Dr Leigh Coombes Lecturer BEd, DipTchg, MA, PhD

Background

Leigh Coombes is a Lecturer in critical psychology at Massey University, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand. She is on the editorial board of the Women’s Studies Journal.

Leigh Coombes has a long history of working as a narrative practitioner in community agencies and continues to practice as a Youth Justice Consultant in her community and alongside institutions where bicultural practice is privileged.  Leigh was appointed to a lecturing position in the School of Psychology in 2003 where she teaches forensic psychology with an ethical commitment to social justice (undergraduate), psychology of women in the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and postmodernism in psychology at graduate level.

Her research interests mainly focus on issues related to violence – violence against women, including intimate partner violence, and violence by women, including infanticide, with special attention to the historical, social and cultural conditions of gender and the effects of colonisation on particular communities.  Understandings of lived experience of psychological wellbeing and the evaluation of interventions and their social and cultural effects are broader considerations that frame her research.

Theoretically, Leigh is interested in understanding the epistemological relationships between language, power and social justice. In particular she focuses on local issues of relevance for marginalised groups, disorder in communities, and interpersonal violence.

PUBLICATIONS:

Refereed journals

Morgan, M., Coombes, L. & Campbell, B. (2006). Biculturalism, gender and critical social movements in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Still speaking from psychologies’ margins.  Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 5, http://www.discourseunit.com/arcp/5.htm

Aldridge, A., & Coombes, L. (2005). It’s really quite a delicate issue: GPs talk about domestic violence. Women’s Studies Journal, 19(2), 56-79.

Coombes, L. & Morgan, M. (2004). Narrative form and the morality of psychology’s gendering stories. Narrative Inquiry, 14, 303-322.

Coombes, L., Morgan, M., Tuffin, K., & Johnson, M. (2004). Critical Legal Psychology: Readings of the relationship between psychology and law informed by critical legal studies and critical psychology. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 11, 30-49.

Cheals, K., Morgan, M. & Coombes, L. (2003). Speaking from the margins: An analysis of women’s spirituality narratives. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 8, 55-72.

Coombes, L. & Morgan, M. (2002). Speaking of counter-narratives: Enunciative politics and commentary on memories of mother. Narrative Inquiry, 12, 375-379.

Coombes, L. (2001). Working the constitution of gendered subjectivities: An example from the nexus of law and psychology. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 1, 136-139.

Coombes, L., & Morgan, M. (2001). Speaking from the margins: A discourse analysis of ten women’s accounts of spirituality. The Australian Psychologist, 36, 10-18.

Morgan, M., & Coombes, L. (2001). Subjectivities and silences. Theorising an experience of silence as a speaking subject. Feminism and Psychology, 11, 361-375.

Edited book chapters

Coombes, L. & Te Hiwi, E. (2007). Social justice, community change. In I. M.Evans, M. P. O’Driscoll & J. J. Rucklidge (Eds.), Professional Practice of Psychology in Aotearoa/New Zealand (pp.379-396). Wellington, NZ: The New Zealand Psychological Society.

Coombes, L. & Morgan, M. (2004). Politicising mothers: Counter-narratives of mothering experience. In M. Bamberg & M. Andrews (Eds.), Considering counter narratives. Narrating, resisting, making sense (pp.38-41). Philadelphia: John Benjamin.

Research Reports:

Morgan, M., Coombes, L., & McGray, S. (2007). An evaluation of the Waitakere Family Violence protocols: Preliminary report. Palmerston North, Aotearoa/NZ: Massey University.

Coombes, L., Morgan, M., & McGray, S. (2007). Counting on protection: A statistical description of the Waitakere Family Violence Court. Palmerston North, Aotearoa/NZ: Massey University.

Morgan, M., Coombes, L., Te Hiwi, E., & McGray, S. (2007). Accounting for safety: A sample of women victims’ experiences of safety through the Waitakere Family Violence Court. Palmerston North, Aotearoa/NZ: Massey University.

Coombes, L., Morgan, M., McGray, S., Te Hiwi, E. (2008). Responding together: An integrated report evaluating the aims of the Waitakere Family Violence Court protocols. Palmerston North, Aotearoa/NZ: Massey University.