Collaboration in Action: Lived and Living Experience Research

What can ethical approaches to lived and living experience research look like? Research for social justice is strongest when it is done with or led by, rather than about, communities and people with lived and living experience. Lived and living experience is the knowledge held by those who have experience of marginalisation, oppression or underrepresentation, as well as by those disproportionately impacted by a condition or intervention. It also includes their insights on, and experience of doing, the work of social transformation. Join us at this year's Social Equity Research Centre's public event where we bring researchers, community and industry partners together to explore what ethical and impactful approaches to lived and living experience research look like in practice. Through paired conversations across three research collaborations, from policy and service systems change to creative practice, we reflect on different approaches as they respond to community priorities. The event concludes with a performance by Dancekin Collective, an ensemble of dancers with and without Down syndrome born of an ongoing SERC lived experience research collaboration. The conversation then continues in the foyer with light refreshments. We welcome individuals and communities with lived and living experience of marginalisation and oppression, industry and community organisations and researchers to come together to share, explore and celebrate lived and living experience research in action. Presenters Dr Caroline Lambert is a senior lecturer and family carer perspective academic within the School of Social Work & Human Services at RMIT University. She draws on her family, carer and kin lived and living experience to inform much of her research and teaching. Caroline is a member of the RMIT Wildflowers, a collective of academics who use their lived and living expertise, or commitment to lived experience allyship, in their research, advocacy, teaching and training. Caroline is also a co-founder of the RMIT Enabling Impact Platform-based, Australia-wide, Family and Carer Research Advocacy Network (FaCRAN). Dr Robyn Martin is a professor of social work and has been privileging lived experience in her academic work for over 20 years. Her first job in human services was in a single women's homelessness refuge and this introduced Robyn to the importance of deep listening and suspending assumptions. Robyn has had the privilege of being mentored, corrected and guided by many lived experience experts, advocates and leaders and she is extremely grateful for the ways in which these experiences have shaped her. Robyn is a co-founder of the RMIT Family and Carer Research Advocacy Network (FaCRAN). Duncan Large is a mental health advocate, former lived experience peer worker, and a passionate runner with experience of long-term mental illness. Duncan has been given multiple diagnoses, including one of borderline personality disorder (BPD). While navigating his journey in the mental health system, as both a consumer and worker, he became acutely aware of the stigma attached to BPD and the difficulties many consumers and carers faced as a result. Following the suicide of a close friend, he started speaking publicly about his struggles with mental health, including being part of the It's Time to Talk about Mental Health series. Among his many roles, Duncan has co-chaired the Families Where a Parent has a Mental Illness (FaPMI) Statewide Lived Experience Working Group. Dr Tamara Borovica is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow and creative practitioner at RMIT University’s Social Equity Research Centre, and Co-Director of HealthTalk Australia. Her research sits at the intersection of critical mental health, sociology of emotion and lived experience, with a particular focus on trauma, stigma, resilience and social inequity. Using participatory, qualitative and arts-based methods, she explores how people make sense of complex mental health experiences and how lived expertise can shape research, services and public understanding. Dr Miranda Lai is an associate professor in the translating and interpreting discipline at RMIT University. She has published widely in public service interpreting and delivered training in Australia and overseas. Her research interests include police interpreting, forensic transcription and translation, vicarious trauma, ethics for interpreters & translators, and pedagogy of translating & interpreting. Budi Sudarto is the director of Ananda Training & Consultancy, specialising in intersectionality, inclusion and belonging. Budi has been involved in the LGBTIQ+ communities for over 20 years and continues to use his lived experience, knowledge and advocacy work to support organisations in the development and implementation of diversity & inclusion policies and strategies that incorporate intersectionality. Dancekin Collective is an integrated dance collective where people with and without disability move, create and belong together. Their work brings together community dance, performance, research and disability-led practice, centring dancers with Down syndrome and neurodivergence as artists, collaborators and cultural contributors. Doors to the Kaleide Theatre will be open from 2:45pm. The panel discussion will commence at 3pm, followed by the Dancekin Collective performance. Please join us for refreshments in the Kaleide foyer from 4:30pm. Image: Dancekin Collective, Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025