Dr Samuel Brookfield

Samuel Brookfield is a Senior Principal Social Scientist at the UQ School of Public Health, working to integrate critical social science and public health research methods. His research agenda is aimed towards improving health care for marginalised populations through understanding complex experiences of health and illness that intersect with issues of culture, ethics, and politics. Samuel has published research on homelessness and natural disaster response, access to sexual health services for sex workers, methamphetamine recovery, and qualitative methods. 

Samuel recently finished publishing his PhD research, using ethnographic methods to explore harmful methamphetamine use in Queensland, Australia. These analyses introduced the concepts of ‘ambient paternalism’, ‘living with harmful drug use’, the ‘methamphetamine use cascade’, and ‘extended recovery’ to the literature. Samuel is now part of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame. In addition to research, Samuel is also a clinical nurse specialising in emergency, education, and humanitarian contexts most recently with the International Committee of the Red Cross in South Sudan.