What we do
Our interdisciplinary research cluster is home to a range of research projects that involve working with local communities, service providers, governmental and international organisations to address issues of poverty and inequality.
Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals
Our cluster and its goals align with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ... are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests." – United Nations
These globally-developed goals guide human development initiatives worldwide.
We have worked with UNESCO to formally establish a UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Livelihoods – currently taken up by Professor Stuart Carr. Professor Carr believes the Chair is about friendship, human relationships and working together to make a contribution to meeting humanitarian goals like the SDGs.
Read more about the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Livelihoods
Research activities
Discover a selection of research projects, networks and groups involving researchers from the EPIC cluster.
Project GLOW – Global Living Organisational Wage
The heart of this international collaborative research project is one foundational question. Using purchasing power parity, is there a global living wage that enables people, organisations and communities to prosper and thrive?
Find out more about Project GLOW
Project SAFE – Security Assessment for Everyone
Project SAFE is an interdisciplinary network to advance the psychology of security and improve policy on human security in all its forms.
Project SAFE advances an approach to Human Security Psychology.
See: Hodgetts, D., Hopner, V., Carr, S., Bar-Tal, D., Saner, R., Yiu, L., Horgan, J., Searle, R., Massola, G., Harkim, M., Marai, L., King, P. & Moghaddam, F. (2022). Human Security Psychology: A Linking Construct for an Eclectic Discipline. Review of General Psychology. OnlineFirst - https://doi.org/10.1177/10892680221109124
Who we are
Professor Darrin Hodgetts
Co-coordinator of EPIC
Additional members
- Professor James Liu
- Associate Professor Heather Kempton
- Associate Professor Richard Fletcher
- Associate Professor Ian de Terte
- Clifford Van Ommen, Senior Lecturer
- Dr Veronica Hopner, Senior Lecturer
- Pita King, Senior Lecturer
- Amanda Young-Hauser, Lecturer
- Shemana Cassim, Lecturer
- Wisnu Endro, Assistant Lecturer
- Jony Yulianto, Lecturer
- Minh Nguyen, Lecturer
- Megan Young, Assistant Lecturer
- Evan Valdes, Tutor
- Ahnya Martin, Graduate Assistant
- Sarah Choi, Senior Tutor
- Cassie Kenny, Professor of Disaster Risk Reduction
Associate members
Niki Harre – University of Auckland
Ottilie Stolte – University of Waikato
Contact us
Professor Darrin Hodgetts
Co-coordinator of EPIC