Ruth is Professor and Head of School - Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education within the Faculty of Education. Ruth is a sociologist whose research interests focus on the use of sport and active recreation as a community development resource, particularly to address social exclusion amongst acutely marginalised groups.

Ruth's research has attracted a range of external funding. She is lead investigator on a recently awarded ARC Linkage grant 'Informal sport as a health and social resources amongst diverse young people' ($250,000) with co-investigators Dr Justen O' Connor, Professor Dawn Penney and Professor Ramon Spaaij and in partnership with VicHealth, Centre for Multicultural Youth, Cricket Victoria and the Department of local governernment, sport and cultural industries. This study builds on a recently completed project also funded by the ARC Linkage scheme ($200,000) for a project 'Participation versus performance: Managing (dis) ability, gender and cultural diversity in Junior Sport'. The grant team was led by Professor Ramon Spaaij from Victoria University.

• Sport and international development
• Social policy, sport and social justice
• Gender and sport
• Disability and Sport 
• Sport and mental health

I am interested in supervising students at PhD and masters level in the areas reflecting my research interests. 

• EDF2172 Applied movement contexts in health and physical education 1
• EDF3172 Inclusion and Diversity in Movement contexts
• EDF3071 Community development and partnerships