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Professor

Beth Crisp

Deputy Head of School

Faculty of Health/School of Health and Social Development

Orcid identifier0000-0001-7863-4482
  • Deputy Head of School
    Faculty of Health/School of Health and Social Development
  • +61 3 522 78430 (Work)
  • Geelong Waterfront Campus, 1 Gheringhap Street Geelong, Victoria 3220

BIO

Beth Crisp is Professor and Discipline Leader for Social Work at Deakin University. A distinguished researcher and educator, she is internationally one of the most influential scholars in the field of social work. Beth’s work seeks to give voice to people on the margins whose experiences too often goes unrecognised, such as her innovative work at the interface between religion, spirituality and social work practice. She has published 12 books, more than 130 major articles in peer reviewed journals, numerous book chapters and research reports on issues ranging from her doctoral work in the 1990s on HIV/AIDS prevention to problem gambling, health promotion and gender-based violence. Her current research interests centre around social exclusion, religion and spirituality, and social work education.
Beth has been involved in in major reforms of social work education in both Australia and the UK. In Australia she has played an active role in the ongoing development of the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS). As President of the Australian Council of Heads of Social Work Education from 2020 to 2024, Beth led the successful campaign in 2020 to have Social Work Education receive the same level of Australian Government funding as Allied Health programs, and was involved in political advocacy efforts which resulted in the new Placement Payments to be introduced in 2025.
Prior to returning to Australia in 2005, Beth as Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Glasgow during a period of major reforms to Social Work Education in the United Kingdom. She was led projects funded by the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education and the Social Care Institute of Excellence to develop resources for Social Work Educators in Scotland and England and was subsequently a member of the research team responsible for evaluating the New Social Work Degree in England.
Beth is also Deputy Head of the School of Health and Social Development, which has approximately 170 staff from a wide range of health and community service discipline and is also actively involved in university governance as an active contributor to university, faculty and school committees, including Academic Board. Her academic practice includes developing and overseeing a wide range of strategic and operational matters in higher education including curriculum development, policy initiatives, budgets, staffing resources and risk management.

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY CURRENT APPOINTMENT

  • Deputy Head of School
    Deakin University, School of Health and Social Development

DEGREES

  • Doctor of Philosophy
    La Trobe University
  • Bachelor of Arts
    University of Melbourne
  • Bachelor of Social Work
    La Trobe University
  • Bachelor of Theology
    Melbourne College of Divinity

FIELDS OF RESEARCH (2020)

  • Social work
  • Public health
  • Policy and administration
  • Religious studies

AVAILABILITY FOR SUPERVISION

  • Masters by Research and PhD supervision

AREA/FACULTY

  • Faculty of Health

DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL/INSTITUTE

  • School of Health and Social Development