Researcher

Dr Maree Higgins

My Expertise

human rights, people from refugee backgrounds, people of African descent, forensic mental health, older people transitioning into care, arts-based research, co-design, participatory methods and ethics, trauma-informed and social justice research.

Keywords

social work

human rights

inclusive social work

refugees

disability

aged care

criminal justice social work

australian social work education

Fields of Research (FoR)

Social work, Human rights and justice issues (excl. law), Migrant cultural studies, Stakeholder engagement, Public participation and community engagement, Counselling, wellbeing and community services

Biography

Maree Higgins is Senior Lecturer and the Social Work Honours Program Convenor at UNSW. Maree undertakes research on human rights priorities of people from refugee backgrounds, those with disability, older people and missing girls. Maree provides research supervision and teaches professional ethics and practice courses. She is an Associate of the Australian Institute of Human Rights and is affiliated with the Forced Migration Research Network,...view more

Maree Higgins is Senior Lecturer and the Social Work Honours Program Convenor at UNSW. Maree undertakes research on human rights priorities of people from refugee backgrounds, those with disability, older people and missing girls. Maree provides research supervision and teaches professional ethics and practice courses. She is an Associate of the Australian Institute of Human Rights and is affiliated with the Forced Migration Research Network, the Kaldor Centre and the Gendered Violence Research Network.

My Grants

Evans P, Baldry E, Sheehan R, Newton BJ, Higgins M, Trotter C, Flynn C & Urquhart R Missing girls: from childhood runaways to criminalised woman (2022-2025) Total Grant Awarded: $204,307

Newton, BJ, Higgins, M, Trotter, C., & Sheehan, R., Missing girls: from childhood runaway to criminalised woman (2019) Total Grant Awarded: $5,000

Baldry, E., Evans, P., Newton, BJ, Higgins, M., Trotter, C., & Sheehan, R., Missing girls: from childhood runaway to criminalised woman (2019) Total Grant Awarded: $5,000

Lenette, C., Banks, S., Milne, EJ, Nunn, C., Higgins, M., Atem, A., & Nguyen, D., (2019) Ethics and community-based participatory research in refugee studies: Co-designing a framework with refugee-background co-researchers (2019) Total Grant Awarded: $5,000

Sole: WIL Futures. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW (2019) Total Grant Awarded: $10,000

Ravulo, Fox, Higgins, Blakemore: NUW Alliance Community Hub (NUWACH). Newcastle, UNSW and Wollongong University Scheme (2018) Total Grant Awarded: $1,500

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Social Work), ACU National

Bachelor of Social Work (Hons First Class), UNSW

My Research Activities

Maree's research focuses on social justice, human rights and contextualised lived experience. She is an investigator on the following projects:

Ethics and community-based participatory research in refugee studies: Co-designing a framework with refugee-background co-researchers
Missing girls: from childhood runaway to criminalised woman
SESLHD 'Beyond Respite' Project
WIL Futures: Love to Life!
NUW Alliance Community Hub (NUWACH)

My Research Supervision

Supervision keywords

human rights

refugees

intercultural studies

Areas of supervision

Human Rights

Forced Migration

Culturally Responsive Practice

Critical Criminology

Critical Disability Studies

Dignity in Aging

Currently supervising

PhD: Karen Daniels (2019, Principal): Experiences of people with SMI in Forensic Settings; Danya Schonberger (2021, Joint-Principal): Social work tele-practice with people with disability. Honours: Jordii Burke (2022), Kate Mesaglio (2022), Rona Zaire-Sasson (2022) and Abbey Somers (2022).

Completions

Masters: Ms Miki Hachigo (2021, Principal): Transition into aged care for people who have experienced long-term homelessness and chronic alcohol use;

Honours: Meghan Sproule (2021): Inclusive sexual education with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder; Patricia Ho (2021): Human rights, displacement, conflict and war. Kaydee Jackosalem (2021): Accessibility, engagement, and culturally responsive practice with people from CALD backgrounds; Marina Aguirre (2020): Guatemalan Mayan women’s lived experiences of safety, freedom and identity. Jessica Totenhofer (2020): Social Work Acts of Resistance to Australia’s Refugee and Asylum Seeker Policies; Danya Schonberger (2019): Use of strengths-based approaches with people with intellectual disability; Timothy Indsto (2019): Media representations about male forced migrants.

My Engagement

I proudly engage with social work bodies including the Australian Heads of Schools of Socal Work, the National field Educational Network. and the Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research group as well as human rights and policy bodies including the Kaldor Centre, the Gendered Violence Research Network and the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific.

My research engages with people with lived experience of forced migration, incarceration, disability and older age, and the organisations working to promote their safety and inclusion including STARTTS, Foundation House, The Black Dog Institute and the Prince of Wales Hospital.