Michelle Newcomb

Michelle Newcomb is a faculty member at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) whose work sits at the intersection of social work education, childhood adversity, reflective practice, technology-enhanced learning and critical pedagogy. Since completing her PhD-by-publication in 2018 she has produced a steady stream of journal articles, book chapters and policy briefs, positioning her as a leading early-career voice in Australian social work scholarship.

Education

• PhD (by Publication), Queensland University of Technology, 2018 – Recognising resilience: Understanding how childhood adversity impacts undergraduate social work and human services students

Research Interests

Newcomb’s research interrogates how social structures shape professional education and practice. She explores:

• the lived experiences of students and practitioners negotiating childhood adversity, resilience and reflective practice;
• critical and feminist pedagogies that challenge neoliberal logics in higher education;
• the ethics and politics of self-care, emotional labour and organisational well-being initiatives;
• technology adoption (AI tools, mixed-reality simulations) in social work field education;
• youth housing policy and the broader failings of child-protection systems.

Across these domains she blends empirical qualitative inquiry with conceptual scholarship, often employing collaborative and reflexive methodologies.

Publication Trajectory

Her 2022-2025 outputs cluster around three themes: (1) COVID-19’s impact on social-work practice and education, (2) critical debates on trigger warnings and discomfort in professional training, and (3) innovative pedagogies—ranging from mixed-reality placements to AI-supported self-care interventions. A consistent critical-feminist lens links these strands, highlighting power, care and justice.

Awards & Recognition

No specific awards are mentioned in the supplied material.

Supervision & Grants

While explicit lists of students or grants are absent, her 2023 co-authored piece on “Creating safety” as female early-career academics implies ongoing supervisory and mentoring roles within QUT’s social-work programs.

Labs & Teams

Newcomb collaborates with interdisciplinary collectives; recent HCI work on self-care and generative AI (2024) involves computer-science colleagues, while social-work teams (e.g., with Venning, Burton & Edwards) continue to produce co-authored outputs on pedagogy and practice.