Lynda Cheshire

Lynda is Deputy Provost of the University, with responsibility for assisting in the operations of the Provost portfolio and initiatives sponsored by the Offices of the Vice-Chancellor and Provost. This includes providing direction for strategic projects and working across functions, units, colleges, and campuses to execute goals for the Provost. As a member of the Senior Leadership and Academic Board, Lynda provides administrative leadership with a particular focus on industrial and employee relations issues as they relate to academic staff.

Lynda holds a Bachelor of Economic and Social Science (Hons) in sociology from the University of Wales (University College of Swansea), and a BA Honours degree and PhD in sociology from Central Queensland University.

Prior to taking up the position of Deputy Provost, she served as Head of the School of Social Science from 2020 to 2026. She has also held research-focussed and Teaching and Research positions, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship from 2011 to 2015.

As a sociologist, Lynda has undertaken research in the broad area of community, neighbourhoods and housing, examining how how structural and policy processes impact upon neighbourly and community relations, and attachments to home and place. She has led a large program of research on ‘un-neighbourliness’ using large-scale, survey, interview and administrative data to examine the nature, causes and outcomes of problems between neighbours and their effects on neighbouring more broadly. She has also served as international Partner Investigator on the ESRCs’ Connected Communities consortium (Crow et al) and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERDII).