Petra Bürgelt

Qualifications

Senior Lecturer, School of Psychological and Clinical Sciences, Charles Darwin University
Associate, Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research
PhD (Psychology), Massey University
MA (hons, Psychology), Massey University
BA (Psychology), Massey University

Contact

Category: Research Associate (International)

Homepage: Here

Background

Petra is a social scientist who lectures who lectures and researches at Charles Darwin University, Australia. Besides being a research associate of CACR, she is also a research fellow at Massey University’s and GNS Science’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research. In her PhD project she investigated with a holistic longitudinal qualitative study the psychological and social factors and processes that influence the health, well-being, adaptation and resilience of migrants moving from Germany to Australia and New Zealand. This research also sheds light onto the reasons for migrating, and staying or leaving Australia and New Zealand as well as the living conditions facilitating health/well-being and growth. Petra has also collaboratively designed and conducted various projects studied the psychological and social factors that influence individual and community preparedness for bushfires (Australia), tsunamis (USA) and bird flu (New Zealand). She has presented and published the findings of these projects nationally and internationally. Petra is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches (IJMRA) (since 2006) and the Journal of Psychology (since 2010). For the last four years, she reviewed papers for the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, the Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS), the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, and the Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology. Petra has been awarded numerous scholarships and fellowships including the TEC Top Achievers Doctoral Scholarship, the Ryoichi Sasakawa Doctoral Young Leaders Scholarship, and the NZVCC laude McCarthy Fellowship.

Areas of interest

Petra’s primary areas of academic interests are qualitative research; how the interaction of psychological and environmental factors and processes influences health/well-being, growth, and resilience; migration between Western countries; living conditions that foster health/well-being, growth and resilience; disaster and pandemic preparedness, response and recovery; healthy, self-sustainable, and resilient communities; cosmopolitanism; self-actualisation; and authenticity.