Survivors Representing Survivors: Shared Experience and Identity in Direct Service Lawyering

First, the survey gauges the effects that personal experiences of gender-based violence may have on the delivery of quality direct legal representation for survivors of gender-based violence. Instead of tracking trial outcomes or other tangible legal “wins,” these questions assess metrics of quality through empathy, professional distance, client-centered practice, and other commonly regarded ideals within the practice of direct service lawyering for under-served communities. The survey also gauges the lasting effect that this work may have on the attorneys themselves, in both their approach to lawyering and their perception of gender-based violence on an individual, local, and systemic scale

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. Epidemiological studies have found a disparity in diagnosis for children from Hispanic and low-income families, as compared to Anglo (White, non-Hispanic) children, who are more likely to be diagnosed earlier. This study considered whether parents‘ discursive ability and resources could be a factor in delayed ASD diagnosis. The purposive sample for this critical linguistic and discursive study included 10 Hispanic parents with a sociolinguistic heritage from Mexico, and 10 Anglo parents with a sociolinguistic heritage from the U.S. The Hispanic sample was less privileged than the Anglo sample, which had higher average levels of income, education, and English speaking skills. The sources of data included digitally transcribed texts from interviews of the 20 participant parents and the texts scraped from nine national ASD websites. Phase 1 of the analysis coded, compared, and critically analyzed accounts of Hispanic and Anglo parents regarding their experience of assessing and obtaining a professional diagnosis of their child‘s behavior. Phase 2 employed critical linguistic/discourse analysis of the scraped texts from ASD websites and subsequent content analysis of those texts regarding the diagnosis and treatment of a child with ASD. The findings from the first phase suggest that Anglo parents focused on constructing themselves as -good parents‖ who met ideological expectations for monitoring and caring for their children. In contrast, most Hispanic parents used their iv discourse and resources to construct themselves as concerned about their children‘s linear progress in school, ability to communicate, and social adaptability. Findings from the second phase of analysis suggest that the same discourse used by privileged parents in this study, on a microlevel, were consistent with the dominant U.S. macrolevel discourse and ideology of the -good parent‖ as emerged from the ASD website data. This study suggests that, the more closely parents, either Hispanic or Anglo, were aligned with the privileged discourse model or ideology of the U.S. Anglo -good parent,‖ the fewer barriers they reported to diagnosis. This study also suggests the need for further research, particularly about the Hispanic/Mexican discursive model of parenting

Co-creative media: theorising digital storytelling as a platform for researching and developing participatory culture

This paper considers the question, 'what is co-creative media, and why is it a useful idea in social media research'? The term 'co-creative media' is now used by Creative Industries researchers at QUT to theoretically frame their use of digital storytelling as an action research platform for investigating participatory new media culture. Digital storytelling is a set of collaborative digital media production techniques that have been used to facilitate social participation in numerous Australian and international contexts. Digital storytelling has been adapted by Creative Industries researchers at QUT as a platform for researching the potential of vernacular creativity in a variety of contexts, including social inclusion of marginalized and disadvantaged groups; inclusion in public histories of narratives that might be overlooked; and articulation of voices that otherwise remain silent in the formulation of social and economic development strategies. The adaption of digital storytelling to different contexts has been shaped by the reflexive, recursive, and pragmatic requirements of action research. Amongst other things, this activity draws attention to the agency of researchers in facilitating these kinds of participatory media processes and outcomes. This discussion serves to problematise concepts of participatory media by introducing the term 'co-creative media' and differentiating these from other social media production practices

Decision makers\u27 experience of participatory dynamic simulation modelling: Methods for public health policy

Background: Systems science methods such as dynamic simulation modelling are well suited to address questions about public health policy as they consider the complexity, context and dynamic nature of system-wide behaviours. Advances in technology have led to increased accessibility and interest in systems methods to address complex health policy issues. However, the involvement of policy decision makers in health-related simulation model development has been lacking. Where end-users have been included, there has been limited examination of their experience of the participatory modelling process and their views about the utility of the findings. This paper reports the experience of end-user decision makers, including senior public health policy makers and health service providers, who participated in three participatory simulation modelling for health policy case studies (alcohol related harm, childhood obesity prevention, diabetes in pregnancy), and their perceptions of the value and efficacy of this method in an applied health sector context. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with end-user participants from three participatory simulation modelling case studies in Australian real-world policy settings. Interviewees were employees of government agencies with jurisdiction over policy and program decisions and were purposively selected to include perspectives at different stages of model development. Results: The ‘co-production’ aspect of the participatory approach was highly valued. It was reported as an essential component of building understanding of the modelling process, and thus trust in the model and its outputs as a decision-support tool. The unique benefits of simulation modelling included its capacity to explore interactions of risk factors and combined interventions, and the impact of scaling up interventions. Participants also valued simulating new interventions prior to implementation in the real world, and the comprehensive mapping of evidence and its gaps to prioritise future research. The participatory aspect of simulation modelling was time and resource intensive and therefore most suited to high priority complex topics with contested options for intervening. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a participatory approach to dynamic simulation modelling to support its utility in applied health policy settings