Event: Risks of visibility in a forced spotlight

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
In the background, a person stands onstage bathed in light. People in the foreground watch in the forefront

I’ll be presenting my research on how institutions can protect public scholars from public abuse. Hosted by Cultures of Digital Hate, this online panel is free to attend.

Date: Mon, 12 September 2022, 8:00PM-9:30PM AEST (11:00AM – 12:30PM BST)

Register: online.

About this event: (from the organisers)

In this event, we challenge the positive framing of REF and impact to examine the conditions in which this labour is undertaken, given what we know about cultures of digital hate. We understand academia as a sector with visibility built in, that can both be understood through frameworks relevant to public facing fields like celebrity and politics, and offer insights for understanding the harms of forced online visibility more generally. Therefore, insights can inform fields beyond ‘academia studies’, and be applied to digital hate more broadly. This event will ask how the politics of visibility and its unequally distributed risks shape our ability to contribute to public debate through online participation.

Speakers include:

  • Dr Claire Sedgewick, Impact Officer at the University of Derby
  • keisha bruce, PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham
  • Jess Wren Butler, PhD candidate at Lancaster University
  • Dr Gayle Brewer, Lecturer in Psychology, University of Liverpool
  • Dr Xine Yao, Lecturer in American Literature to 1900, University College London
  • Dr Zuleyka Zevallos, applied sociologist and senior policy researcher, living on Gadigal land (Sydney)

Hosted by Dr Hannah Yelin, Oxford Brookes University and Dr Laura Clancy, Lancaster University.

Applied Sociology and Cyber Security

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
A woman is reading her phone in front of space invaders street art on a wall. Title reads "Applied sociology and cyber security"

I led a project where our team created an online cyber security training game. We used behavioural science to develop the game. I hired an intern who did a wonderful job building the prototype. Our team then contracted a great agency to work with us to enhance the game. Having an applied sociologist at the helm meant that accessibility and game design was developed with inclusion from inception.

Continue reading Applied Sociology and Cyber Security

Applied Sociology of COVID-19

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
An Asian woman clinician stands, holding a COVID PCR test. She wears a surgical mask and gown. A Pacific Islander man sits in a chair wearing a mask. The both look to the side as if listening to instructions

I am cross-posting public health research that I have co-led.

In late 2020, many people were confused about how to correctly self-isolate after getting a COVID-19 test. Our team worked to stop people leaving self-isolation before getting a negative result. We tested a behavioural intervention using

  • A multilingual handout, and
  • ‘Teach-back’ instructions about self-isolation.

Teach-back is an effective way to improve health comprehension. Clinicians follow a script. They then ask people to repeat key instructions. They also allow time for questions and explanation.

Our intervention and survey were given in four languages (English, Chinese, Arabic and Korean). Our study included 76,000 people in Western Sydney. We analysed 8,000 valid survey responses.

The Northern Beaches outbreak happened during our trial. Our intervention shows how hard clinicians work. They have a strong commitment to trying new solutions.

We reduced self-isolation breaches by 29%. Our research has now been scaled across NSW. Scaling is when a successful intervention is expanded to a broader population.

As part of our scaling, I co-wrote the script for our training video. It explains how clinicians should deliver teach-back. It was interesting to be involved in the filming. I was there to ensure the science was portrayed correctly. Turning research into a visual format is an example of  visual sociology. In our case, we used behavioural science to design our handout and video.

Our project shows how

  • Applied sociology adds value to multidisciplinary teams, and
  • Diverse scientists make a real difference to public health.

My co-leads are a psychologist and economist. We are all from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds. Our multilingual focus is due to our team reflecting on how we can increase equity and diversity in our research. Using multiple languages in our study was very satisfying.

Enjoy reading our work.

Continue reading Applied Sociology of COVID-19

Applied Sociology of Qualifications

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
A young white woman stands next to an older white man in an industrial workshop. They are both smiling looking at her laptop

Cross-posting research I’ve led, which examines how to help students complete their qualifications. Our research shows that more apprentices and trainees will complete their training if students are given six behaviourally informed SMS prompts. Messages provided timely and practical advice on workplace rights, and where to seek support if they were struggling. Our results equate to 16% fewer learners dropping out. Our intervention led to a 7:1 return on investment.

Continue reading Applied Sociology of Qualifications

Applied Sociology in Rural and Remote Education

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Title at the top reads: "Applied Sociology in Training and Education." A woman and man sit at a table. She's writing and he's pointing at her work. They're both Asian and Brown

This is the second of two posts showing how applied sociology is used in a multi-disciplinary behavioural science project to improve social policy and program delivery.

We scaled our previous trials that used behavioural science to increase pre-service teachers’ uptake of professional placements in rural and remote New South Wales (NSW). We used timely and personalised communications, simplified research on placements, and offered a group placement experience. These interventions led to 55 pre-service teachers completing their placements at geographically isolated schools, with 100% of them saying they would consider taking up long-term employment at a rural or remote school in the future.

Continue reading Applied Sociology in Rural and Remote Education

Applied Sociology in Vocational Education

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Oil-style picture of two White people in paint-soaked clothes. A woman on the left holds a hammer. The man on the right holds a paint roller. We can't see their faces. The top third of the graphic has the heading "Appleid sociology in vocational education"

This is part one of two posts showing how applied sociology is used in a multi-disciplinary behavioural science project to improve social policy and program delivery.

Our randomised control trial (RCT) sought to improve outcomes for apprentices and trainees through a behavioural intervention. Learners and their employers were separately visited to discuss contractual responsibilities and to set goals that were meaningful to the learner. Fortnightly emails to employers and text messages (SMS) to learners then reinforced these themes for a period of three months. At the end of this time, separate phone calls to employers and learners were undertaken to check their progress on goals and to work through any workplace issues. We then stopped further communication and analysed completion rates 12-months later. Though our intervention did not lead to a statistically significant result in the retention rate of learners, we suggest early, behaviourally informed support in the first 12 months can help learners persevere toward apprenticeship completion.

Continue reading Applied Sociology in Vocational Education

Career Planning in the Research Sector

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Crowd of people at a Latin American festival in Melbourne

I’m sharing the resource I created for the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia (AILASA) Conference. I am leading a workshop on ‘Career Planning in the Research Sector.’ This presentation is intended for early career researchers who may be near completion of a postgraduate degree, or recently completed a Masters or PhD. Specifically, I look at how Latin American Studies scholars can market their skills, especially in current times following the bushfire disaster in late 2019 to early 2020, and the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, which led to significant restrictions and socio-economic disruption from the end of March 2020 to the present day in July (and ongoing). The job market poses many challenges. The lessons here are applicable for other early career researchers.

You can flick through my slides below, or download my slides as a PDF. Further down, there are links to resources for how to look for work, preparing a CV and interview. Accessible descriptions of slides at the end.

Continue reading Career Planning in the Research Sector

Running a research project as an applied sociologist

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Drawing of me sitting at a desk in front of my laptop. I'm wearing a bright multicoloured jacket and headband

Let’s chat about what it’s like to run a typical personal research project as an applied social scientist. Outside of my paid work, I laboured on a resource on equity and diversity, which began a couple of years ago. I let you know I published this a couple of months back, but I wanted to reflect on the journey.

Part of the reason why I’m sharing this is so that you can get to know me a little better, but also because many people don’t realise what it’s like to be an applied sociologist. It means all my scholarship needs to happen outside of my paid work. It is exhausting but incredibly important to my sociological practice.

Continue reading Running a research project as an applied sociologist

Interview: Talking Feminist Sociology

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Drawing of several women dressed in historical STEM outfits

In case you missed this on my other social media, in January 2019, Lady Science published a podcast about my career and feminism.  I was interviewed in late 2018 by Leila McNeill, one of the editors-in-chief. Below is an excerpt where you can learn a little about my professional history. I discuss how racial minority sociologists are challenging knowledge production in our field. I show how the concept of otherness is feeding the overt political resurgence of White nationalism. Then I cover the importance of intersectionality in sociological practice.

My face is drawn Brown, with red lipstick and red lines shining out of my top of my head
Portrait of me commissioned from the feminist and artist, Tyler Feder

Leila: To kick off our series I’ll be talking with Zuleyka Zevallos, a sociologist from Australia, about the history of sociology, how the work of Indigenous and minority sociologists is changing the field, and how intersectional feminism influences her work. Leila: Without further ado, I’ll let Zuleyka introduce herself.

Z. Zevallos: Yep, so my name’s Zuleyka Zevallos. I’m a sociologist, and I’ve got a PhD in sociology. I started off doing research on the intersections of identity from migrant background women. I was really interested in how their experiences of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and also religion made their sense of identity, and how that also interconnected with their experiences of racism and multiculturalism, and how all of that affected their sense of belonging to their communities, as well as broader Australian society.

Z. Zevallos: After I finished my PhD I’ve been teaching the whole way through, and then I was an academic for a little while. I taught the sociology of gender and sexuality as well as leading courses on ethnicity and race. I also looked at the impact of technology on society…

Z. Zevallos: I spent the first few years working with an interdisciplinary social modelling team. That was a really great experience because it really taught me different applications of sociology, but also how to speak to scientists from the natural and physical sciences, from computer sciences, and how to blend their disciplines with mine.
Continue reading Interview: Talking Feminist Sociology

Charming Central Coast: Aboriginal Organisations and Sights on Darkinjung Land

Posted on by Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Sommersby Falls with the blog post title overlaid: Charming Central Coast - Aboriginal Organisations and Sights on Darkinjung Land

I’ve previously mentioned that I’d been away on secondment for six weeks at the end of last year. I was part of a national program that matches professionals from policy and corporate sectors with Aboriginal-controlled community organisations. I worked with Barang Regional Alliance (Barang) on the Central Coast, on their Empower Youth Summit, which was held last weekend, on 23-24 February 2019. Barang looks after the interests of 12,500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on Darkinjung land. It was a pleasure to work on this meaningful project and to learn more about Barang and its partners, whom I touch on below. You can see the Barang team and my fellow secondees below.

Next time, I’ll talk a little on my project, and some photos from the weekend, attended by 120 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.  Today, I’m going to focus more on my broader experience on the Central Coast, especially the Aboriginal-Controlled organisations with whom we collaborated, as well as the cultural walks and sights. I’ll share with you a visual sociology of our visit to Finchley Campground, the beautiful rock art at Baiame Cave and Bulgandry, the Koori Art Exhibition, various national parks and festivals, plus much more!

Continue reading Charming Central Coast: Aboriginal Organisations and Sights on Darkinjung Land