The University has secured not one but two Marie Skodowska-Curie funding grants from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. They both employ Early Stage Researchers working to a PhD. The first is with the Department of Sociology and the other is with the Department of Geography.
I recently met the other 14 Early Stage Researchers with the Astra Project during our first Summer School. We all bring a wide variety of experience and perceptions to the project. Together with supervisors and NGO’s connected to the project we hope to address social, economic and environmental issues through social work research.
Eileen Lauster is the Early Stage Researcher with the Department of Sociology and the Astra Project. Her supervisors are Professor Roger Smith and Assistant Professor Sui Ting Kong.
Eileen was awarded a Masters in Social Work, majoring in Administration and Community Organisation, from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan before practicing as a social worker in child protection, family, and youth services in the United States. She advanced to Director of Community Services for a large child and family agency in Detroit; supervising fellow social workers and social work students. For the last 25 years she has been living in Ireland practicing first in adult mental health services and later in social work education and social enterprise.
The Astra project is led by Professor Aila Leena Matthies, University of Jyväskylä in Finland. There are a total of 15 Early Stage Researchers on the project. Eileen’s research for the project will address Social Sustainability through using Participatory and Inclusive social work practice to promote sustainable communities. The objectives of her individual project are to:
- develop an understanding of social work practices building sustainable communities;
- build a model of evaluation for social work practices promoting sustainable communities;
- determine capacity to apply this model;
- analyse the transferability of this model in a range of service and community settings.
I recently met the other 14 Early Stage Researchers with the Astra Project during our first Summer School. We all bring a wide variety of experience and perceptions to the project. Together with supervisors and NGO’s connected to the project we hope to address social, economic and environmental issues through social work research.
The Astra project started for Eileen on 1 June 2021. She shared, “I recently met the other 14 Early Stage Researchers with the Astra Project during our first Summer School. We all bring a wide variety of experience and perceptions to the project. Together with supervisors and NGO’s connected to the project we hope to address social, economic and environmental issues through social work research.”
The Astra Project will build on the role the Department of Sociology at Durham University has played in the development of Participatory Research and Community Development. As Eileen mentioned, “I look forward to meeting other researchers and learning more about their work now that I joined the Communities and Social Justice Research Group in the Department of Sociology.”
More information about the Astra Project can be found on their website.
The ASTRA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955518.