Dr Sarah Bourke

Research Fellow

Biography

Sarah Bourke is a Research Fellow with the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health working on the Mayi Kuwayu National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing. She was born and raised on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country in Canberra and is descended from the Gidja and Jaru people of WA and the Gamilaroi people on the border of QLD and NSW.

Sarah completed her undergraduate studies at ANU in biological anthropology and psychology, before being award a John Monash Scholarship and a Roberta Sykes Scholarship to study for an MPhil in Medical Anthropology with Keble College at the University of Oxford in the UK. She was then awarded a Roberta Sykes Scholarship and a Chevening Scholarship to continue on at Oxford for a DPhil in Anthropology at St. John’s College. Her doctoral thesis utilised an Indigenist research framework to ethnographically examine the historical, social, and political factors which influenced the development of Mayi Kuwayu, the National Study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing, and its emphasis on measuring cultural determinants of health.

During her fellowship Sarah plans to continue her work building an Indigenous-led research agenda which explores what helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, communities, and cultures thrive.