Associate Professor
Christina Malatzky
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Biography
Dr Christina Malatzky (PhD, BA (Hons)) is a feminist sociologist and critical social science scholar who researches power and gender in (rural) health, and processes related to place attachment and belonging in-place within rural places as part of a commitment to a spatial justice agenda. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and Social Work and Chief Investigator in QUT’s Centre for Justice.Christina is a qualitative researcher with expertise in multiple methods of data collection (one-on-one and small group interviewing, focus group facilitation, observation, and the systematic collation of textual data) and analysis (critical thematic analysis, Foucauldian discourse analysis and document analysis) within critical, exploratory, case study and participatory action methodologies and teaches research methods in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Some of her projects have been funded by the Australian Research Council. She is currently working on a range of research projects that explore gender dynamics within rural health workforces and systems; gender equality in STEMM hospital and health service settings; the role of place and belonging in retaining a rural health workforce; and rural health ethics. Collectively, this research, and Christina’s broader research agenda is underpinned by a strong commitment to achieving social justice and equity in health.
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Research field
Sociology, Public Health and Health Services, Other studies in Human Society
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Murdoch University)
Professional memberships and associations
Member and Convenor of the Rural Issues thematic group of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
Editorial Advisory Board, Health Sociology Review
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Teaching
As a tertiary educator, I have experience teaching across a broad range of disciplines and year levels in face-to-face, online and blended modes. I have many years of experience teaching in the fields of anthropology and sociology, developmental psychology, academic learning skills and public health. I have supervised medical students undertaking year-long empirical research projects, and taught qualitative research methods to graduate research students, health professionals and researchers from a diverse range of disciplines. I have also devised new courses and subjects pertaining to First Nation health and facilitated teaching and learning workshops for health care providers across a broad range of subjects including identity politics, racism, White privilege, sameness and clinical neutrality. Currently, I teach: PUB215 Public Health Practice PUB416 Research Methods HLN707 Research Methods in Health
Experience
Christina has worked with a range of health professionals (from Chief Executive Officers, nursing, and allied health practitioners, through to health administration staff and catering staff) employed in a range of different health service settings (e.g., hospital and community health environments) to understand how change, at a cultural, institutional, and practice level can be achieved. Thus, she has an insight into the complexities of fostering organisational and institutional cultural change ‘on the ground’. She has experience of working in partnership with health service leaders as well as health workers from across all levels within health organisations in challenging, complex, and potentially transformative research.
Christina’s scholarly contribution to the development of knowledge spans across sociology, gender studies, rural studies and rural health and has centred on understanding, critically engaging with, and seeking ways to disrupt the operation of power within the fields of health and gender. Her research has sought to identify and deconstruct dominant discourses within the health sector, including those pertaining to ‘urban’ versus ‘rural’ places, and the domain of gender. Her intention is to develop understanding of how power relations (re)produced through dominant discourses can be disrupted by investigating opportunities for resistance, including the promotion of alternative discourses, and ways of thinking and ‘doing’.
Publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Christina, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).