About the School of Law and Society
UniSC’s School of Law and Society brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to address some of society’s most complex social issues. We work across the arts and humanities, law, criminology, counselling, social work, and urban design and town planning. Our graduates are trained for a rapidly changing world, fostering public service and justice, and advancing meaningful ideas and scholarship to benefit the wider community.
The School is led by Dean Associate Professor Timothy Peters, and Associate Deans Dr Silvia Tavares (Research) and Dr Amy Clarke (Learning and Teaching).
Our research clusters include:
- The Bioclimatic and Sociotechnical Cities (BASC) Lab, which aims to bridge the gap between climate science and urban design professional practice.
- The Engage Research Lab, which focuses on how emerging technologies can contribute to solutions for social issues in areas like mental health, counselling, disability and accessibility, education, engineering and more.
- The Motor Accident Insurance Commission/UniSC Road Safety Research Collaboration (RSRC), a leading road safety research centre producing world class outputs with a focus on impaired driving.
- The Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU), which forges new directions in sexual violence prevention and responses to reduce victimisation and address perpetration by challenging the field, introducing novel ideas, advocating for continuous improvement, and promoting innovation.
- The new Society, Law and Humanities (SOLAH) Research Lab, which examines the way legal norms and social systems are culturally constituted through cross-disciplinary research in law, culture, technology and more.
- The Sustainability Research Cluster (SRC), which tackles urgent sustainability challenges at local, regional, and global levels through collaborative research that bridges diverse expertise, fosters innovation, and drives actionable solutions for a sustainable future.
2025: Growth and impact
In 2025, the School continued its exceptional record in research and scholarship, with strong performance across grant funding, quality publications, and continued high-quality HDR completions. Awarded grant income for the year was $15.1 million – up from $3.7 million in 2024 and $1 million in 2023 – which included the renewal of funding arrangements for the MAIC/UniSC Road Safety Research Collaboration and several ongoing, previously awarded multi-year grants. HERDC income also continued to increase, with $4.7 million in 2025 compared to $3.7 million in 2024 and $3.5 million in 2023.
The School maintained a very strong publication output, with 183 publications in 2025 (including 92 percent in Q1/Q2 journals) and number of quality monographs.
In 2025, the School had primary supervision of 94 higher degree by research candidates, with 14 completions across a diverse range of disciplines. Two of our HDR candidates received the UniSC Graduate Research Award for Outstanding Thesis.
Celebrating our people
- Dr Zalia Powell was named Senior Social Work Researcher of the Year by the Australian Association of Social Workers.
- In the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) awards, PhD candidate Katie Davenport-Klunder received the Outstanding Policing Research Award in recognition of her innovative and timely research examining anti-police sentiment in Australia. • Dimitra Lattas also received an ANZSOC PhD Candidate Award, which recognises the best sole or lead authored paper in criminology by a PhD candidate.
- SVRPU co-lead Associate Professor Nadine McKillop received a UniSC Research Impact Award.
Making a difference: Our research in action
From evidence to reform: Strengthening systemic responses to child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a widespread and deeply harmful issue with far-reaching consequences. Researchers from the School’s Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU) are working to strengthen evidence-based efforts to prevent child sexual abuse, and to improve responses when harm occurs.
Led by Professor Dominique Moritz, in 2025 the team delivered two major reports examining international best practice in child sexual abuse prevention, and response and perpetrator accountability. Commissioned by the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC), the reports translated complex evidence from Australian and overseas into practical recommendations to strengthen child protection systems, improve organisational responses and enhance outcomes for children at risk.
The first report found that while many prevention initiatives focus on helping children recognise and respond to risks, comparatively less attention has been given to addressing harmful sexual behaviours and the environmental or systemic factors that enable abuse to occur. The second report highlighted the importance of child-centred responses that prioritise the needs of victim-survivors throughout disclosure, investigation and legal processes. The report’s eight key findings included an emphasis on the need for trauma-informed investigative practices, holistic support services for survivors, and fair and effective prosecution processes, along with evidence-based approaches that support the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders to reduce reoffending.
Both reports were formally provided to the Child Death Review as part of the QFCC’s review of system responses to child sexual abuse, commissioned by the Queensland Government in 2024. The findings directly informed the Commission’s landmark 2025 report, In Plain Sight, and were subsequently published by the Commission as key evidence to inform legal and policy reform across Australia. The review culminated in 28 recommendations aimed at strengthening child protection and organisational accountability across the early childhood education, policing and Blue Card systems.
The research has gained national and international recognition, including selection for presentation at a leading international child protection conference. Collectively, this work has helped shape policy, legislative reform and broader discussions about creating safer, more accountable and child-centred systems to protect children from abuse.
Using VR to transform employment pathways for people living with intellectual disability
People living with intellectual disability face persistent barriers to employment. Traditional workplace training methods often fail to meet their learning needs, and without access to safe, repeatable, and engaging training experiences, many individuals with intellectual disability are excluded from the personal, social and economic benefits of work.
The VR Employment Skills Program was established in 2021 as a partnership between the School’s Engage Research Lab and the Endeavour Foundation, which supports people with intellectual disabilities. Led by Professor Christian Jones, and drawing on expertise in human-computer interaction, virtual reality user experience and more, the program researched and developed immersive virtual reality training experiences specifically designed for people living with intellectual disability. This included five distinct VR trainingenvironments tailored to real-world employment contexts, including recycling management, warehouse operations, agriculture and farming, driving and barista skills. Each environment was developed using evidence-based principles of immersive learning and was evaluated for usability, effectiveness, and user wellbeing.
The research findings provided an evidence base for using VR as a safe, engaging, and effective training tool for those living with intellectual disability, providing a lower-pressure way to build confidence before participants attempt unfamiliar real-world work tasks.
The VR employment skills program was adopted by the Endeavour Foundation as part of its national rollout of immersive learning, with VR hardware and software deployed across its 58 work sites and Learning and Lifestyle hubs, reaching nearly 3,000 people with disability.
The rollout achieved substantial public recognition and reach, attracting coverage across multiple media outlets, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants and praise from Federal MP Ted O’Brien. This recognition culminated in the Endeavour Foundation’s Get Work Ready program winning the Excellence in Digital Workforce Development Award at the 2024 Innovation and Technology Across Care conference.
Looking ahead: 2026 and beyond
In 2026, the School will continue to strengthen our research profile through a focus on international collaborations, supporting early- to mid-career researchers, and strategic development of our research clusters, including furthering industry engagement.
The School continues to provide targeted research support through conference funding, research assistance, mentorship, and participation in leadership development programs such as ETHOS Essence of Research. New initiatives are being developed to enhance research culture, build research track records, and support competitive grant applications.
These efforts are already delivering results, with three of four ARC Discovery Expressions of Interest progressing to full applications, alongside an ARC Linkage and ARC LIEF proposal currently under review. Research clusters continue to expand their engagement with industry, government and community partners, strengthening the relevance and impact of their work.
Other key initiatives include:
- In November, the Society, Law and Humanities (SOLAH) Research Lab will host the Australian Sociological Association’s (TASA) annual conference, bringing together more than 300 national and international delegates.
- SOLAH will also host a collaborative Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) funded workshop on Implications of GenAI for Interpretivist Politics and Policy Research, with participants from UQ, Griffith, the University of Sydney, Deakin, ANU and Flinders University.
- Engage Lab researchers will work in partnership with UniSC’s National PTSD Research Centre and Professor Alain Brunet to develop a substantial post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research program.
- The BASC Lab team will engage with Sunshine Coast Council and the Department of Transport and Main Roads to inform the design of the Caloundra Transport Corridor Upgrade (CTCU), expanding the Lab’s scope beyond climate-sensitive design and planning into air quality.