Dr. Belinda Johnson
Details
Department: School of GUSS
Campus: City Campus Australia
belinda.johnson@rmit.edu.au
ORCID: 0000-0001-6387-3042
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Collaborative projects
- Industry Projects
About
Belinda is an Research + Education applied sociology academic. Her research and education work combines care, justice and creativity with a particular interest in how social change can take place in everyday social practices.
In research, Belinda collaborates with communities and industry partners to create a better and more socially just world with and for people with disabilities, with a particular focus on intellectual disability and Down syndrome. As an educator, Belinda is passionate about creating innovative and inclusive first year learning experiences. She applies pedagogies from creative disciplines to create exploratory, collaborative and democratised learning experiences for students in applied social sciences.
Belinda is a Senior Lecturer in applied sociology in the Social Work and Human Services discipline in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Belinda is Co-Theme Lead of the Community Wellbeing group in the RMIT Social Equity Research Centre (SERC).
Media
Research fields
- 390303 Higher education
- 4410 Sociology
- 4702 Cultural studies
- 4409 Social work
UN sustainable development goals
- 10 Reduced Inequalities
- 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
Academic positions
- Senior Lecturer (Sociology and Human Services)
- RMIT University
- School of Global, Urban and Social Studies
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Jan 2022 – Present
- Academic Program Manager, Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology)
- RMIT University
- Global, Urban and Social Studies
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Jan 2018 – 31 Dec 2022
- Lecturer (Social Work)
- RMIT University
- School of Global, Urban and Social Studies
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Jul 2015 – 31 Dec 2017
- Senior Tutor (Social Science)
- RMIT University
- School of Social Science and Planning
- Melbourne, Australia
- 1 Jan 2008 – 30 Jun 2015
Supervisor projects
- Psilocybin Mental Health Self-Treatment: Responding to Emerging Trends
- 24 Jul 2025
- Characteristics of Neighbourhood Built Environments that Support Participation, Inclusion, and Health and Wellbeing of Children with Disabilities
- 1 Nov 2024
Teaching interests
Belinda is an experienced and passionate Higher Education educator. She is particularly interested in first year belonging pedagogies. She has expertise in designing and teaching in large multi-disciplinary courses. She teaches on the sociology of the self, intersections of sociology and psychology, and on understanding organisations sociologically for good practice.
Belinda is committed to inclusive and innovative teaching and learning experiences to create purposeful belonging for students. She designs curriculum that creates peer cultures of learning that value students’ diversity. Her teaching brings together social theory with contemporary social issues and events, and students' own experiences of the world for students to develop their ability to think and act well.
Entwined with her teaching practice, Belinda engages in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). She explores the application of imaginative, experiential learning and creative practice pedagogies to social science learning.
Belinda's education excellence is recognised in several awards. In 2024, she received the RMIT DSC Learning and Teaching Award for Extreme Pedagogy and she was part of a group award for Belonging. She is the winner of two RMIT Vice Chancellor Teaching Awards. In 2020, she won the RMIT Vice Chancellor's Award for “Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Higher Education”. In 2009, she was part of a group award for “Programs That Enhance Student Learning: The First Year Experience” (with Chris Davies and Kathryn Kriewaldt).
She has co-authored 2 chapters in the book "Tutorial ideas for educators on the run: Innovative, engaging, and social justice teaching approaches for social work and human services" (2024). At the TASA Conference 2024, she presents on 'Choreographies of Learning Spaces: Challenging Hierarchies of Face-to-face Sociology Tutorials Through Radical Dance Theories', as part of the Teaching Sociology Thematic Group.
Research interests
Belinda is an exprienced researcher in disability and creative practice at the RMIT Social Equity Research Centre. Her research interests explore intersections of social change, bodies, places, emotions and creative practice, with a specific interest in disability and Down syndrome. Belinda's further scholarly interests include: experiences of families with disability; fashion discourses; women and work; and precarity.
Belinda is widely published internationally in scholarly books and journals. Drawing from critical disability studies, new materialism and posthuman feminism, she is curious about the valuable insights gleaned from less-considered lives. Her concerns often return to the politics of everyday and creative actions.
Belinda brings a lived experience perspective to her research through her personal connections with the Down syndrome community. This lived experience knowledge deeply informs her understanding of the value of body diversity and her insight into the importance of creative work and creative participation for cultures of Down syndrome.
Belinda's high impact research has won several awards. In 2025, she won the RMIT DSC College Award for Research Engagement & Impact (ECR). In 2024 Belinda won the GUSS Dean's Award for Research Translation and Impact.
Her current and recent research projects include:
- Mapping Dance with Down Syndrome across the World: Knowledge and Practice, working for and with Dancers with Down Syndrome (Career Reignite Grant 2024). Collaboration with Tristan Sinclair (industry partner).
- Embodied Archives of Down Syndrome (Pilot). (2023) Role: Co-investigator, project initiator. Collaboration with Prof Anna Hickey-Moody (CI, RMIT/Maynouth, Ireland) & Dr Stephanie Andrews (RMIT).
- Facing the Unexpected: Improving women’s mental health through training to address the psychosocial aspects of prenatal diagnosis (Study 1). (2022-2024) Role: Chief Investigator. Funder: Liptember Foundation via Through The Unexpected. Collaboration with A/Prof Chris Maylea (La Trobe) and Pieta Shakes (JCU).
- Social media research projects (2018, 2022) Role: Co-investigator. With Dr Raelene West (Melbourne Disability Institute, University of Melbourne).
- On the Same Page! Role: Co-investigator, Industry funded research (Yooralla, 2018-2020). Collaboration with A/Prof Paul Ramcharan & A/Prof Christina David.
Research impact activities:
- 2025: Dancekin Collective, an integrated dance ensemble of dancers with and without Down syndrome was formed out of Belinda's collaborative research projects, and based on the findings of that research. A performance dance work by Dancekin Collective, "Bare" was performed at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Blackwood Box theatre, Meat Market (Sept 30-Oct 3)
- 2024: a letter Belinda wrote as part of her chapter on Babies with Disabilities and their Entitlement to Imagined Hopeful Futures, was included in the 21Girfts gift packs provided to new parents of a baby with Down syndrome in 120 hospitals across Australia and New Zealand.
- 2023: Belinda was co-organiser of a TASA-funded event, the De-Centring Academic Expertise Symposium. Working with Emotion21 dance school, Belinda arranged for dancers with Down syndrome to lead a Performance and Panel session at the event. This video captures this session:
