Curating evidence from practice, research and lived experience.
Meet the research team A focus on lived and living experienceAn international perspective
The Spotlight Research page is an online platform that brings together research evidence, lived experience insights, resources, media, and key knowledge in one accessible place. It is designed to make information easier to find and use for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the community.
The platform has been developed by the Centre’s OPEN Team, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne Homicide at Home Research and Lived-Experience team. We aim to combine research expertise with practice evidence to ensure the information is relevant, evidence-based, and grounded in lived-experience perspectives.
The University of Melbourne research team brings together multidisciplinary experts from public health, psychology, education, social work and law.
Led by Professor Eva Alisic , the team combines academic and clinical expertise from the University of Melbourne and the University of Edinburgh, alongside lived experience expertise and artistic collaboration. This research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the University of Melbourne.
The researchers leading this work as part of the Spotlight series are Ms Hannah Morrice, Dr Katitza Marinkovic Chavez, and Kathryn Joy.
We would like to acknowledge other previous and current core members of our team who have contributed their time and expertise to various research and practice outputs (in alphabetical order): Lisa Albert, Nicola Armstrong, Beverley Attard, Anna Barrett, Rebecca Burdon, Rowena Conroy, Isabel Chung, John Devaney, Oliver Eastwood, John Frederick, Paige Gammon-Parsons, Arend Groot, Claire Houghton, Cathy Humphreys, Ashton Kline, Zain Kurdi, Vincent Lamberti, Freya Lily, Robyn Molyneaux, Thu Huong Nguyen, Ella Pininta, Ashwini Sakthiakumaran and Mira Vasileva and a few team members who prefer not to be named.
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The University of Melbourne research team works in partnership with people with lived and living experience at every stage of the research—shaping the questions, informing interviews, contributing to analysis, and guiding how findings are shared.
We recognise that children and young people must have a seat at the table. Much of our work currently involves adult survivors reflecting on their experiences as children at the time of the event, offering critical insight into both immediate and long-term impacts.
We want to acknowledge that we do not seek to represent all experiences. Every child’s experience is shaped by unique circumstances and intersecting factors, and we acknowledge the diversity and complexity of these perspectives.
Setting the agenda for an international collaboration to improve support for children bereaved due to family violence
Fatal family violence leaves many children and young people with urgent, under‑addressed needs. This project aims to build an international, multidisciplinary collaboration that places the voices of young survivors and their caregivers at the centre, by joining and exchanging between existing initiatives across countries.
In 2025, the team at Melbourne Uni led a two‑day workshop in Caen, Normandy, France, that brought together 33 researchers, clinicians, policymakers and advocates (including people with lived experience) from 11 countries (e.g. Germany, Norway, the UK) to launch a network and develop a roadmap, which was refined over the year.
The resulting agenda comprises three interconnected components:
To date, we have launched a survey to map international resources and look forward to sharing our findings in the coming months.
This Spotlight page is made possible by the Family Violence Sexual Violence Project, a collaborative partnership between the four peaks.
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