Overview
Key publications
Research funding
Supervising & teaching
Career
Section: Overview
Overview
Key publications
Research funding
Supervising & teaching
Career

Key details

Areas of expertise

  • Community & liberation psychology
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Youth identities
  • Intercultural relations
  • Activism

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

About Alison Baker

Alison Baker, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Social Pedagogy in the College of Arts, Business, Law, Education and IT at Victoria University in Melbourne, on the land of the Wurundjeri of the Kulin nation.

Her research focuses on the implications of structures that produce inequality in the lives of various disenfranchised groups as well as those in positions of privilege. Her research also focuses on young people’s experiences of racialization and other forms of oppression, particularly their subjectivities, identity and belonging across contexts.

Alison's research draws on theory in critical community and liberation psychologies, in addition to feminist and critical race scholarship. Her research mobilises creative and participatory research methodologies, specifically visual and sound storytelling modalities to explore and develop young people's sense of social justice and capacity for action.

Qualifications

  • BA, University of Memphis, USA, 2003
  • MSc, North Carolina State University, USA, 2008
  • PhD, North Carolina State University, USA 2011

Key publications

Alison has over 53 publications, with a selection listed here.


A more comprehensive list of Alison's publications is available in the VU Research Repository.

Year Citation
2023 te, Riele., Corcoran, T., MacDonald, F., Baker, A., & White, J. (230101). Incarcerated Young People, Education and Social Justice.

doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23129-2
2021 Quadros, A. D., Kelman, D., White, J., Sonn, C. C., & Baker, A. M. (211021). Poking the Wasp Nest: Young People, Applied Theatre, and Education about Race. Innovations and Controversies.

Year Citation
2021 Sonn, C. C., Baker, A. M., & Agung-Igusti, R. P. (210101). Promoting Epistemic Justice: Community Arts, Identity and Belonging Among African Diaspora in Australia (pp. 141-157). Springer International Publishing.

doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-72220-3_8
2018 Oke, N., Sonn, C., & Baker, A. (180719). Places of Privilege BRILL.

doi: 10.1163/9789004381407
2017 Plows, V., & Baker, A. (170101). On the Edge? (pp. 77-94). SensePublishers.

doi: 10.1007/978-94-6300-866-2_6

Year Citation
2019 Baker, A., & Anderson-Kunert, T. (190315). Journeys in and through sound. Qualitative Research Journal, 19(1), (2-8).

doi: 10.1108/QRJ-02-2019-101
2019 Baker, A. (190315). Battle for truth: poetic interruptions into symbolic violence through sound portraits. Qualitative Research Journal, 19(1), (29-40).

doi: 10.1108/QRJ-D-18-00043
2017 Henderson, D. X., Baker, A., Goings, R. B., & Gordon-Littrean, B. (170901). Exploring Underlying Dimensions of Social Connectedness in the Experiences of Suspended Young People from Ethnically Diverse Populations in the USA. Children and Society, 31(5), (390-402).

doi: 10.1111/chso.12210
2016 Baker, A. M. (160303). The process and product: Crafting community portraits with young people in flexible learning settings. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(3), (309-330).

doi: 10.1080/13603116.2015.1047656
2016 Sonn, C., & Baker, A. (160303). Creating inclusive knowledges: Exploring the transformative potential of arts and cultural practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 20(3), (215-228).

doi: 10.1080/13603116.2015.1047663

Research funding for the past 5 years

Please note:

  • Funding is ordered by the year the project commenced and may continue over several years.
  • Funding amounts for contact research are not disclosed to maintain commercial confidentiality.
  • The order of investigators is not indicative of the role they played in the research project.

Vingrys - VicHealth Impact Research Grant: Aboriginal Australian dietary practices and place-making in public health equity
From: Vic Health Impact Research Grants, Victoria University
Other investigators: Ms Karen Jackson, Dr Megan O'shea, Prof Christopher Sonn, Dr Kristina Vingrys
For period: 2023-2025
 $296,943
Gen-Generator
From: Major Transport Infrastructure Authority
For period: 2023-2024
 $9,955

Resilience: Regenerative City Living Lab
From: Victorian Higher Education Strategic Investment Fund
Other investigators: Dr Jean Hopman, Prof Debra Smith, Dr Amy Quayle, Dr Daniel Ooi, Ms Karen Jackson, Dr Thinh Nguyen
For period: 2021-2022
 $590,000

Developing a place-based youth led action research model: The We Hear YOUth project
From: Thorne Harbour Health, The Foundation For Young Australians
Other investigators: Dr Amy Quayle
For period: 2020-2021
 Not disclosed

Partnership with Deakin University in the Collaborative Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS)
From: Research Institute on Social Cohesion
Other investigators: Prof Debra Smith, Dr Mario Peucker, Prof Ramon Spaaij
For period: 2019-2021
 Not disclosed
Educational Transition from Custody
From: Department of Education and Training, Victoria
Other investigators: Aspr Julie White, Dr Fiona Macdonald
For period: 2019-2020
 Not disclosed

An evaluation of the Horace Petty Education Engagement Initiative.
From: College of Health and Biomedicine, Stonnington City Council, College of Arts and Education
Other investigators: Prof Christopher Sonn
For period: 2017-2020
 Not disclosed

Improving Education for Young People in Remand: Forging a Prison to School Pipeline.
From: Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation (LMCF)
Other investigators: Aspr Julie White, Aspr Timothy Corcoran
For period: 2016-2019
 $247,677

Supervision of research students at VU

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

Currently supervised research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
2 PhD Integrated Associate supervisor
1 PhD Principal supervisor
1 Master of Applied Research Principal supervisor
1 Master of Research Principal supervisor

Currently supervised research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD Integrated (2) Associate supervisor
PhD (1) Principal supervisor
Master of Applied Research (1) Principal supervisor
Master of Research (1) Principal supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
1 PhD by Publication Associate supervisor
1 Master of Research Principal supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD by Publication (1) Associate supervisor
Master of Research (1) Principal supervisor

Teaching activities & experience

Alison teaches into the Community Development (undergraduate) and International Community Development (Masters) programs at VU. She currently teaches or coordinates these units:

Other units she has taught in the area of research methods include: Research Design and Methods in Education, Research and Young People (now ASC 3007), Community-Based Practice and Research (ASA 3001) and Managing and Reporting Community-Based (ASA 3002). She has previously taught Sociological Orientation to Education and Change and Social Justice in Education. 

In psychology Alison has guest lectured in VU's Master of Applied Psychology (Community) and has taught units in Social, Developmental and Adolescent psychology (USA).

Key academic roles

Dates Role Department / Organisation
Jan 2012 - Present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Victoria Institute for Education, Diversity and Lifelong Learning, Victoria University
Jan 2011 - Jan 2012
Research Fellow in Child Well-Being and Anti-Racism
University of Melbourne
Dates Role & Department/Organisation
Jan 2012 -
Present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Victoria Institute for Education, Diversity and Lifelong Learning, Victoria University
Jan 2011 -
Jan 2012
Research Fellow in Child Well-Being and Anti-Racism
University of Melbourne

Keynote and invited speeches

Year Title/Description
2017

From voice to resonance through participatory arts-based research

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference, November 13th -15th, Ballarat, Victoria.
2015

Voices of displacement: creating sound portraits of identity and belonging, Micro Keynote presentation

Qualitative Methods Conference (hosted by International Institute for Qualitative Methodology), April 28th -30th, Melbourne, Australia.