Rate My Professor Michelle Mansfield

Dr. Michelle Mansfield serves as Head of Domestic Programs in the Pathways and Academic Learning Support Centre within the Engagement and Equity Division at the University of Newcastle. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Newcastle, as well as a Bachelor of Economics, a Bachelor of Social Science (Recreation & Tourism), and a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours), all obtained from the same institution. Her academic interests focus on young Indonesian street artists in Yogyakarta and their use of creative practice in political activism; youth, the arts, aesthetic activism, and cultural practices in Australia and Asia; and enabling education, including inclusive language, pathways for non-traditional students, and blended learning pedagogies.

Dr. Mansfield has built a distinguished career in research and teaching. She joined Pathways and Academic Learning Support (formerly ELFSC) in 2012, following positions as a researcher and research manager in The Cultural Industries and Practices Research Centre, The Arts Health Research Centre, and The Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies, where she contributed to projects funded by ARC, DIAC, and AusAID. As a senior lecturer in Sociology in the Open Foundation Program, she has taught and coordinated courses in Sociology, Media Studies, and Leisure and Tourism across enabling, undergraduate, and master's programs using intensive, compressed, blended, and online modes. Her governance contributions include serving as Program Convenor of the Open Foundation Program (Callaghan), and as a member of the University Student Experience Committee, Learning Impacts Working Party, PALS Board, PALS Teaching and Learning Committee, Program and Course Approval Committee, and University Senate. She has presented at national and international conferences on sociology and enabling education. Key publications include 'Rebel imaginings: street art in Yogyakarta, Indonesia' (Visual Studies, 2024), '‘Do I have to go through all of that again?’ Class and rurality as barriers in the higher education pathways of queer students' (Australian Educational Researcher, 2025), 'Sociological insights: Designing pedagogically sound blended learning programs in enabling contexts' (Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 2023), 'Australian Muslim jobseekers: Equal employment opportunity and equity in the labor market' (Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2013), and her PhD thesis 'On the streets: Youth street art in Yogyakarta as a contemporary assemblage' (2020). Dr. Mansfield has secured grants totaling $473,500 for projects such as blended learning frameworks and student pathway investigations.