Rate My Professor Matt Lumb

Lumb earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Newcastle. His research interests include community development, critical pedagogy, educational access and participation, equity, evaluation, international development, social inequalities, social justice, sociology of education, and widening participation, with primary fields in sociology of education (50%), higher education (25%), and applied sociology, program evaluation, and social impact assessment (25%). He emphasizes sophisticated participatory methodologies for generative evaluation. Major publications feature the co-authored book Equity in Higher Education: Time for Social Justice Praxis (2024) with Penny Jane Burke, including chapters such as 'Introduction – time for equity praxis,' 'From deficit imaginaries to social justice reframing,' and 'Hegemonic evaluation as a governing gaze.' Key journal articles encompass 'Critiquing uncritical EDI in higher education' (2025, Teaching in Higher Education), '‘I felt like I was the only person in the world studying’: place and affect in the constitution of online higher education study for rural Australian students' (2025, Australian Educational Researcher), 'What are the affordances of the digital music space in alternative education?' (2021, International Journal of Music Education), and 'Researching and evaluating equity and widening participation: praxis-based frameworks' (2018). His scholarship critiques dominant higher education imaginaries, advocates counter-hegemonic practices, and fosters social justice praxis in equity and widening participation.