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Susan Gasson

Australia

Susan’s research focuses on research education and development, research collaboration, and employability. Adopting qualitative approaches including narrative inquiry her research has benefited from years spent working in higher education and building strong national and global networks. She managed the Research Students Centre at QUT for two decades before joining James Cook University (JCU) as Coordinator HDR Advisor Development for five years.

An Adjunct Senior Lecturer for JCU’s Cairns Institute she welcomes engagement with this vital community.  She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, on the External Advisory Board for the UK RSVP next generation supervisor project, and a member of the review committees for two key journals in her field of interest.

Her research has focused on Early Career Research Pathways, and Collaborative Research and its application in different contexts including research writing, doctoral studies, and support for the participation of women in higher education. Her PhD thesis explored Early Career Researcher pathways, and the book from that thesis ECR Pathways, Tensions and Stories will be published by Emerald later this year.

Susan is leading editor of the open-access online ebook series Confident Supervisor: Creating Independent Researchers: https://jcu.pressbooks.pub/confidentsupervisors/. Volume 1 received an OE Global award in 2024, Volume 2 is due out in early 2026. Both volumes feature a translation function to encourage global readership.

She has co-authored with collaborators in Europe, North America, Asia and the Pacific. Her interest in researcher development has led to the creation and co-creation of several online resources including interactive and integrated forms, online communities, and Blackboard and WordPress sites.

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