Research Interest: Socially engaged curriculum

I am passionately interested in how we prepare nurses for the world of practice. Understanding that universities are both colonial sites and places of transformation (Susana Caxaj & Berman, 2014). The neoliberal university is exemplified by reduced funding, audit culture, competition for research findings and increased workforce precarity challenging the capacity to do much other than reproduction (Harrowell et al., 2018). Nursing degree programs located in Universities experience all the strictures of the neoliberal University and are implicated in reproducing colonial legacy inequalities in the curriculum factory (Allen, 2006). Nurses internalise and then reproduce the norms and culture of the profession unless interrupted (Bell, 2021). Hence how nurses are socialised into the profession (through the curriculum) has critical implications for how they later practice as graduates (Canales & Drevdahl, 2014). Particularly if nursing is committed to holding open the possibility of transformative practices.

Also see related presentations:

DeSouza, R. (2016). Plenary panel, Australian Women’s History Network Conference: Intersections in history, Melbourne: ‘Intersectionality, Resistance, and History-Making’ with Carol D’Cruz, Samia Khatun, Crystal McKinnon. Facilitator: Jordy Silverstein.
DeSouza, R. May 16, 2017. Invited speaker on the topic of Intersectionality in STEMM. Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Regional Network Meeting, La Trobe University, Melbourne.
DeSouza, R. May, 2018. Invited panellist: Intersectionality: when gender, race, class intersect, Sacred Edge, Queenscliff, Australia.
DeSouza, R. 20 August 2020 with Dr Judy Tang, Nyadol Nyuon, and Dr Shakira Hussein. Intersections of racism and sexism: Understanding unique forms of violence and discrimination against migrant and refugee women. Harmony Alliance’s Intersectionality Discussion Series.
DeSouza, R. 5 February, 2020. Invited panellist and chair, Critical Intersectionality Praxis in settler coloniality. Disenchanted Diversity Interrogating diversity & crisis against the racial-colonial, Institute for Culture & Society, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.

Publications
Ion, R., DeSouza, R., & Kerin, T. (2018). Teaching ethics: Intersectionality, care failure and moral courage. Nurse Education Today, 62, 98–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.12.023
D’Cruz, C. De Souza, R., Khatun, S., McKinnon, C., Silverstein, J.(2017). Intersectionality, Resistance, and History-Making: A Conversation Between Carolyn D’Cruz, Ruth DeSouza, Samia Khatun, and Crystal McKinnon, Facilitated by Jordana Silverstein. Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, 23. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:17335/
Moorley, C., Darbyshire, P., Serrant, L., Mohamed, J., Ali, P., & De Souza, R. (2020). Dismantling structural racism: Nursing must not be caught on the wrong side of history. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 76(10), 2450–2453. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14469
Hine, R., Krakouer, J., Elston, J., Fredericks, B., Hunter, S.-A., Taylor, K., Stephens, T., Couzens, V., Manahan, E., DeSouza, R., Boyle, J., Callander, E., Cunningham, H., Miller, R., Willey, S., Wilton, K., & Skouteris, H. (2022). Identifying and dismantling racism in Australian perinatal settings: Reframing the narrative from a risk lens to intentionally prioritise connectedness and strengths in providing care to First Nations families. Women and Birth: Journal of the Australian College of Midwives. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2022.04.007