Associate Professor Myra Hamilton, a CEPAR Principal Research Fellow in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School, has been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Mid-Career Researcher Industry Fellowship - one of only 25 offered Australia-wide.
The Fellowship will support A/Professor Hamilton's project titled 'New models of replacement care for working carers: improving the time synchronicity of service systems and carers’ working time'.
This project will investigate the replacement care arrangements that will support different groups of informal carers of a person with a disability, chronic illness or older relative to participate in paid work in contemporary Australia. Using mixed methods, field trials, and an innovative conceptual approach focused on time synchronicity, it will generate critical new knowledge about the characteristics and effectiveness of sustainable replacement care models that enable carers to enter or increase paid work and maintain work/care balance. Significant benefits include improving aged, disability and carer service models and policies to enhance women’s workforce participation, boost national productivity, and improve carer wellbeing.
A/Professor Myra Hamilton is a sociologist and social policy researcher whose research focus is on gender, ageing and care. Her research explores how policies and services can build wellbeing and financial security in work and in care over the life course. She combines traditional academic research with applied policy research for government and non-government organisations. She is Reviews Editor of the International Journal of Care and Caring and sits on the NSW Carers Advisory Council and the Board of COTANSW.
Prior to moving to the University of Sydney, Myra worked at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales and spent several periods working abroad, as a Lecturer at the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol (2010-2011), and in visiting research positions at the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender at the University of Surrey (2007), the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh (2010), and Collegio Carlo Alberto at the University of Turin, Italy (2019).