Dr Michelle Newcomb
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Biography
Dr Michelle Newcomb is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at QUT, internationally recognised for her research on practitioner and student wellbeing in the social work profession. With over 15 years of frontline experience in domestic and international human services, Michelle brings a deeply grounded, real-world perspective to her academic work. Her practice career includes roles in youth homelessness, domestic violence, and community development, notably as a founding member of a complex needs project for young homeless people in London and as Homelessness and Social Housing Coordinator with Brisbane City Council.Michelle’s research is shaped by a strong commitment to feminist principles and social justice. She explores how gendered expectations and emotional labour affect social workers, particularly in high-stress environments. Among her most notable contributions is the concept of “hidden strengths” such as the emotional, relational, and reflective capacities that social workers rely on but which are often undervalued in professional discourse.
Her work has significantly contributed to understanding burnout, staff attrition, and student disadvantage in social work and human services. In 2022, she was named one of Australia’s Top Five early career researchers in the Humanities by the ABC, recognising her impact on the field. Michelle’s scholarship has been published in leading social work journals and she regularly presents at national and international conferences.
She is actively involved in curriculum development, professional accreditation, and collaborative research projects, including work on trigger warnings in education, abolitionist approaches to child protection, and reforming self-care practices in academia. As a passionate educator and mentor, Michelle is dedicated to fostering critical thinking, ethical practice, and professional resilience in the next generation of social workers.
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Health,
School of Public Health & Social Work
Keywords
Relational Social Work, Resilience, Ethics of Care, Workplace Well Being, Student experiences
Research field
Social work
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
- Master of Social Work (Queensland University of Technology)
- Graduate Certificate of Business Management (Queensland University of Technology)
- Bachelor of Social Science (Human Services) (Honours) (Queensland University of Technology)
Teaching
Lecturer, course convenor, tutor, guest lecturer and liaison visitor for Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Griffith University (GU) and Australian Catholic University (ACU). She currently teaches:
SWH401: Social Research for Social Change
SWB204: Critical Practice with Children and Families
SWN024: Child, Youth and Family Practice
Experience
Current Research Projects
Dr Newcomb is involved in numerous research projects. These include:
- How care ethics can be used by social work managers to support staff.
- Student perspectives of learning about sensitive topics.
- Understanding how community service agencies use Generative AI.
Peer Review Invitations
Dr Newcomb has been a peer reviewer on several Q1 journals, including the Australian Social Work journal, The British Journal of Social Work and Social Work.
Teaching Awards, Affiliations and Training Programs
2016: Vice Chancellors Award for Teaching Excellence
2016: Awarded Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy.
Publications
Research outputs by year
- Newcomb, M. & Venning, A. (2024). Individual Responsibility and Disconnection: Practitioner Experiences of the First Wave COVID19 Lockdown. Australian Social Work, 77(2), 170–182. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/238291
- Newcomb, M., Burton, J. & Edwards, N. (2022). How to be yourself: Student perspectives on learning use of self. Clinical Social Work Journal, 50(4), 337–346. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/202340
- Newcomb, M., (2022). Supportive Social Work Supervision as an Act of Care: A Conceptual Model. British Journal of Social Work, 52(2), 1070–1088. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/210445
- Newcomb, M., (2021). The emotional labour of academia in the time of a pandemic: A feminist reflection. Qualitative Social Work, 20(1-2), 639–644. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/208426
- Newcomb, M., Burton, J. & Edwards, N. (2019). Student constructions of resilience: Understanding the role of childhood adversity. Australian Social Work, 72(2), 166–178. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/127862
- Newcomb, M., Burton, J. & Edwards, N. (2018). Pretending to be authentic: challenges for students when reflective writing about their childhood for assessment. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 19(3), 333–344. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/224058
- Newcomb, M., Burton, J. & Edwards, N. (2017). Childhood adversity and self-care education for undergraduate social work and human services students. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 37(4), 337–352. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/110462
- Newcomb, M., Burton, J. & Edwards, N. (2017). Service user or service provider? How social work and human services students integrate dual identities. Social Work Education, 36(6), 678–689. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108515
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Michelle, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/michelle.newcomb
Awards
- Type
- Award or Prize
- Reference year
- 2022
- Details
- The ABC TOP 5 is for dynamic early-career PhD scholars or Arts practitioners, with a flair and passion for communicating their work to a non-academic audience.
The TOP 5 media residencies are designed to develop the communication skills and media awareness of Australia's emerging thinkers — helping researchers share their knowledge and expertise with audiences seeking credible information and informed debate.
The successful applicants spend two weeks 'in residence' at ABC Radio National, working alongside some of the country's best journalists and broadcasters — training in media communication and developing content for different ABC platforms. In addition to audio, they will also get the opportunity to engage with our teams across the ABC including in TV and digital.
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Activist Leadership in Social Work: Investigating Social Justice Activism in the Roles of Social Work Leaders
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Christine Morley - Autistic Service Users and Mental Health Professionals Perspectives of Neurodivergent Affirming Autistic Mental Health Care: Exploring A New Way Forward
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Danielle Davidson, Associate Professor Jenni Mays - Dance and Social Prescribing: meaning making and creating with contemporary dance for improved health and wellbeing
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Rachel Mathews, Dr Elizabeth Gibbs - How do social workers understand and experience work-related loss within the context of non-government organisations?
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Shane Warren, Adjunct Associate Professor Julie King - The Impact of Service Provider Attitudes on Gender-Based Violence Responses in Mongolia
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Danielle Davidson, Adjunct Associate Professor Julie King - Understanding the Lived Experience of Social Workers from Diverse Cultural Backgrounds Working with Traumatised Clients: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Adjunct Professor Jane Shakespeare-Finch, Adjunct Professor Renata Meuter - Women's experiences of accessing Autism and/or ADHD assessment and diagnosis: A critical phenomenological exploration
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Jenni Mays, Dr Danielle Davidson
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.