Dr Leah Williams Veazey
People_

Dr Leah Williams Veazey

PhD (Sydney); MSc (London); BA(Hons) (Cambridge)
Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow
Dr Leah Williams Veazey

Leah Williams Veazey is ARC DECRA Research Fellow in the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies in the School of Social and Political Sciences. She is the author of the award-winning book Migrant Mothers in the Digital Age (2021, Routledge) and has published widely in the areas of migration, parenthood, digital cultures, and experiences of health and healthcare. Her research uses qualitative methods, most commonly in-depth interviews, to explore contemporary social experiences, with a focus on the intersections of health, mobility and relational sociology.

Leah's current research, funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) entitled "Future-proofing Australia's Care Economy", explores the intersections of work, migration and care in the lives of healthcare workers and healthcare students. Specifically, the project explores how healthcare workers’ family relationships and informal care responsibilities shape their migration decisions, experiences in the workplace and plans for the future.

Leah co-convenes The Australian Sociological Association’s Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism Thematic Group, and co-leads the Migration, Im/mobility and Belonging Research Theme at the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies. She is Associate Editor at the Australian Journal of Social Issues, and an Associate Investigator at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

Leah completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Sydney, a qualitative study of migrant mothers and their online communities in Australia, supervised by Associate Professor Catriona Elder and Professor Susan Goodwin. Since then, she has taught across the Discipline of Sociology & Criminology and the School for Public Health, and has worked on a number of research projects, including an ARC-funded project on the history of sociology, led by Associate Professor Fran Collyer, and an NHRMC-funded project on the experiences of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, led by Professors Lyn Gilbert and Alex Broom. Her recent projects include experiences of contemporary cancer care, the social life of death, and the social dimensions of antimicrobial resistance.

  • Migration
  • Care
  • Health
  • Motherhood
  • Digital cultures
  • Qualitative methods

Supervision

Leah is available to supervise qualitative sociological research projects concerning:

  • Migration and im/mobility
  • Families, relationships and care
  • Health, illness and healthcare

Leah currently supervises honours, master's and PhD students, including Siwen Liu (SSPS) and Isabel Iglesias (SSESW).

Teaching experience

Co-ordination
Sociology of the Body SCLG3609 (2019)
Introduction to Sociology SCLG1002 (intensive, 2019)

Tutoring
Sociology of Exclusion SCLG2638 (2019)
Writing and Reviewing Medical Papers CEPI5215 (2018-2019)

Lecturing
Introduction to Sociology SCLG1001 (Globalization & Migration, 2023)
Introduction to Sociology SCLG1001 (What is Sociology, 2025)

  • The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
  • Australian Women and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)
  • Australian Mobilities Research Network (AUSMOB)

Raewyn Connell Prize for Best First Book in Australian Sociology (2021-2022)

The University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Collaboration Award, 2022

Publications

Books

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2021). Migrant Mothers in the Digital Age: Emotion and Belonging in Migrant Maternal Online Communities. Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]

Book Chapters

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2020). All in the same boat? Migration and Motherhood online. In Not known (Eds.), Intersections of Mothering: Feminist Accounts, (pp. 90-103). TBC. [More Information]
  • Williams Veazey, L. (2018). The turbulent emotions of early parenthood. In Michaels & Kokanovic (Eds.), Paths to Parenthood: Emotions on the Journey through Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Early Parenting, (pp. 119-143). UK: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
  • Williams Veazey, L. (2016). Mothering in the Digital Diaspora. In Arnold & Martin (Eds.), Taking the Village Online: Mothers, Motherhood, and Social Media, (pp. 81-97). Canada: Demeter Press.

Journals

  • Williams Veazey, L., Kenny, K., Broom, A. (2024). 'It’s very hard to have a future when you can’t travel': Meaning, mobility and mortality after a cancer diagnosis. Journal of Sociology. [More Information]
  • Wyer, M., Hor, S., Barratt, R., Garrahy, P., Moore, C., Williams Veazey, L., Degeling, C., Gilbert, G. (2024). Exploring the safety and quality of mobile X-ray imaging in a new infectious disease biocontainment unit: an in situ simulation and video-reflexive study. BMJ Open, 14(2). [More Information]
  • Broom, J., Williams Veazey, L., Broom, A., Kee, L., Choong, K. (2024). To swab or not to swab? A qualitative study of pathology testing, interpretation, and value in diabetes-related foot ulceration. Infection, Disease and Health, 29(1), 39-50. [More Information]

2024

  • Williams Veazey, L., Kenny, K., Broom, A. (2024). 'It’s very hard to have a future when you can’t travel': Meaning, mobility and mortality after a cancer diagnosis. Journal of Sociology. [More Information]
  • Wyer, M., Hor, S., Barratt, R., Garrahy, P., Moore, C., Williams Veazey, L., Degeling, C., Gilbert, G. (2024). Exploring the safety and quality of mobile X-ray imaging in a new infectious disease biocontainment unit: an in situ simulation and video-reflexive study. BMJ Open, 14(2). [More Information]
  • Broom, J., Williams Veazey, L., Broom, A., Kee, L., Choong, K. (2024). To swab or not to swab? A qualitative study of pathology testing, interpretation, and value in diabetes-related foot ulceration. Infection, Disease and Health, 29(1), 39-50. [More Information]

2023

  • Kenny, K., Williams Veazey, L., Broom, A., Peterie, M., Page, A., Prainsack, B., Wakefield, C., Itchins, M., Khasraw, M., Lwin, Z. (2023). Hope in the era of precision oncology: a qualitative study of informal caregivers' experiences. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 13(5), e065753. [More Information]
  • Broom, A., Williams Veazey, L., Kenny, K., Harper, I., Peterie, M., Page, A., Cort, N., Durling, J., Lipp, E., Tan, A., et al (2023). The Enduring Effects of COVID for Cancer Care: Learning from Real-Life Clinical Practice. Clinical Cancer Research, 29(9), 1670-1677. [More Information]

2022

  • Broom, J., Broom, A., Williams Veazey, L., Burns, P., Degeling, C., Hor, C., Barratt, R., Wyer, M., Gilbert, G. (2022). "One minute its an airborne virus, then its a droplet virus, and then its like nobody really knows" Experiences of pandemic PPE amongst Australian healthcare workers. Infection, Disease & Health, 27(2), 71-80. [More Information]
  • Hor, S., Burns, P., Yong, F., Barratt, R., Degeling, C., Williams Veazey, L., Wyer, M., Gilbert, G. (2022). 'Like building a plane and flying it all in one go': an interview study of infection prevention and control in Australian general practice during the first 2 years of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. BMJ Open, 12(9). [More Information]
  • Broom, J., Williams Veazey, L., Broom, A., Hor, S., Degeling, C., Burns, P., Wyer, M., Gilbert, G. (2022). Experiences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic amongst Australian healthcare workers: from stressors to protective factors. Journal of Hospital Infection, 121, 75-81. [More Information]

2021

  • Williams Veazey, L., Broom, A., Kenny, K., Degeling, C., Hor, S., Broom, J., Wyer, M., Burns, P., Gilbert, G. (2021). Entanglements of affect, space, and evidence in pandemic healthcare An analysis of Australian healthcare workers experiences of COVID-19. Health and Place, 72(102693), 1-9. [More Information]
  • Williams Veazey, L. (2021). Migrant Mothers in the Digital Age: Emotion and Belonging in Migrant Maternal Online Communities. Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]
  • Broom, A., Lewis, S., Parker, R., Williams Veazey, L., Kenny, K., Kirby, E., Kokanovic, R., Lwin, Z., Koh, E. (2021). Personhood, belonging, affect and affliction. The Sociological Review, 69(5), 1051-1071. [More Information]

2020

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2020). All in the same boat? Migration and Motherhood online. In Not known (Eds.), Intersections of Mothering: Feminist Accounts, (pp. 90-103). TBC. [More Information]

2019

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2019). Glocalised Motherhood: Sociality and Affect in Migrant Mothers' Online Communities. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 3(1-2), 1-15. [More Information]

2018

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2018). The turbulent emotions of early parenthood. In Michaels & Kokanovic (Eds.), Paths to Parenthood: Emotions on the Journey through Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Early Parenting, (pp. 119-143). UK: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]

2016

  • Williams Veazey, L. (2016). Mothering in the Digital Diaspora. In Arnold & Martin (Eds.), Taking the Village Online: Mothers, Motherhood, and Social Media, (pp. 81-97). Canada: Demeter Press.

Selected Grants

2023

  • Future-proofing Australias care economy: A relational mobilities approach, Williams Veazey L, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)