Career-ready placements

Alternative Futures Research Network (AFRN) (including AFRHub and The Well-living Lab) invites Expressions of Interest from the undergraduate students (nationwide) in completing their Work Integrated Learning (Placement) courses. AFRN is multidisciplinary in approach and is thus open to a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds (including Social Sciences, Humanities, Human Geography, Development Studies, Community Welfare, Social and Public Policy Studies, Development Studies, Economics, Political Sciences, Social Psychology, Organizational Studies, Global Studies, etc)

AFRN offers a unique opportunity for developing a variety of skills, including but not limited to:

1. Insights into advanced research project development
2. Interpersonal and communication skills
3. Teamwork and organization skills in an inter-disciplinary environment
4. Research skills for both quantitative and qualitative studies (skills such as data file development, data collection, data mining, survey questionnaire development, observation of interviews, transcription and thematic analyses of in-depth interviews and focus group conversations, professional literature review, network development, research directory development, statistical analyses of collected data, etc)
5. Translation of theory to practice and practice-oriented theory development
6. Preparation for Honours and Post-Graduate research programs and projects
7. Social policy analyses
8. Applying knowledge in re-shaping socio-ecological environments
9. Mapping social/political/economic/cultural/discursive networks
10. Narrative, discourse, and content analyses

If interested, please contact Dr. S A Hamed Hosseini  (hamed.hosseini[at]newcastle.edu.au)

Testimonies:

Below, two Placement/WIL candidates from the University of Newcastle (Ms. Molly Marsh and Ms. Claire Van Der Woude) introduce AFRN/AFRHub and share their reflections on their mutually rewarding experiences with the Hub's project "Re-imagining Quality of Life Post-COVID"