I am currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at RMIT University, based in the School of Art. I am a nurse, academic and community-engaged researcher in gender, race, health and digital technologies. My Fellowship aims to engage health professionals in finding new ways to understand, co-design and implement sustainable cultural safety initiatives in a range of health contexts in response to health inequities. 

My research work in progress includes: whether health technologies provide an opportunity for addressing health inequalities; a critical health agenda around the intersections of race, class, gender, neoliberalism and health technology; examining how wearable health technologies can enhance consumer participation agendas eg through co-design and shared decision making; the implications of new health information technologies for the health care workforce; implications of new health information technologies; and data ethics in the context of the secondary use of clinical data and aggregation of patient data.

I have a passionate interest in culture and health. My main theoretical interests are feminist theory, postcolonial theory and critical qualitative research methodologies. My work includes empirical studies and theoretical investigations into key sites where health inequities are found, including refugee, migrant and indigenous communities; maternity and mental health. I am interested in expanding the anti-racist potential of cultural safety in health and social care in order to improve health care outcomes for marginalised groups through theory, practice and policy and to examine the role nurses and other health professionals can play in social justice. To this end, I have a specific interest in critical and self-reflexive approaches in nursing education. More recently, I have begun undertaking secondary research in the form of systematic and integrative reviews (summarising existing research) as a mechanism for supporting decision-making in health and social care. You’ll find more about my scholarly activities below.

Digital identifiers

ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3862-5375
Researcher ID: E-8565-2015
Scopus Author ID: 6603404326

Current research interests
Current postgraduate research supervision
Previous postgraduate research supervision
Scholarly activity
Research grants
Refereed journal articles
Research reports
Editorials/Forewords
Books
Edited Publications
Sections in books
Non-refereed journal articles
Artist catalogue essays

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

Birthing and justice

I worked on a postnatal ward in 1994, after working in mental health for much of my career. I have written about this elsewhere and how the poor care experiences of migrant mothers in Auckland led me to research their experiences and think about them for more than twenty years. From there I developed and worked in a new community focused maternal mental health service. I developed a brochure on PND for the NZ Mental Health Foundation and did a Masters degree and researched the experiences of Goan mothers in Aotearoa, then undertook a Families Commission project with the Plunket society to look at the experiences of migrant mothers in general. I also spent some time thinking about reflexivity and positionality and what it meant to be an insider/outsider or outsider- within as Patricia Hill-Collins calls it, and the moral aspects of mothering. I later did a secondary analysis of the Korean (discursive) Families Commission data for my Ph.D. along with interviewing Plunket Nurses. I have published the findings about Indian mothers in a book by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and blogged about the experience of White migrant mothers. I have also talked to Chinese and Indian men about their experiences of becoming fathers in New Zealand, and Refugee background women about their experiences of parenting and more recently have been researching the intersections of pregnancy, birth, migration, and digital technologies. In June I launched Birthing and justice which you can find on your favorite podcast app. I am aware that the language of human reproduction is changing and that not all pregnant people are women, or mothers so hope to reflect more of these changes in how to use language and think about birthing.

New mothers and apps during COVID19: Australian Indian migrant perspectives

I am working with Dr Sukhmani Khorana (UWS) to understand the perspectives and experiences of new migrant South Asian mothers who gave birth during COVID19 and are using various digital apps and online platforms for pregnancy and parenting in the perinatal period. The qualitative study will involve conducting in-depth interviews with up to 20 first-generation migrant women from South Asian backgrounds resident in Sydney and Melbourne who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collected data will elicit information about the relevance of using apps for pregnancy and parenting in the perinatal period especially during the pandemic when physical support from family, friends, and health care institutions may have been disrupted or compromised. Our questions will include: Finding out about how COVID-19 impacted their pregnancy and early parenthood experiences; exploring their access to social networks during COVID; exploring the information sources they draw on including pregnancy/parenting apps and their use of social media. You can access our report De Souza, R., Khorana, S., and Chatranshi, B. (2022). New mothers and apps during COVID-19. All the support fell out: South Asian migrant perspectives. Report. RMIT University, Melbourne and Young and Resilient Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney.

Alone together

Research Team: Dr Ruth De Souza (RMIT), Maria Dimopoulos (Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety), Deidre Ellem, Distinguished Professor Larissa Hjorth (RMIT), Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves (Monash University), Dr Juan Sanin (RMIT), Kate Renzenbrink (Bendigo Health) and Dr Jenny Waycott (University of Melbourne).
One in three older Australians is from a CALD background. Most older Australians (95.3%) live in private households and less than 20 % of all people aged 65 and older use care and support from formal health and aged care services. The COVID19 pandemic with its associated physical distancing and social isolation, presents additional challenges to the psychosocial wellbeing/ mental health for older adults living independently, in particular older CALD Australians who may experience additional barriers to maintaining wellbeing/ mental health. These barriers may be compounded with the shift to telehealth within health and mental health services during the pandemic. It also means that the development of online culturally safe and appropriate models of care and their benefits and limitations for specific population groups require scrutiny and urgent investigation. However, our understanding of their experiences is still limited. This research explored some of the practices and perceptions around COVID19 strategies and telecare, in particular as related to psychosocial wellbeing/ mental health from the point of view of older adults from CALD backgrounds living independently in Melbourne. I was interviewed by SBS for the project. A brief report was produced and I worked with the fabulous Safdar Ahmed to develop a narrative for the Guardian newspaper as a way of engaging broader publics in the research findings. I was also invited to present a Keynote address at the Cultural Diversity in Ageing Conference 2021 (Care to Communicate – Hearing the voices of older people) organised by the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing. I also presented this work to The National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) weekly seminars and was interviewed on 3CR Community Radio, Melbourne​ by Priya Kunjan (Breakfast show) and on the Women on the Line show by Amy McMurtrie.

Short And Sweet: Micro-learning For Community Home Aged Care Workers

I am a member of the project team for this Melbourne Ageing Research Collaboration (MARC) initiative which aims to understand the learning needs of home aged care workers (particularly personal care workers) and trial a technology-assisted learning approach to improve knowledge with the goal to improve the care of older Australians receiving aged care services.

Codesigning a future vision for MARC (Melbourne Ageing Research Collaboration)

In November 2020, I worked alongside Dr Leah Heiss, Dr Marius Foley and Distinguished Professor Larissa Hjorth (RMIT) to create a vision statement derived from an online co-design process with their stakeholders. We used a range of personas to consider future partnerships and capabilities in the context of the pandemic and Royal Commission findings.

COVIDSAFE Perceptions and Practices

In 2020 Dr Hugh Davies, Prof Larissa Hjorth, Prof Ingrid Richardson (all from RMIT), Prof Mark Andrejevic (Monash University) and I began researching practices and perceptions of COVID-19. Our areas of inquiry included: How do Australians respond to their information and locations being monitored and recorded? How have people adjusted to differing understandings of civic responsibility toward public health? How are axes of difference informing responses to public health messaging? To what extent do individuals perceive the COVID-19 crisis as bringing about community solidarity. Or, alternately, bringing to the fore existing inequalities? In 2021 we commenced a new study interviewing participants from across Australia and New Zealand about their views with regard to the infrastructural changes and biometrics ushered by COVID-19, specifically, masks and other PPE use, contact tracing via apps, QR codes, pen and paper, COVID testing and temperature monitoring and vaccinations. More details available here. We have produced a journal article on Situating “careful surveillance” published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies and a summary report which includes findings from an online survey. This work has also been presented at a Virtual 71st Annual ICA Conference: Engaging the Essential Work of Care: Communication, Connectedness, and Social Justice.

HDR students belonging and connection

Our interdisciplinary research team comprised Dr Natalie Hendry, Prof Larissa Hjorth, Prof Ingrid Richardson, Dr Catherine Gomes, Dr Gretchen Coombs, and Assoc Prof Anne Harris (RMIT) was commissioned by the RMIT School of Graduate Research (SGR) to undertake qualitative, ethnographic research to explore HDR candidates’ experiences of belonging and connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed a short report and an early literature review. This work was presented at International Education in the Time of Global Disruptions and a paper by the team Higher Degree Students (HDR) during COVID-19. has just been published in a special issue of Journal of International Students: International Education in the Time of Global Disruptions: COVID-19 and its Impact on International Students

Closing the mental health care gap: Co-designing resources for emergency department staff

I have a strong interest in both access to and access through services, including trust and cultural safety. Previous work in this space has been around Access to services by Chinese people in New Zealand, barriers to help-seeking and problem gambling for Asian people, barriers to cervical cancer screening for women from Mainland China (demographic predictors, factors affecting uptake of cervical cancer screening and whether having more knowledge of cervical cancer increased the uptake of screening in Chinese women. Once upon a time as a clinician, I spent a lot of time both in New Zealand and in Maidstone, Kent in emergency departments with people who were either seeking after-hours mental health care or presenting for the first time in search of mental health services. At Monash University I co-supervised Jessica Crawford’s Honours project, a systematic review to identify the impact of alternative emergency care pathways on ED presentations – specifically GP cooperatives and walk-in clinics. Jessica, Simon Cooper, Robyn Cant and I published this work in International emergency nursing. Last year I joined Professor Renata Kokanovic, Rory Randall, Rebecca Egan, Indigo Daya, Prof Stuart Thomas, Dr Cameron Duff, Dr Chris Maylea, Dr Nicholas Hill Dr Natalie Hendry and Chad O’Brien on a project to understand people’s experiences of attending an Emergency Department (ED) for mental health-related concerns. The data will be used to produce educational and training resources for ED staff to help them improve how they respond. You can see similar work that’s already been produced on the Healthtalk website.

Performing Statelessness

In 2018, the Statelessness Hallmark Research Initiative awarded Danny Butt (Fine Arts, University of Melbourne), myself, Tania Canas (RISE Refugees/cohealth Arts Gen/UoM) and Genevieve Grieves (Museums Victoria) seed funding in their first Projects Round for interdisciplinary research projects. Performing Statelessness considered the following questions: How is the condition of statelessness experienced and performed in everyday life? How do the ways stateless peoples collectively perform connect to or depart from normative aspirations to public participation in a settler-colonial democratic nation such as Australia? Are there opportunities for exploring how the conditions of statelessness experienced by Indigenous Australians and refugee and asylum-seeker communities can be comparatively articulated for the benefit of these communities? Using practice-led research methods informed by performance techniques, our pilot project staged a unique encounter between practicing artists who identify as having an asylum seeker, refugee and/or First Nation background, toward innovative interventions into culturally responsive methods in artistic research. We are grateful to Ajak Kwai, Ez Eldin Deng, Kate ten Buuren, Uncle Robert Bundle, Rubii Red, Ruth Nyaruot Ruach, Tasnim Sammak, Dianne Jones & wāni La Frere. A selection of participant reflections can be viewed at Arts Gen and we have submitted a journal article for publication in a joint issue of The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and Global Performance Studies being published later this year.

Data and equity

The capacity to gather, analyse and use data through sophisticated computational techniques like big data analytics and machine learning, combined with digital surveillance represents significant social, political-economic, and technological developments that have become ubiquitous in ordering our lives. Data can be used toward potentially discriminatory or unethical purposes with the potential to exacerbate social inequalities among vulnerable communities. Furthermore, the combination of “technical complexity” and “corporate secrecy” means that the opacity of both algorithms and the data shaping them are ‘black-boxed’ leaving the public with little recourse for potential harms (Pasquale, 2015). Consequently, how these systems transform or exacerbate social inequalities and power differentials in a data-enabled society is an important scholarly concern. In November 2018, I co-organised a symposium about data and inequity hosted by The Data, Systems and Society Research Network (DSSRN – pronounced discern). The purpose of the symposium was to think critically through the implications of data-driven inequality and discrimination: both across disciplinary boundaries in the academy, and within diverse empirical domains outside of it through three key areas: Indigenous people, cities, health concluding with an exploration of the ethical frameworks available to navigate issues of inclusion, exclusion and surveillance. You can read the interdisciplinary collection of peer-reviewed papers. While at DSSRN I took part in a webinar hosted by VALA with Dr Fiona Tweedie on ‘Designing equitable foundations for open knowledge.’

Self-tracking and people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities

My research at the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health (CEH) at North Richmond Community Health (NRCH), Melbourne explored the impact of the proliferation of mobile and wearable health technologies, and how these developments were reconfiguring power relations, relationships and practices in health care through the lens of health literacy, consumer participation and cultural competence/safety. Providing culturally competent services and communicating in culturally appropriate ways are necessary components of health literacy as they provide the conditions for allowing consumers and communities to engage in health and health care (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care [ACSQHC], 2014, p.27). You can listen to this interview about my research with Wearable Technology Australia (WTA). While at CEH, I worked with Suneel Jethani and Danny Butt from the Research Unit in Public Cultures (RUPC) at Melbourne University to develop a research program on the use of patient-generated data in community health. Wearable technology platforms are dominated by the English-speaking middle-classes, (“the wealthy, worried and well” as Michael Paasche-Orlow suggests), limiting the community benefits of enhanced participation and health. The diffusion of mobile phones (that can also be used as health monitoring devices) indicates that these technologies will expand to a wider range of users. We organised a seminar and stakeholder consultation, supported by the Better Health Channel and the Research Unit in Public Cultures (RUPC) at Melbourne University in 2016 to explore how wearables can act as a form of participatory media, where client-generated information has the potential to inform care decisions, enhance consumer engagement and promote shared decision making. I also supervised three students doing the Health IT Project (ISYS90079) at the Health and Biomedical Informatics Centre (HaBIC) Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne. The focus of their projects were barriers and enablers to the uptake of wearable health technologies among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities. In February 2017, we held a pilot workshop on maternal digital literacies and the resulting manuscript has been published. I am indebted to Youkyoung Lee, Bhargavi Battala and Olympia Loupis who volunteered with me on this project. You can read our journal article Participatory Research Methods for Investigating Digital Health Literacy in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities published in Conjunctions. Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation. We also produced a report for the Better Health Channel.

Migrant maternity

My PhD was about Migrant maternity. Here’s the abstract: Maternity is central to the development of healthy populations (biopower), capitalism, nation building, imperialism and globalisation. Liberal feminist discourses have mobilised concepts such as empowerment, choice and control to decolonise patriarchal practices of maternity. These discourses have instituted the knowledgeable and empowered maternity consumer who takes charge of her experience of childbirth. However, the uptake of these discourses into the public health system has unintentionally recolonised the birthing experiences of visibly different mothers. Using Foucauldian, feminist and postcolonial methodologies, this thesis investigates how the ‘empowering’ practices and structures of maternity can be normalising and disciplining, acting to reinforce the centrality of whiteness. A discourse analytical approach describes the historical and contemporary relations of power through which discourses of migrant maternity are constituted through speech and practice. Foucault’s theorisation of diffused and productive power implicates nursing and midwifery practices in modern state goals to regulate and maximise the efforts of individuals and the social body. The neoliberal internalisation of technologies of disciplinary control by hyper-responsible ‘good’ mothers translates the institutional goals of public health into the ‘positive choices’ of individuals— a moral discourse where non-Pākehā migrant mothers are found to be wanting by the public health system.

These theoretical findings were examined in three New Zealand focus groups, where both Pākehā /white migrant mothers and Plunket nurses drew on liberal and neoliberal discourses of maternity, while for Korean mothers biomedical and cultural discourses provide alternative understandings. In response to this misalignment, nurses and midwives take up normalising, disciplining and acculturating roles in order to socialise migrant mothers into the role of an ideal and implicitly white maternal service user. When normalisation is challenged, culturalist discourses allow professionals to shift responsibility for the misalignment from institution to mother, in a clear departure from nursing’s ethic of patient-centred care. These findings demonstrate that the liberal foundations of nursing and midwifery discourses are inadequate for meeting the health needs of diverse maternal groups. In response, the thesis advocates for the extension of the theory and practice of cultural safety to critique nursing’s AngloEuropean knowledge base, extending the discipline’s intellectual and political
mandate with the aim of providing effective support to diverse groups of mothers.

You can read my work about Goan mothers in Aotearoa, my Families Commission project with the Plunket society about the experiences of migrant mothers. My work expl;oring reflexivity and positionality and what it meant to be an insider/outsider or outsider- within and the moral aspects of mothering. My journal article about Korean mothers and the role of Plunket Nurses, or Indian mothers in a book by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and the experience of White migrant mothers. I also talked with Chinese and Indian men about their experiences of becoming fathers in New Zealand, Refugee background women about their experiences of parenting in this report Doing It for Ourselves: Refugee women on their own in New Zealand (pdf full report) and more recently have been researching the intersections of pregnancy, birth, migration, and digital technologies.

Barriers to cervical cancer screening

At AUT I worked with the amazing Dr Wanzhen Gao, Professor Janis Paterson, Tongjing Lu and the Chinese New Settlers Trust to look at the barriers to cervical screening. We did a survey of 260 women between November 2006 and February 2007 to ascertain the uptake of cervical screening. 152 women (65%) reported being screened in New Zealand and 56% had been screened in the last 3 years. The 4 most important predictive factors affecting uptake were the women’s belief that cervical smear tests are necessary for asymptomatic women, having a family doctor, having received gynecologic, obstetric, and family planning services in New Zealand, and having ever received a recommendation for a cervical smear test. You can read more by clicking on these links: demographic predictors, factors affecting uptake of cervical cancer screening and whether having more knowledge of cervical cancer increased the uptake of screening in Chinese women.


Doing it for ourselves and our children: Refugee women on their own in New Zealand

Little is known about the experiences of women who enter New Zealand through the Women at Risk category identified by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This category constitutes up to 75 places (10%) of New Zealand’s annual refugee quota of 750. Refugee Services worked with AUT University and the three Strengthening Refugee Voices Groups in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to undertake a project to examine the resettlement experiences of women who enter New Zealand through this category or become sole heads of households as a consequence of their resettlement experiences. This project was funded by the Lotteries Community Sector Research Fund. The project was important not only for its findings but also for the research process, which focused on strengths, social justice, community development and transformative research. This transformative agenda aimed to enhance the wellbeing of refugee background women by focussing on the roots of inequality in the structures and processes of society rather than in personal or community pathology (Ledwith, 2011). Within this frame we were committed to constructing refugee women as an asset rather than deploying a deficit model of refugee women as a burden for the receiving society (Butler, 2005).

Focus groups were held in 2009 and 2010 with women who entered New Zealand as refugees under the formal category ‘Women at Risk’ or became women who were sole heads of households once they arrived in New Zealand. Women that took part had lived in New Zealand from between five months to sixteen years. Lengthy consultations were held with the three Strengthening Refugee Voices groups in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch prior to undertaking data collection, in order to scope and refine the research focus and process. These groups were subsequently contracted to provide services and support. You can read the full report here.

Community informatics

I have experience in community technology planning and evaluation, completing evaluations on the use of ICT in early childhood education; community ICT planning, training and support; and a Digital Opportunities Project in an economically deprived part of Auckland, New Zealand. I established the Aotearoa Ethnic Network (AEN) in 2005, a national listserv that received awards for outstanding contribution to Race Relations in New Zealand.

Previous research supervision

Doctorate by Research: Associate Professors Kathleen Gray and Ann Borda and I co-supervised Robab Abdolkhani’s PhD at the University of Melbourne, Centre for Digital Transformation of Health looking at the quality management of patient generated health data (PGHD) from wearables for clinical use.We have published Quality Assurance of Health Wearables Data: Participatory Workshop on Barriers, Solutions, and Expectations, Patient-generated health data management and quality challenges in remote patient monitoring and Patient-Generated Health Data Quality for Clinical Use: Human and Technology Factors

Doctorate by Research: The role of mothers in Interethnic relationships,  (Lucia Davis) with Professor Marilyn Waring in the Institute of Public Policy at AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand.

Masters thesis : The Origins of Community Identity Formation and the Role of Emotions, Assimilation, and Identity Disintegration MA (Karin Zhu) with Dr Paul Atkinson in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Honours thesis: Alternatives to Emergency departments (Jessica Crawford) with Professor Simon Cooper. We published a systematic review from this work: The impact of walk-in centres and GP co-operatives on emergency department presentations.

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

Thesis examination:

  • 2022 Examiner: Masters of Public Health, University of Otago.
  • 2021 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, School of Nursing/ École des sciences infirmières, University of Ottawa/ Université d’Ottawa.
    2020 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, School of Education, Massey University.
  • 2020 Examiner: Masters of Public Health, School of Population Health, University of Auckland.
  • 2017 Examiner: Masters of Public Health, School of Population Health, University of Auckland.
  • 2015 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, University of Waikato, Political Science and Public Policy.
  • 2014 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland.
  • 2014 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, School of Geography, University of Waikato.
  • 2014 Examiner: Masters of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Auckland.
  • 2013 Examiner: Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Flinders University
  • 2012 Examiner: Master of Development Studies, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Science. Victoria University of Wellington.
  • 2010 Examiner: Master of Public Health, School of Population Health, University of Auckland.
  • 2008 Examiner: Master of Arts (Psychology) Massey University.
  • 2007 Examiner: Master of Arts (Psychology) Massey University.
  • 2006 Examiner: Master of Arts (Social Policy) Massey University.
  • 2006 Examiner: Master of Arts (Nursing) Victoria University.

Grant application reviews

2020 Centres of Research Excellence, Royal Society of New Zealand.
2015 National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Project Grants funding
2015 Health Research Council of New Zealand: Maori Health Committee programme proposal
2014 Health Research Council of New Zealand: Maori Health Committee programme proposal
2011 Lottery Health Research Committee – New Zealand Lotteries Commission
2010 Lottery Health Research Committee – New Zealand Lotteries Commission
2007 Marsden Fund Fast Start applications (contestable fund administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand)
2005 Health Research Council of New Zealand: Research Proposals for funding

Editorial Boards

Editorial Board member of the journals: Transcultural Nursing, The Hive (Publication of the Australian College of Nursing).

Journal peer review activities

Ethnicity and Health, Women’s Studies Journal of New Zealand, The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, AlterNative, Collegian, International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS), Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online. (Massey University), Journal of Advanced Nursing, Transcultural Nursing, Contemporary Nurse, Diversity in Health and Social Care, Paediatric Child Health Nursing, International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, Journal of Palliative Care, Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health, Health & Social Care in the Community, Health and Place, Maternal and Child Health Journal, Social Work Review, The American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Women’s Health and Urban Life journal, Bulletin of Information Technology Research, SIGNS, SITES, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, Journal of Neonatal, Whitireia Nursing Journal, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.

Research grants

  • 2018 : Dr Danny Butt, Dr Ruth De Souza, Tania Canas. “Performing Statelessness”. Seed Funding Scheme, University of Melbourne Statelessness Hallmark Research Initiative.
  • 2014 A/Prof Yelena Tsarenko, Dr Dewi Tojib, Dr RoseAnne Misajon, Dr Ruth DeSouza. Social determinants of wellbeing for ethnic women: Improving support services for recent immigrants. Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme, Faculty of Business and Economics Monash University.
  • 2014: Dr Mark Symmons, Dr Meredith McIntyre, Dr Ruth DeSouza, Tony Woods, Lesley Macgibbon. ‘Optimising direct entry success: an online transition course for students beginning university at second year’. Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Innovation and Development Grant.
  • 2009: Ruth DeSouza. Vice Chancellor’s Staff PhD Completion Award. AUT University.
  • 2009: Ruth DeSouza. Jenni Broom, Jill Conway: ‘Research into the Resettlement Experience and Special Needs of Women at Risk: an evaluation to create best practice support systems’. Lotteries Community Sector Research Fund.
  • 2008: Ruth DeSouza .Migrant fathers’ experiences of fathering in a new country: Implications for health and social service providers. AUT Internal Contestable Grant.
  • 2007: Professor Kathryn McPherson, Dr Deborah Payne, Dr Dianne Roy, Professor Cynthia Farquhar, Dr Matire Harwood, Ms Ruth DeSouza, Associate Professor Lynne Giddings. Improving health interventions and support for mothers experiencing disability.
  • 2006. Waller, N., DeSouza, R.  Trauma and migrant women, Internal contestable grant.
  • 2006. Gao, W., DeSouza, R. and Paterson, J. Pilot study: The uptake of cervical screening in Chinese immigrants in Auckland    Internal contestable grant.
  • 2006: Abbot, M. and DeSouza, R.  Barriers and enablers to help seeking for problem gamblers and families. Ministry of Health.
  • 2005 McPherson, K., Diesfeld, K. et al.,Evaluation of Vocational Rehabilitation under the IPRC Act. Accident Compensation Corporation.
  • 2005: DeSouza, R. and  Macfarlane, E. The adjustment to parenting for ethnic women and the implications for health policy and service delivery, Families Commission Blue Skies Funding.
  • 2005: Williamson, A. and DeSouza, R  Evaluation of the use of ICT in early childhood education    City of Manukau Education Trust.
  • 2005: Williamson, A. and DeSouza, R. Evaluation of youth skills project, Enterprise Waitakere.
  • 2005: DeSouza, R. Bellringer, M. and Garrett, N. Access Issues for Chinese People in New Zealand    Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).
  • 2005: DeSouza, R. and  Macfarlane, E. The adjustment to parenting for ethnic women and the implications for health policy and service delivery, Royal New Zealand Plunket volunteers.
  • 2004. Guerin, B., DeSouza R. and Dunstan, S. First National Refugee Research Conference. SPEaR.
  • 2004: Craig, B., Williamson, A., and DeSouza, R. National survey of community ICT planning, training and support. Department of Labour.
  • 2003: Williamson, A., and DeSouza R. Evaluation of Otara Digital Opportunities Project City of Manukau Education Trust.

Refereed journal articles

Research reports

  • De Souza, R., Khorana, S., and Chatranshi, B. (2022). New mothers and apps during COVID-19. All the support fell out: South Asian migrant perspectives. RMIT University, Melbourne and Young and Resilient Research Centre, UNSW, Sydney.
  • Hjorth, L., Richardson, I., Andrejevic, M., De Souza, R., and Davies, H. (2020). COVIDSafe: Perceptions and Practices Summary Report. RMIT University, Melbourne.
  • Richardson, I., Hendry, N., Gomes, C., Coombs, G., Hjorth, L., DeSouza, R., Harris, A. (2020). HDR Belonging: Practices & Perceptions during COVID-19, Report 2. Melbourne: RMIT University
  • DeSouza, R., Hendry, N., Stevens, R., Gomes, C., Harris, A., Hjorth, L., Richardson, I., & Kokanovic, R. (2020). In a time of uncertainty: supporting belonging and wellbeing for HDR students. Melbourne: RMIT University.
  • Team,V., Whittaker, A., Manderson, L., Quiazon, R., Murdolo, A & DeSouza, R. (2015). Contraceptive technologies and reproductive choice among immigrant women. Family Planning NSW: Sydney.
  • DeSouza, R. (2012). Doing It for Ourselves: Refugee women on their own in New Zealand (pdf full report). Auckland: Refugee Services.
  • McPherson, K., Diesfeld K, Schluter P, Travalglia S, Ryan B, DeSouza R, Boocock M, Harwood M, LaGrow S, Callaghan K, Gorman D, Tuiqereqere D. Evaluation of Vocational Rehabilitation under the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation (IPRC) Act 2001 (2007). (A report commissioned by the Accident Compensation Corporation New Zealand). Auckland: AUT University
  • Bellringer, M., Pulford, J., Abbott, M., DeSouza, R., & Clarke, D. (2007). Problem gambling: Barriers to help seeking behaviours [Final draft] (Technical). Auckland: Ministry of Health.
  • DeSouza, R. (2006). New spaces and possibilities: The adjustment to parenthood for new migrant mothers. Wellington: Families Commission (pdf blueskies-desouza).
  • Williamson, A., & DeSouza, R. (2006). Direct qualitative analysis of data from digital audio sources. Waitakere City: Wairua Consulting Limited.
  • DeSouza, R., & Garrett, N. (2005). Access issues for Chinese people in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University of Technology (access_issues).
  • Williamson, A., & DeSouza, R. (2003). Evaluation of the Otara Digital Opportunities Project. Auckland, NZ: UNITEC Centre for IT Research.

Editorials/Forewords

Books

  • DeSouza, R. (2006). Walking upright here: Countering prevailing discourses through reflexivity and methodological pluralism. Muddy Creek Press, New Zealand

Edited Publications

  • De Souza, R. (2020). Data and inequity: Who’s missing in big data? Melbourne: University of Melbourne. ISBN: 978 0 7340 5596 5.
  • Williamson, A., & DeSouza, R. (Eds.). (2008). Researching with communities. Auckland: Muddy Creek Press. ISBN-13: 978-0955694103
  • De Souza, R., (2007). Faith and ethnic communities. Aotearoa Ethnic Network, 2(2). Faith. ISSN 1177-3472.
  • DeSouza, R., & Williamson, A. (2007). Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal, 2(1): ICT. ISSN 1177-3472.
  • DeSouza, R., & Williamson, A. (2006). Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal, 1(2): Creativity. ISSN 1177-3472.
  • DeSouza, R., & Williamson, A. (2006). Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal, 1(1). ISSN 1177-3472.

Sections in books

• Heiss, L, Hamilton, O., Coombs, G., De Souza, R., Kokshagina, O., & Foley, M. (forthcoming). Mutuality as a foundation for co-designing health futures. In With design: Reinventing design modes, Springer.
• De Souza, R. (under review). In Jess Dillard-Wright, Jane Hopkins Walsh, Brandon Blaine Brown. Nursing Futurities: Cocreating a Radical Imagination for Healthcare. Routledge.

De Souza, R. (under review). In Jess Dillard-Wright, Jane Hopkins Walsh, Brandon Blaine Brown. Nursing Futurities: Cocreating a Radical Imagination for Healthcare. Routledge.

De Souza, R. (2021). Going Without: Migrant Mothers, Food and the Postnatal Ward in New Zealand. In T. M. Cassidy and A. O. El-Tom (Eds.), Moving Meals and Migrating Mothers: Culinary cultures, diasporic dishes and familial foodways. Toronto: Demeter Press: 171-180

DeSouza, R. & Higgins, R. (2020). Cultural safety: An overview. In J. Lillie, K. Larsen, & C. Kirkwood, J. J. Brown, (Eds.), The Relationship is the Project: Working with Communities. Australia: Brow Books: 81-88

O’Brien, T., De Souza, R. & Baker, M. (2017). Providing culturally safe care.  In M Chambers (Ed.), Psychiatric and mental health nursing: The craft of caring (Third ed). London: Routledge.

De Souza, R. (2015). Navigating the ethics in cultural safety. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press: 111-124.

De Souza, R. (2015). Culturally safe care for ethnically and religiously diverse communities. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press: 189-203.

Bradley, P., & De Souza, R. (2013). Mental Health in Australia and New Zealand. In R. Elder, K. Evans & D. Nizette (Eds.), Practical perspectives in psychiatric and mental health nursing (Third edition). New South Wales:  Elsevier Australia.

DeSouza, R (2012). Power relations. In S. Shaw , A. Haxell and T. Weblemoe (Eds.), Communications across the lifespan. Auckland: Oxford University Press.

DeSouza, R. (2011). ‘All of me meets here, an alchemy of parts’ – Negotiating my identities in New Zealand. Localizing Asia in Aotearoa. P. Voci and J. Leckie. Wellington, Dunmore Publishing: 231-245.

DeSouza, R. (2010). New mothers in a new land: Indian migrant mothers talk. India in New Zealand: Local identities, global relations. S. Bandyopadhyay. Dunedin, Otago University Press: 207-217.

McNeill, H., Paterson, J., Sundborn, G., DeSouza, R., Weblemoe, T., McKinney, C., et al. (2009). Culture health and wellbeing. In S. Shaw & B. Deed (Eds.), Health and environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand (pp. 95-124). Auckland: Oxford University Press.

O’Brien, T., Morrison-Ngatai, E., & De Souza, R. (2009). Providing culturally safe care  In P. Barker (Ed.), Psychiatric and mental health nursing: The craft of caring (Second ed., pp. 635-643). London: Arnold.

Wood, P., Bradley, P., & De Souza, R. (2008). Mental Health in Australia and New Zealand. In R. Elder, K. Evans & D. Nizette (Eds.), Practical perspectives in psychiatric and mental health nursing (Second ed., pp. 86-107). New South Wales: Mosby, Elsevier Australia.

DeSouza, R. (2007). Sifting out the sweetness: Migrant motherhood in New Zealand. In Liamputtong, P. (Ed.). Reproduction, Childbearing and Motherhood: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (239-251). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Pavagada, R., DeSouza, R. (2007). Culture and mental health care in New Zealand: indigenous and non-indigenous people. In K. Bhui & D. Bhugra (Eds.), Culture and mental health (pp. 245-260). London: Hodder Arnold.

DeSouza, R. (Jan, 2007). Multicultural relationships in supervision. In D. Wepa (Ed), Clinical supervision in the health professions: The New Zealand experience. Auckland: Pearson Education.

DeSouza, R. (2005). Working with migrant and refugee women. In A. Hodren (Ed.), Royal New Zealand Plunket Society National Resource Manual. (pp. 72-77). Wellington: Royal New Zealand Plunket Society.

DeSouza, R. (2005). Postnatal mental health. In A. Hodren (Ed.), Royal New Zealand Plunket Society National Resource Manual. (pp. 99-113) Wellington: Royal New Zealand Plunket Society.

Williamson, A., Kennedy, D. M., DeSouza, R., & McNaught, C. (2005). Managing intellectual capital and intellectual property within software development communities of practice. In E. Coakes & S. Clarke (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 364-374). Hershey, PA: Idea Group.

De Souza, R. (2004). Working with refugees and migrants. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety (pp. 122-133). Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand.

Wood, P., Bradley, P., & De Souza, R. (2004). Mental Health in Australia and New Zealand. In R. Elder, K. Evans & D. Nizette (Eds.), Practical perspectives in psychiatric and mental health nursing (pp. 80-98). New South Wales: Elsevier Australia.

Peach, J, Ehau, N. De Souza, R, Nonu-Reid, E. (1997). Documenting the cultural dimension of practice. In J. Richmond. (Ed.), Nursing Documentation: Writing what we do. Melbourne: Ausmed.

Non-peer review journal articles/letters

Artist catalogue essays

Tufunga Arts Trust: Lotus in Bloom 9th October -22nd November 2015,catalogue essay, Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland.
Bepen Bhana: Postcards from the Edge 4 May-7 July 2013 catalogue essay in Postcards from the Edge, a solo exhibition by Auckland-based artist Bepen Bhana exploring the history of New Zealand’s landscape in painting and as a backdrop for Bollywood films, at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland.