Research students - Centre for Decent Work & Industry

We host PhD and MPhil students who contribute to our research on a range of topics. Contact Centre Director Robyn Mayes if you are interested in joining this program as a research student.

Current PhD students

Natalia Adan

Currently, Natalia holds a scholarship from QUT to undertake her research at the School of Management. She explores food waste governance in the food service business. The focus of the study is to understand how private governance responds to the challenges of reducing food waste in such establishments. Using qualitative...
Benafsha Askarzai

Benafsha is a Doctoral Candidate at QUT and currently holds a research scholarship within the School of Justice. The main objective of her project is to identify neutralisations present within far-right and Islamic extremist narratives, which often contribute towards the formation and maintenance of collective identity, recruitment pathways, as well...
Linda Bennison

Linda’s PhD research focuses on legislative regimes for cooperatives. Eight in ten Australians hold cooperative or mutual membership, the sector contributes 8.3% of GDP, yet this business form is poorly understood and recognised by most Australians. The legislative environment has been identified in the development, or lack of, Australian cooperatives...
Ligerui Chen

Ligerui’s PhD study explores the complexities that migrant workers, who are working in abroad, from Chinese multi-national corporations are facing in the context of ‘belt and road’ initiative. His study also attempts to find out how migrant worker shapes where their work is being produced and how host-country context influences migrant...
Roma Deo

Roma is a Doctoral student in the Faculty of Education, with supervisory team consisting of Professor Abby Cathcart and Dr Ian Davies. Roma’s research explores post school study options of onshore international students and the influencing factors shaping these preferences. Her research reflects her interest in international education and the global,...
Alicia Feldman

Alicia’s PhD research will explore the disparities in research success between medical staff with explicit research responsibilities or roles who are employed in the Australian hospitals and health service sector. Specifically, the research seeks to understand the differing pathways to success, and barriers faced by women and minority groups. The...
Melissa Giles

Re-working narratives: How professional writers make sense of and adapt to vision-related reading difficulties For this practice-led PhD research, Melissa is using memoirs, creative writing and autoethnography to explore storytelling as a sensemaking tool. Centre Supervisor: Jannine Williams
Calum Henderson

Calum is a current Doctoral Candidate within the School of Justice at QUT. He holds a research scholarship to investigate the sentencing of people with an intellectual disability in the Australian criminal justice system. Between 25%-30% of people in prison have borderline intellectual disability and 10% have mild intellectual disability,...
Risini Ilangasingha

Risini’s PhD is titled, The Construction of Spaces of Spas and the Identity of the Masseuse in Sri Lanka. Being puzzled by the ambivalent nature of the spaces of spas in Sri Lanka which has become a social taboo in the wider Sri Lankan society, her study critically examines the intersection...
Maria Khan

Maria’s PhD research explores the decent work implications of work organized through digital labour platforms in the domestic care sector in Australia. Within a recent proliferation of platform work across a number of industries and informal sectors, there is considerable debate contrasting the benefits digital platforms against the uncertain and...
Ave Le Blanc

Ave has worked for over 8 years in corporate and non–profit advertising in the Caribbean. She has been employed with global agencies McCann Worldgroup and Saatchi & Saatchi where she worked on many renowned brands including Nestlè, PAHO/ WHO and United Way. She completed her undergraduate degree with Honours, in...
Erin Ma

Erin is a PhD candidate of the School of Accountancy of QUT. Her study is motivated by the 2017-19 Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, which revealed a fees scandal where superannuation funds were making profits while disregarding the interests of members. Therefore, her...
Laura Martinez-Buelvas

Laura holds an iMove CRC Scholarship and QUT International HDR Tuition Fee Sponsorship to undertake her research at the School of Psychology & Counselling. Her research project aims to design safe and equitable interactions between Cooperative and automated vehicles (CAVs) and Vulnerable road users (VRUs) to ensure that each other’s...
Zoe Mellick

Zoe Mellick is a PhD candidate and teacher in Fashion at QUT in Brisbane. Zoe has been involved as a research assistant in two research projects examining the Australian cotton value chain (2016-18). She also has over a decade of experience working in retail with Australian fashion brands. Zoe’s educational...
Jenna Mikus

Jenna is a PhD candidate in the Urban Informatics group at QUT’s School of Design in the Creative Industries faculty. She is also a sessional academic in the School of Business. Jenna received her BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering (with a minor in Entrepreneurship & Management) from the Johns Hopkins...
Deborah Munro

This research investigates the ways in which care work impacts upon women’s higher education decision-making processes. While much has been learned about the ways in which persistent gender inequities hinder women’s career opportunities and thus economic advancement, less is understood about the ways in which the unequal distribution of care...
Denise Nogueira

Denise’s current research aims to understand the possibilities and dilemmas that social finance methods offer to alternative business models. Her research explores how individuals, organisations, structures and financial resources are mobilised in physical and digital spaces; and what are the effects of these arrangements, especially in terms of social inclusion,...
Gayani Samarakoon

Gayani is a Higher Degree Research student of the Faculty of Management of the Queensland University Technology. In her PhD research, she is exploring the shop floor worker voice in the Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility agenda of the Sri Lankan apparel industry adopting a critical perspective by challenging the mainstream...
Amos Tay

Amos is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education under the QUT Postgraduate Research Award (International) Scholarship and his supervisory team comprises of Abby Cathcart and Henk Huijser. His PhD research is a reflection of his interests in digital equity, technology-enhanced learning and social justice. It examines how emerging...