Sharon Grant

Dr. Sharon Grant is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Sciences within the School of Health Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology. She has held continuous academic appointments since 2005, progressing from Postdoctoral Fellow to her current role, and has served in key leadership positions including Academic Director for Work Integrated Learning and Course Director for the Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). Her work spans multiple faculties, reflecting her interdisciplinary expertise in psychology and health.

• PhD, The University of Melbourne
• Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences (Honours), La Trobe University
• Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching (Higher Education), Swinburne University of Technology

Dr. Grant’s research focuses on organisational, personality, and clinical psychology, with particular emphasis on occupational stress, coping mechanisms, binge eating pathology, shame, weight stigma, and mental health in rural communities. Her work integrates public health perspectives and addresses health inequities through empirical and policy-relevant research. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and secured funding from institutions such as VicHealth and Rural Northwest Health.

Her recent publications (2022–2025) reflect a strong trend toward understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying binge eating, including the roles of childhood maltreatment, shame, and coping strategies. She also investigates systemic issues such as occupational violence in rural health settings and weight bias in media and public health campaigns. These works employ diverse methodologies including latent profile analysis, systematic reviews, and computational text analysis.

• Award for Outstanding Academic Supervision of Professional Placement Students, 2019
• Commendation for Teaching, 2017 and 2016

Dr. Grant actively supervises doctoral and master’s students, with several completed and ongoing projects in areas such as eating disorders, mental imagery, and migrant wellbeing. She is involved in multiple research grants focused on rural health and stigma reduction. Her professional service includes membership on the Swinburne Human Research Ethics Committee and leadership in curriculum and research committees. She also contributes to community-based research, particularly in co-designing non-confrontational anti-violence campaigns in rural health services.

Dr. Grant leads and collaborates on interdisciplinary teams, including the Code Grey Project and machine learning analysis of obesity portrayal in media. Her work bridges academic research with practical applications in healthcare, policy, and media communication.