Ending Poverty and Inequality Cluster – EPIC

This research cluster encompasses a diverse range of scholars engaged in various research and praxis activities centred around addressing issues of inequality and poverty.

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 FAIR – Fairness in Aid Remuneration

Within the international aid sector most organisations remunerate their national and international employees on different scales.

Project FAIR is a partnership between the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector, salary professionals, and a range of universities and research groups, including EPIC, to find more sustainable alternatives to this 'dual salary' institution.

Read more about Project FAIR

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

Read more about Project SAFE

Who we are

 Darrin Hodgetts

Darrin Hodgetts

Professor of Societal Psychology

Co-coordinator of EPIC

Professor Stuart Carr

Professor Stuart Carr

Professor of Work Psychology

Veronica Hopner

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Coordinator of Project SAFE

Additional members

  • Professor James Liu
  • Associate Professor Heather Kempton
  • Associate Professor Richard Fletcher
  • Clifford Van Ommen, senior lecturer
  • Pita King, senior lecturer
  • Associate Professor Ian de Terte
  • 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

 Darrin Hodgetts

Darrin Hodgetts

Professor of Societal Psychology

Co-coordinator of EPIC

Professor Stuart Carr

Professor Stuart Carr

Professor of Work Psychology