Assoc Prof Susan Feldman - Researcher Profile

Biography

Dr. Susan Feldman was the founding Director of The Alma Unit for Women and Ageing established in 1994 at the University of Melbourne, Australia’s first multi-disciplinary research and teaching unit dedicated to promoting an understanding of the health and wellbeing of ageing women.  Through her qualitative research Susan worked extensively with older women to identify the range and nature of health and wellbeing issues facing older women including the policy, social and educational responses which would enhance the health and well being of this growing sector of society. Over the ensuing years her work has expanded to include research on gender issues across the life span for older women and men from a range of cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Her current research interests include psychosocial issues facing older women and men from multicultural backgrounds, including those that impact on physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing. She also has a keen interest in the relationships between generations and the impact that these have on the quality of individuals, family and community. Susan has researched and written extensively about the experience of the death of a spouse on the health and wellbeing of older people and in particular widowhood and older women.

Susan has had extensive experience of planning, evaluation and direct service delivery in the community and government, undertaking program management and policy development in the health and welfare fields, particularly in the area of homelessness, the redevelopment of the major night shelters in Melbourne and family violence. .

Her books include: The Art of Ageing Well and the Art of Caring for Older Adults, Baywood Press 2007, A Certain Age: Women Growing Older, 1999 Allen & Unwin, Something that Happens to Other People 1996 Random House, and Family Violence: Everybody’s Business, Somebody’s Life. 1991, Federation Press.

Susan holds an undergraduate degree in Film Theory, Latrobe University, an MA in Psychosocial Politics, University of Melbourne and awarded a PhD from Sydney University.

She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne, Centre for the Study of Health and Society.

 

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Institution: University of Sydney

Year awarded: 2005

ARTS - PSYCHOSOCIAL POLITICS

Institution: University of Melbourne

Year awarded: 1994

Publications

Book Chapters

Feldman, S.E., Petersen, A.R., Radermacher, H.L., 2012, The vicissitudes of 'healthy aging': the experiences of older migrant men in a rural Australian community, in Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine, eds Antje Kampf, Barbara L Marshall & Alan Petersen, Routledge, United States, pp. 86-104.

Feldman, S.E., Damron-Rodriguez, J., 2007, Introduction, in Lessons on Aging from Three Nations, Volume I: The Art of Aging Well, eds Carmel, S., Morse, C., & Torres Gil, F., Baywood Publishing, Amityville, New York, pp. 69-74.

Byles, J., Feldman, S.E., Dobson, A., 2007, The Art of Aging as Widowed Older Women in Australia, in Lessons on Aging from Three Nations, Volume I: The Art of Aging Well, eds S Carmel, C Morse & F Torres-Gil, Baywood Publishing, Amityville, New York, pp. 41-53.

Journal Articles

Feldman, S.E., Hanlon, C., 2012, Count us in: the experiences of female war, peacemaking, and peacekeeping veterans, Armed Forces and Society [P], vol 38, issue 2, Sage Publications Inc., United States, pp. 205-224.

Feldman, S.E., Browning, C.J., 2012, Healthy ageing: family and cultural - intergenerational and widowhood, China Health Human Resources [P], vol 170, issue 6, China Health Human Resource Centre, China, pp. 34-35.

Cordella Masini, M., Radermacher, H., Huang, H., Browning, C., Baumgartner, R., De Soysa, T., Feldman, S., 2012, Intergenerational and intercultural encounters: connecting students and older people through language learning, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships [P], vol 10, issue 1, Routledge, United States, pp. 80-85.

Feldman, S.E., 2012, The impact of intergenerational volunteering and learning: three short films on the website of Beth Johnson Foundation, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships [P], vol 10, issue 4, Routledge, United States, pp. 437-439.

Feldman, S., Radermacher, H., Lorains, F., Haines, T., 2011, A research-based community theater performance to promote ageing: Is it more than just a show?, Educational Gerontology [P], vol 37, issue 10, Routledge, USA, pp. 885-898.

Feldman, S., 2011, Ageing and intergenerational relationships: Family reciprocity from a global perspective, Australasian Journal on Ageing [P], vol 30, issue 2, Wiley Blackwell Publishing Inc., United States, pp. 104-105.

Radermacher, H., Karunarathna, Y., Grace, N., Feldman, S., 2011, Partner or perish? Exploring inter-organisational partnerships in the multicultural community aged care sector, Health and Social Care in the Community [P], vol 19, issue 5, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, United Kingdom, pp. 550-560.

Feldman, S.E., 2010, A rich bounty of culturally diverse views from research, practice and policy, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships [P], vol 8, issue 1, Routledge, United States, pp. 1-4.

Radermacher, H., Feldman, S., Lorains, F., Bird, S., 2010, Exploring the role of family and older people's access to food in different cultures: will the children be there to help?, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships [P], vol 8, issue 4, Routledge, United States, pp. 354-368.

Bird, S., Radermacher, H.L., Sims, J., Feldman, S.E., Browning, C.J., Thomas, S., 2010, Factors affecting walking activity of older people from culturally diverse groups: An Australian experience, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine [P], vol 13, issue 4, Elsevier Australia, Australia, pp. 417-423.

Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Bird, S., 2010, Food security in older Australians from different cultural backgrounds, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior [P], vol 42, issue 5, Elsevier Science Inc, United States, pp. 328-336.

Hoff, A., Feldman, S., Vidovicova, L., 2010, Migrant home care workers caring for older people: fictive kin, substitute, and complementary family caregivers in an ethnically diverse environment, International Journal of Ageing and Later Life [E], vol 5, issue 2, Linkoeping University Electronic Press, Sweden, pp. 7-16.

Hewitt, A., Howie, L., Feldman, S.E., 2010, Retirement: What will you do? A narrative inquiry of occupation-based planning for retirement: Implications for practice, Australian Occupational Therapy Journal [P], vol 57, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, Australia, pp. 8-16.

Angus, J., Sims, J., Feldman, S., Radermacher, H., Yang, H., 2010, The effectiveness of social marketing for community awareness of public health issues: lessons for dementia risk reduction, Chinese General Practice [P], vol 13, issue 12A, Zhongguo Qanke Yixue, China, pp. 3827-3830.

Feldman, S.E., 2009, Book Review: Women in Later Life: Exploring Race and Ethnicity, Ageing & Society [P], vol 29, issue 8, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 1319-1321.

Bird, S., Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Sims, J., Kurowski, W., Browning, C.J., Thomas, S., 2009, Factors influencing the physical activity levels of older people from culturally-diverse communities: An Australian experience, Ageing & Society [P], vol 29, issue 8, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 1275-1294.

Feldman, S.E., Howie, L., 2009, Looking back, looking forward: Reflections on using a life history review tool with older people, Journal of Applied Gerontology [P], vol 28, issue 5, Sage Publications, Inc., USA, pp. 621-637.

Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Browning, C.J., 2009, Mainstream versus ethno-specific community aged care services: It's not an either or, Australasian Journal on Ageing [P], vol 28, issue 2, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, Australia, pp. 58-63.

Bird, S.R., Kurowski, W., Feldman, S.E., Browning, C.J., Lau, R.G.L., Radermacher, H.L., Thomas, S., Sims, J., 2009, The Influence of the built environment and other factors on the physical activity of older women from different ethnic communities, Journal of Women and Aging, vol 21, issue 1, Routledge, USA, pp. 33-47.

Angus, J., Sims, J., Feldman, S.E., Radermacher, H.L., 2008, Can community-based interventions from other key national health priority areas inform strategies to reduce the risk of dementia?, Journal of Chinese General Practice, vol 11, issue 10A, Department of Chinese General Practice, Beijing, China, pp. 1721-1725.

Feldman, S.E., Radermacher, H.L., Browning, C.J., Bird, S., Thomas, S., 2008, Challenges of recruitment and retention of older people from culturally diverse communities in research, Ageing & Society, vol 28, issue 04, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 473-493.

Sims, J., Angus, J., Feldman, S.E., Radermacher, H.L., 2008, Dementia's disease burden and the potential role of community-based interventions to inform risk reduction strategies, Journal of Chinese General Practice, vol 11, issue 9A, Department of Chinese General Practice, Beijing, China, pp. 1527-1530.

Feldman, S.E., 2008, Intergenerational program: towards a society for all ages, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, vol 6, issue 4, Haworth Press Inc, USA, pp. 485-487.

Byles, J., Feldman, S.E., 2006, The lives of older widowed women, Just Policy [P], vol 2006, issue 39, Victorian Council of Social Service, Australia, pp. 23-28.

Howie, L., Coulter, M., Feldman, S.E., 2004, Crafting the Self: Older Persons' Narratives of Occupational Identity, American Journal of Occupational Therapy [P], vol 58, issue 4, American Occupational Therapy Assoc Inc, US, pp. 446-454.

Conference Proceedings

Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Karunarathna, Y., 2009, Practising positive partnerships in ethnic and multicultural aged care organisations, Australasian Journal on Ageing (Special Issue: Abstracts of the 42nd National Conference of the Australian Association of Gerontology, 25-27 November 2009, National Convention Centre, Canberra, ACT, Australia), 25-27 November 2009, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, Australia, p. 113.

Feldman, S.E., Hopgood, A., 2009, Widows: More than a dead man's wife: From thesis to theatre, Australasian Journal on Ageing (Special Issue: Abstracts of the 42nd National Conference of the Australian Association of Gerontology, 25-27 November 2009, National Convention Centre, Canberra, ACT, Australia), 25-27 November 2009, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia, Australia, p. 99.

Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Bird, S., 2008, Identifying the challenges to accessing food, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 18-21 November 2008, Wiley-Blackwell, Australia, p. A28.

Feldman, S.E., Radermacher, H.L., Bird, S., 2008, The children will be there to help: Implications of changing family circumstances for accessing food., Australasian Journal of Ageing, 18-21 November 2008, Wiley-Blackwell, Australia, p. A9.

Other

Feldman, S.E., 2012, Is there a place for relationships between generations, Magazine Article, Globe Publishing Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia.

Yoshitha, K., Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., 2010, Practising positive partnerships in the ethnic and multicultural community, Monash University, Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, Souther Metropolitan Region HACC, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-63.

Browning, C.J., Cowlishaw, S., Kendig, H., Thomas, S., Grayson, D., Feldman, S.E., 2010, The health and service needs of older veterans: a longitudinal analysis, Department of Veterans Affairs, Melbourne, Victoria, pp. 1-85.

Radermacher, H., Feldman, S., Bird, S., 2009, Will the children be there to help?, Article excerpt in Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria Newsletter, Golden Years., Ethnic Communitites' Council of Victoria, Australia.

Bird, S., Radermacher, H., Feldman, S., 2008, An assessment of the barriers to older people accessing nutritious food in Melton Shire, VicHealth, Melbourne, Australia.

Radermacher, H.L., Feldman, S.E., Browning, C.J., 2008, Review of Literature Concerning the Delivery of Community Aged Care Services to Ethnic Groups - Mainstream versus ethno-specific services: It's not an 'either or', Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, Victoria, pp. 4-41.

Feldman, S.E., 2008, Wicked Widows, Alan Hopgood, 1 hrs, 30/9, 2/10, 5/10, 6/10,7/10, 8/10, 9/10 28-30/10 & 4/12, Alexander Theatre, Monash Gippsland Campus and Senior Citizen venues in Clayton, Euroa, Bendigo, etc.

Bird, S., Feldman, S., Radermacher, H., Sims, J., Kurowski, W., Browning, C., Thomas, S., 2007, Barriers and facilitators to physical activity for older people in culturally diverse communities, VicHealth/RMIT/Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.

Ben-Moshe, D., Feldman, S., Bertone, S., Sonn, C., Zuhair, S., Martin, L., Radermacher, H., Davidson, K., 2005, Cultural diversity and economi development in four regional Australian communities, Department of Transport and Regional Services, Canberra, Australia.

Ben-Moshe, D., Feldman, S., Bertone, S., Sonn, C., Zuhair, S., Martin, L., Radermacher, H., Davidson, K., 2005, Cultural diversity and economic development in four regional Australian communities, Department of Transport and Regional Services, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-101.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Stories of recovery from gambling.

Supervisors:

Anderson, C (Joint-co), Feldman, S (Joint).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Weight-related stigma in online spaces: challenges, responses and opportunities for change.

Supervisors:

Browning, C (Main), Feldman, S (Associate), Thomas, S (Associate).