Dr James O’Donnell is a Demographer at the Australian National University with a research focus on social cohesion and wellbeing and their longitudinal and life course relationships with migration, population dynamics and social and economic inequalities. James is the lead investigator of the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute’s Mapping Social Cohesion study, Australia’s pre-eminent and longest-running survey of attitudes, perceptions and behaviours related to social cohesion, immigration and a range of topical issues. He is also an early career research fellow of the Australian Research Council, funded to study how cohesion and wellbeing are changing over time and in response to personal and societal upheaval.

James was awarded a PhD in Demography in December 2019. This research was focused on measuring and understanding the patterns, prevalence and dynamics of different types of housing and homelessness.