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Ruth Horsfall

Ruth Horsfall

PhD Candidate
Arts, Design & Architecture
School of Social Sciences

Email: r.horsfall@unsw.edu.au

Supervisors: Caroline Lenette, Caroline Wake

Ruth Horsfall is a PhD Candidate at UNSW School of Social Sciences. She has a diverse background in the Performing Arts (in stage and production management) and Public Health research (primarily dementia research). Ruth completed her Master of Public Health (Health Promotion) at UNSW in 2014. Ruth is currently co-convenor of the Forced Migration Research Students Network and works as a casual academic at UNSW Sydney and University of Tasmania.

Ruth’s interdisciplinary research explores how a nine-week program of drama classes for women with refugee backgrounds impacted their wellbeing, and the strengths and limitations of methods used.
  • Applied theatre
  • Wellbeing
  • Refugee studies
  • Participatory research
  • Feminist research
  • Arts and Health

Conference presentations

  • Horsfall, R. 2024. "It made me think of a lighter future": Exploring the impact on wellbeing of drama classes for women with refugee backgrounds. Nineteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society. Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea.
  • Horsfall, R. 2023. Exploring the impact on wellbeing of beginners acting classes for women from refugee backgrounds. 2023 ADSA Conference. Finders University, Adelaide, SA: Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
  • Atem, A., Bartolomei, L., Harley, T., Horsfall, R. & Wazefadost, N. 2022. Scholars workshop: Ethics panel. Kaldor Centre Conference 2022. Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney.
  • Horsfall, R. 2020. Stateless Play: Exploring the wellbeing impact of acting classes for young refugee-background women in Western Sydney. HDR Student Conference. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Articles and reports

  • Cations, M., Withall, A., Horsfall, R., Denham, N., White, F., Trollor, J., . . . Draper, B. 2017. Why aren't people with young onset dementia and their supporters using formal services? Results from the INSPIRED study. PLoS ONE, 12(7), 1-15. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0180935
  • Withall, A. & Horsfall, R. 2016. Service needs of clients with young onset dementia and their carers. UNSW Sydney on behalf of Community Coast Connections.
  • Horsfall, R. & Nathan, S. 2013. Problem gambling in Ashfield: a qualitative study. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Sydney