Professor Sue Saltmarsh

Biography

Professor Sue Saltmarsh is Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education at the University of New England. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in sociological and cultural studies of education, childhood and family violence, utilising qualitative methodologies including ethnography, social semiotics and discourse analysis.  Her research is informed by theories of everyday life, violence and cultural practices, drawing in particular on the work of Michel de Certeau. She has conducted research across a range of educational contexts, including early childhood education, primary and secondary schools, universities, and community settings nationally and internationally. Her PhD on sexual violence in elite private schooling was awarded the AARE Doctoral Thesis Award for the most outstanding thesis in the field of education in Australia in its year of publication. She subsequently built on that work to consider how organisational cultures are complicit in the production of violence, and to explore issues such as organisational promotions in elite schools and in universities. Her recent work on the intersection of family violence and schooling, in 'I'm trying to tell you, this man is dangerous...and no one's listening: Family violence, parent-school engagement, and school complicity' (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-020-00415-7) was awarded the AER-Springer Best Paper Award in 2021. Sue has served on numerous Human Research Ethics Committees in university and hospital sectors. She has served in research leadership roles in a number of universities in Australia, and most recently was Associate Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Education and Human Development at the Education University of Hong Kong.