SVRPU's research students play a key role in establishing knowledge and evidence to understand, prevent and respond to sexual violence and abuse.
Students work alongside leading experts to produce research outcomes with real-world impact. We offer opportunities to learn, innovate and build strong professional relationships within the field. If you are passionate about making a difference, we'd like to hear from you.
We strive to provide:
- Innovative research projects to support emerging research scholars;
- Collegiate, stimulating and challenging environment e.g. active writing groups driven by students;
- Supervisory teams with broad skill base; and
- Skills and capacity to work as part of trans-disciplinary teams.
Current PhD students
| Student | Project Title | Year/s | Institution/s | Supervisors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tashena Biffanti |
Determining the Relationship between Experimental and Aggravated Sexting in Young People: Self-Produced Online Child Sexual Exploitation Material |
2020–2025 |
UniSC, Australia |
Associate Professor Nadine McKillop, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh, Dr Lara Christensen and Dr Emily Moir |
| Jessica Lockitch | Safeguarding vulnerable people in institutional settings across the lifespan | 2021–2025 | UniSC, Australia | Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Emily Moir |
| Belinda Peacock | Development, implementation and evaluation of a program for individuals at-risk of, or engaging with, online child exploitation material in Australia | 2019–2027 | UniSC, Australia | Associate Professor Nadine McKillop, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Lara Christensen |
| Madeline Lee | Sexual violence perpetrated against older people: Examining the crime event process | 2023-2026 |
UniSC, Australia |
Dr Emily Moir and Associate Professor Nadine McKillop |
| Bricklyn Priebe | Gender-responsive treatment for women who have perpetrated child sexual abuse: The value of client and practitioner voices in the pursuit of best-practice | 2020–2025 | UniSC, Australia | Associate Professor Nadine McKillop, Dr Lara Christensen and Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh |
| Lindy Kanan | Violence against women in Australia’s Pacific labour mobility scheme: response and prevention | 2023–2026 | UniSC, Australia | Associate Professor Harriot Beazley, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Moses Faleolo |
| Nicole Liddell | A systems thinking approach to address technology-facilitated abuse in the context of intimate partner violence | 2024–2028 | UniSC, Australia | Associate Professor Gemma Read, Associate Professor Nadine McKillop and Professor Paul Salmon |
| Rachael Stubbs |
Intimate partner violence prevention among young people–exploring the interface of respectful relationship education and direct practice. |
2020–2024 | UniSC, Australia | Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh, Dr Peter Innes and Associate Professor Phil Crane |
| Student | Project Title | Year/s | Institution/s | Supervisors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Andrew Allen |
Sexual Violence and Fantasy: Investigating the Utility of EMDR Therapy |
Completed 2023 |
UniSC Australia |
Dr Prue Millear and Dr Nadine McKillop (USC); Professor Mary Katsikitis (Flinders University) |
| Shona Innes | “Positioned”, a novel: Disentangling the complexity of intrafamilial child sexual abuse to elucidate everyday parent and child prevention strategies | Completed 2024 | UniSC Australia | Dr Ross Watkins, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh, and Dr Harriot Beazley |
| Danielle Labhardt | A cross-cultural study using sequential triangulation and immersive technology to advance bystander intervention research in sexual assault | Completed 2018 | Coventry University | Dr Emma Holdsworth, Professor Sarah Brown and Dr Douglas Howat (Coventry University); Dr Nadine McKillop and Professor Christian Jones (USC) |
| Timea Molnar | Validation of the JSOAP-II on Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth who sexually harm | Completed 2023 | Griffith University | Associate Professor John Rynne and Dr Troy Allard (Griffith University); Dr Nadine McKillop (USC) |
| Student | Project Title | Year/s | Institution/s | Supervisors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maddy Lee | Sexual abuse in aged care institutions. | Completed 2022 | UniSC Australia | Dr Nadine McKillop and Dr Emily Moir |
| Melanie Stedman | Informing therapeutic interventions for harmful sexual behaviours amongst young people with autism symptomology. | Completed 2021 | UniSC Australia | Dr Nadine McKillop and Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh |
| Lyric Buzza | Assessing Future Directions for Stop It Now! in the UK, US and Beyond. |
Completed 2021 |
UniSC Australia |
Dr Nadine McKillop and Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh |
| Yolandi Breedt | Revenge porn and rapidly advancing technology: A comparison of the Australian laws. |
Completed 2020 |
UniSC Australia |
Associate Professor Kelly Burton |
| Jessica Lockitch | Barriers to guardianship in youth-serving institutions: Implications for enhanced prevention. |
Completed 2020 |
UniSC Australia | Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Nadine McKillop |
| Isabella Damiris | Sentencing disparities for female and male sexual offending on Queensland: Do they exist, and what is the impact? |
Completed 2019 |
UniSC Australia |
Dr Nadine McKillop, Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Lara Christensen |
| Melinda Osbourne | Critical life events: Pathways to child sexual offending | Completed 2018 | UniSC Australia | Dr Lara Christensen |
| Richard Bojack | Investigating the onset of child sexual abuse in emerging adulthood: A comparison across developmental life stages |
Completed 2018 |
UniSC Australia |
Dr Susan Rayment-McHugh and Dr Nadine McKillop |
Potential research topics
Research projects are available for Honours and Higher Degree by Research students across a range of disciplines.
Explore opportunities to:
Understand
- Understanding onset and progression of child sexual abuse
- Female sexual offending
- Youth sexual violence and abuse
- Online sexual offending trajectories
- Victimology of sexual abuse
- Understanding endemic sexual violence
Prevent
- Contextual and place-based prevention models
- Situational prevention of child sexual abuse
- Child-safe organisations
- Bystander interventions and sexual assault
Respond
- Assessment and treatment of youth and adults who sexually abuse
- Evaluation of sexual offender rehabilitation and reintegration
- Sentencing of child sexual offenders
- Attrition of sexual abuse cases
- Responding to sexual violence and abuse in Indigenous communities
Supervision
Students in an Honours, Masters or Doctoral program need to identify a potential supervisor.
Learn about our SVRPU team members and identify potential people who may align with your research interests.
You can then send a copy of your resume or CV, and a brief summary of your work experience history, and research interests to your potential supervisor.
Unsure about who to approach?
If you are unsure of which academic to approach you can email us with the above documents and / or a short statement about you and your research interests.
An SVRPU co-leader will consider suitable mentors who may be able to support your research aspirations.
Scholarships
There are a number of scholarships available. Filter results by study level - Postgraduate, research.
Contact
Email: SVRPU@usc.edu.au
Office: Building D, Ground floor, School of Law and Society, UniSC Sunshine Coast