Rate My Professor Carmela Bastian

Dr Carmela Bastian is an academic teaching and researching at Flinders University in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, where she is responsible for the child protection portfolio within social work. With more than twenty years of experience in child protection and human services, she has served as a professional social work practitioner and academic in government and non-government organisations nationally and internationally. Her career history includes frontline practitioner, policy and program manager, service development roles, and senior advisor to the Deputy Chief Executive at the Department for Child Protection in South Australia. Bastian was an inaugural postdoctoral research fellow funded by the South Australian Government’s Early Intervention Research Directorate, established to develop early intervention strategies for children’s health, safety, and wellbeing at the intersection of domestic and family violence and child protection. Her PhD research from Flinders University explored the moral status of children in child protection, arguing for emerging from moral ignorance by understanding children’s realities and building a capable workforce.

Bastian holds a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) from Northern Territory University, a Master of Social Work from Monash University, and a PhD from Flinders University titled “The moral status of children in child protection: the case for emerging from our moral ignorance”. As a member of the Social Work Innovation Living Space (SWIRLS), her research interests encompass theorising practice to improve outcomes for children and families, child-centred practice, collaboration between child protection and domestic and family violence sectors, Aboriginal cultural safety, integrated service responses holding perpetrators accountable, evaluation of housing programs for perpetrators, workforce needs in child protection, services for children in refuges, and practice wisdom of practitioners. Key publications include “The child in child protection: Invisible and Unheard” (Child & Family Social Work, 2019), “Being child-centred: Factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision-making in child protection” (Child & Family Social Work, 2022), “Building collaboration with child protection and domestic and family violence sectors: Trialling a living lab approach” (British Journal of Social Work, 2021), “Collaboration between child protection and domestic and family violence: a case file review” (Australian Social Work, 2023), and “Understanding services provided to children in DFV shelters: Exposing the ‘invisible’ work” (British Journal of Social Work, 2025). She coordinates topics such as Complexities in Work with Children and Families and Social Work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and serves on the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee, Flinders University Human Research Ethics Committee, and decolonising curriculum working groups.