Dr Julia de Bruyn

Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course


Dr Julia de Bruyn joined the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute in June 2021, as a Research Fellow within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre). Julia is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work has focused on strategies to improve food security and nutrition in the Global South, particularly within smallholder farming households in sub-Saharan Africa.

Through her doctoral studies, Julia shifted from working as a clinical veterinarian to evaluate the contributions of livestock-keeping to the diets and growth of children in rural Tanzania. Her subsequent research has spanned novel methods of dietary assessment, drivers of food access and food choice, community-based livestock health programs, and the role of animal-source foods in healthy, sustainable diets.

Julia obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2018, before joining the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich, UK. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship through the Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA) scheme in 2019, and was most recently employed as a Senior Fellow in Food Systems and Nutrition.

In her current role in the Places Program of the Life Course Centre, Julia is drawing on her skills in mixed methods, participatory and field-based research to examine community dynamics of disadvantage in Australia.

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