re-evaluate their own research histories.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2014
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 10-06-2019
DOI: 10.1108/IJPH-03-2018-0011
Abstract: Most women who serve time in prison will eventually be released and expected to reintegrate back into society. To maximize the chances of success, careful support is usually required. An ex le of this support work was the Healthy Relationships Program (HRP, 2016) offered to women inmates of the Adelaide Women’s Prison (South Australia) pre-release. The content of the HRP was influenced by a gender-responsive framework and constructed as a social work program. The purpose of this paper is to report on a small qualitative study that used semi-structured interviews pre- and post-program to explore women participants’ expectations, perceptions and experiences of the program. In this paper, the focus is on the women inmates’ interview transcripts where a thematic analysis was conducted. Two main research questions drove this analysis. First: How did the women experience the HRP? Second: What does their reported experience reveal about the ongoing need for gender-responsive support? The key findings are that domestic violence and relationships with children are strong motivators for participation in programs therefore, gender-responsive support is still required in prison programs. However, the paper also advocates that future iterations of gender-responsive support and social work interventions become more consciously intersectional feminist in orientation. A qualitative design was used to explore what women thought the HRP taught them. In idual face-to-face interviews were used to explore women’s perceptions, ideas and experiences of healthy relationships. Thematic analysis was used to draw out the themes across interviews. The key arguments made are that gender-responsive support is still required but that future iterations of gender-responsive support become more consciously intersectional feminist in orientation. The researchers experienced strict time restrictions to conduct interviews and therefore depth was somewhat compromised. To try and compensate for this restriction, the researchers visited potential participants as part of program recruitment and information sharing to help enable and build general rapport before the interviews. Time restrictions and prison security protocols did not allow for researchers to check transcripts with the women. Reporting on this case study also showed that social work practice can influence relationships with institutions, such as prisons, that perpetrate marginalization and therefore enable a setting that facilitates safe participation in programs. Gender-responsive frameworks provide the much needed validation of gender differences, but also require a feminist intersectional lens to more consciously aid in the conceptualization and evaluation of future programs for women in prison. It is this intersectional lens that is more likely to bring multiple experiences of oppression into focus so that personal issues and problems can be analyzed in a richer wider social context, particularly intersections between gender, class and/ethnicity race. This paper has reported on women’s expectations and experiences of a health relationships program and provides insight and learnings for future practitioners intending to run similar programs. Overall, the women participants were able to articulate their own personal learnings about interpersonal relationships and were able to acknowledge the impacts of abuse and violence in their lives in the program.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-10-2017
Publisher: University of Otago Library
Date: 25-09-2017
DOI: 10.11157/ANZSWJ-VOL29ISS3ID384
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Empathy is associated with engagement, compassion, social support and emotional sensitivity, and it is a hallmark of good social work practice. Empathy rightfully receives much attention in social work practice, however, interspecies empathy has yet to be included. This article has been written to address this gap.METHODS: Two main research questions guide our conceptual discussion of young people, interspecies empathy and social work: (1) Why is empathy important to social work with young people? (2) What can an Australian RSPCA Humane Education Programme (HEP) teach social workers about the benefits of interspecies empathy for young people? After our literature review, we examine our illustrative ex le, which is an HEP offered mostly to newly arrived refugee and migrant young people living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, whose prior experiences of and/or attitudes towards animals may not have been positive. FINDINGS: Social workers are wise to prioritise empathy because extensive research has shown that, across a erse range of fields, modes of practice in and beyond social work, empathic practitioners are more effective, achieving better outcomes with their clients. From the letters the young people sent to the RSPCA Victoria after completing an HEP, we note their self-reported increases in empathy for animals, including those they had previously feared or shunned.CONCLUSION: There are many potential benefits of recognising, fostering and valuing interspecies empathy through humane education programmes. However, for these to be ethical, care and empathy must be shown towards the wellbeing of the animals involved, not just the human participants.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Date: 2017
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2005
Abstract: Although questions about why so many women “love to love” and why some stay with abusive lovers may seem clichéd, they are questions over which many people still muse. Using a collage of ideas drawn from a wide range of sources, including 83 narrative feminist interviews that were conducted from 2000 to 2004, I respond to these questions, trying to show some of the inducements that are made to women to love others. The simulated diary entries of one (composite) woman suggest that as many women enter monogamous coupledom, there are unexpected (but all too common) problems of intimacy.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 05-10-2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 04-2003
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 25-10-2016
DOI: 10.1093/BJSW/BCU115
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 28-01-2020
Abstract: This article explores the intersections of human and animal lives in the context of violence and marginalisation. It draws on two studies, the first involving a sub-s le of 23 open-ended survey responses completed by transgender and non-binary (TNB) people taken from a larger study exploring the intersections of animal- and human-directed violence, and the second involving eight interviews with TNB people focused on the meaning of animal companionship. Together, the findings suggest that animal companionship can be a protective factor for TNB people experiencing marginalisation and/or distress, whether in the context of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) or in the context of other forms of intra- or inter-personal points or adversity. The findings suggest that animal companions can provide TNB people with comfort and non-judgemental emotional interactions in the face of DVA and other life stressors. However, the risk of violence directed towards animals must also be considered. The article concludes with discussion of the implications for DVA service provision and research.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 09-07-2021
Abstract: Queer Entanglements provides the first comprehensive account of the intersections of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans, and non-binary people's lives with the lives of animals. Exploring erse topics such as domestic violence, grief following the loss of an animal, veganism, cruelty-free makeup products, Pride events, and community activism, the book offers a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the contexts that bring together human and animal lives. By using real-world ex les, it provides a lively and engaging view of what it means to think about the connections between animal and human lives, even when human experiences operate at the expense of animal wellbeing. This critical, intersectional, and interdisciplinary perspective on human-animal relations will be of interest to scholars and students in human-animal studies, psychology, sociology, social work, and cultural and gender studies.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 19-09-2016
Abstract: This article contributes to social work methodological discussions by examining narrative feminist research in action. Our discussion considers our conceptualization and use of narrative feminist research, which is appreciative of intersectionality. We draw illustrative ex les from four projects: (1) In the Name of Love, Women’s Narratives of Love, and Abuse (1998–2008), (2) Helping Alliances with Drug Treatment Clients (2010–2016), (3) In Good Company, Women, Companion Animals, and Social Work (2013–2014), and (4) Distress in Childbirth: A Social Work Perspective (in process). We also consider challenges associated with using narrative feminist research data as evidence. For all of the challenges currently facing narrative feminist researchers, we maintain that the methodology offers social workers many benefits and expansive, praxis-oriented possibilities.
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 20-01-2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Date: 2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-11-2018
Abstract: This article reports on a thematic analysis of open-ended questions about how humans respond to violence directed toward animals in the context of violent human relationships, derived from an Australian-U.K. survey of people of erse genders and/or sexualities. From the 137 responses, three major themes were identified: (a) animals are an important source of support, (b) humans actively protect animal companions, and (c) witnessing animal abuse can trigger leaving violent relationships. The findings offer unique insights for practitioners into the help-seeking needs of people of erse genders and/or sexualities who live with animal companions in the context of domestic violence.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 25-02-2005
DOI: 10.1093/CDJ/BSI037
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Date: 11-2013
Abstract: Social service providers, policy makers and researchers are increasingly ‘targeting the hard to reach’. Ostensibly, targeting the hard to reach appears to be an innocuous and logical, if not laudable goal. From a critical social work perspective, however, it may be seen to pose some hazardous possibilities for oppressed and stigmatised groups, particularly in the context of welfare austerity. Our discussion responds to, and is organised by, five key questions: (1) How do we understand critical social work and welfare austerity? (2) Who usually gets constituted as hard to reach? (3) Why target hard-to-reach groups? (4) What hazardous possibilities may occur in the process of targeting? and (5) How might critical social workers engage and support the hard to reach without re roducing stigma?
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 20-09-2016
DOI: 10.1093/BJSW/BCW110
Publisher: SensePublishers
Date: 2015
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-10-2015
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 18-08-2010
Abstract: Participation in the predominantly female voluntary social services is the norm that most workers expect, but little is known about how participation plays out in the circumscribed realities of managerialism and outsourcing. This paper asserts that there are three kinds of overlapping participative processes in the voluntary social services: (1) procedural-formal (2) practice-professional and (3) affinity processes, and that these are closely associated with the gendered notions of caring and care’s connection to social mission and values. Our data suggest that rather than expanding in the context of third way politics, opportunities for all three kinds of participation have been severely curtailed by managerialism. This paper presents arguments drawn from two case studies of conditions in voluntary agencies (in Scotland and Australia) where caring was found to be a form of workplace participation, as well as the basis for exploitation and abuse of the workers by employers and clients.
No related grants have been discovered for Heather Fraser.