Isabel Dunn

Thesis: The Experiences of Women of Refugee Backgrounds Accessing Domestic and Family Violence Support: A Tasmanian Service Assessment

Biography

Isabel Dunn is a PhD candidate in criminology at the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre. She commenced her PhD at Monash University in 2024, after completing a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Sociology and International Relations) in 2020 and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours in Sociology) in 2021, both at the University of Tasmania. For her first-class honours degree, Isabel researched the impact of government policies on Tasmania’s family violence support sector. In 2023 she was awarded a Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship.
Between degrees, Isabel worked in a variety of settings. She has worked directly with victim-survivors; conducted research on transgender peoples’ access to gender-affirming care; and supported children living with disabilities to succeed in school settings. From 2020 to 2023, Isabel periodically lived in Indonesia, where she worked with feminist organisations and refugee support services. More recently, she has gained experience as a sessional academic at Monash University.

Thesis summary

Isabel’s PhD research focuses on how women from refugee backgrounds in Tasmania who have experienced domestic and family violence are supported by local services.

Her study involves interviewing service providers who work alongside refugee communities and/or victim-survivors of violence. Through these conversations, she aims to understand how professionals perceive the impacts of domestic and family violence on women’s day-to-day lives, relationships, and sense of safety and belonging. A central focus is on how service providers observe women navigating formal services, informal networks, and community support, and the barriers they identify to effective access. Isabel is also interested in how organisations assess the accessibility, cultural appropriateness, and overall effectiveness of current systems of support. By drawing on these professional insights, her research seeks to inform policy and practice, with the goal of strengthening and improving responses for women from refugee and marginalised backgrounds.

Supervisors: Dr Ellen Cho,  Dr Kathryn Benier,  Dr Sara Niner.