Professor Applied Social and Policy Research; Director, Centre for Loneliness Studies, Sheffield Hallam University Andrea is a leading researcher on loneliness and social isolation, specialising in the wider social determinants and implications through research, programme evaluation, and evidence based policy and practice. The key principles which guide her work are academic rigor and evidence based research which is policy driven and leads to impact and change. Many aspects of her research focus on co-production involving all key partners in the research process, including ‘experts by experience’. As Director of the Policy Evaluation Group (2002-11), Deputy and then Co-Director of CIRCLE (2011–2016,) Director of Care-Connect (2014-2017) and currently Director of Centre for Loneliness Studies (2017+) she has spearheaded interdisciplinary research collaboration and established strong networks in both academia and with external stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Andrea has been awarded research funding of almost £3 million and has published over 50 books, chapters, articles, and reports, and worked on approximately 90 externally funded research projects.
Research fellow, University of Leicester Alexandra Kviat is a Research Fellow at the School of Media, Communication and Sociology and the Institute for Digital Culture, University of Leicester. She works across the fields of consumer and service research, cultural and media studies, urban sociology and human geography. Her interdisciplinary research projects have explored the relationship between digital technology, urban space and everyday consumption in the context of the hospitality, retail and leisure industries. Alexandra's work has been supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the Economic and Social Research Council, the University of Warwick Institute of Advanced Study and Chancellor's International Scholarship, and the Fulbright Program. Alexandra's areas of expertise include: - cafes and other 'third places'; - post-digital culture; - digital disconnection and detox; - board game culture; - servicescape design.
Associate Professor in French and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, University of New England I am originally from Collio di Vobarno, a small town of the province of Brescia, in the north of Italy, not far away from Lake Garda. After attending the Liceo “Enrico Fermi” in Salò (BS, Italy), I completed a Diploma di Laurea in French and English languages, literatures, and cultures at the University of Bologna (Italy); and then an MSt and a DPhil in French at the University of Oxford (Balliol College). I have been a pensionnaire étrangère at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, rue d’Ulm, and an intern at UNESCO (Headquarters, Paris). Before joining the University of New England (Australia), I held the Kathleen Bourne Junior Research Fellowship in French and Comparative Literature at St Anne’s College (Oxford, UK). Currently, I am the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DE200101206: Provincial Poets and the Making of a Nation) funded by the Australian Government.
Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney In the last decade, I have worked in various settings including the public service, private practice, university education and clinical supervision. I have qualifications in Film and Television, Education and Clinical Psychology and my PhD research looked at the development of substance use and mental health in young people. My work with child and adolescent clients has seen me utilise behaviourally based parenting interventions, evaluate Out of Home Care residential services and develop and supervise clinical teams working in these areas. I have worked in a range of specialist clinics Queensland and NSW in child behaviour, child and adolescent anxiety, and adolescent secure care. My recent work has seen me develop and deliver prevention and early intervention services for children, young people and their families/carers; develop, deliver and evaluate services for Indigenous Australians, within rural and remote contexts and for adolescents in Out of Home Care; produce a range of service documents including clinical guidelines and service specifications; evaluate Out of Home Care services; respond in clinical terms to complexity and comorbidity in mental health and to the role parents and carers play in the development of social, emotional and behavioural problems. I am an endorsed as a Clinical Psychologist and as a supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia and my supervision of others has been undertaken within the professional settings I have worked in and in an external capacity. I have supervised clinical master’s students, clinical doctorate students and clinical graduates.
Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne Alexander Bacalja is Senior Lecturer of English and Literacy Education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and the Language and Literacy Research Hub. After beginning his career as a secondary English teacher, Alex has been involved in Initial Teacher Education for almost a decade. He coordinates and teaches secondary English curriculum in the Master of Teaching (Secondary) program at the University of Melbourne and works closely with the broader English teaching profession through school partnerships and leadership roles with Victorian Association for the Teaching of English and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English. His areas of research, scholarship and publications include: the impact of digital technologies, especially digital games, on the literacy practices of young people, critical digital literacy education, and English teaching curriculum and policy.
