Julia de Bruyn

Dr Julia de Bruyn is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work focuses on strategies to improve food security and nutrition in the Global South, particularly within smallholder farming households in sub-Saharan Africa. Through her doctoral studies, Julia shifted from working as a clinical veterinarian to evaluate the contributions of livestock-keeping to the diets and growth of children in rural Tanzania. Her subsequent research has spanned novel methods of dietary assessment, drivers of food access and food choice, community-based livestock health programs, and the role of animal-source foods in healthy, sustainable diets. In her role in the Places Program of the Life Course Centre, Julia is drawing on her skills in mixed methods, participatory and field-based research to examine community dynamics of disadvantage in Australia.