Social work; Critical Disability Studies; Immigration, refugee and displacement studies; Social work & Bedouin Arabs; The scholarship of teaching and
As a social work academic, researcher and educator, I see graduate supervision as an opportunity to mentor future colleagues and engage with them in an exchange of knowledge production and translation. As such, I highlight the unique transdisciplinary nature of social work research that can facilitate the interconnectedness of the various disciplines and fields of study that social work can explore. For example, one of my areas of research program focuses on examining the intersection between disability, displacement (immigration, refugee issues, settlement, etc.) and social work. Such a research program brings together these three fields of study to inform theory and practice. Added to this transdisciplinarity, I situate my work within a transnational perspective that brings together notions of local and global realities to inform the production of knowledge in ways that trouble and decenter dominant knowledges to facilitate the emergence of historically marginalized knowledges. As an applied profession where practice is interconnected with other fields of study, social work is in a unique place to examine the multi-layered and multi-disciplinary nature of practice to help students negotiate and navigate the complex realities of social issues and how they can be addressed. As a supervisor, I see this role as a way to open the space for students to connect and bring new and fresh ideas together and support their development as qualified and rigorous researchers and practitioners. As such, I see my supervisory role as a building block that connects and complements my areas of research expertise. As an academic and practitioner, I ground my scholarship within critical approaches to social work in ways that build on and foster the profession’s commitments to social justice and transformation. Taking into account global trends and realities, I can supervise students interested in exploring the following areas of social work research: international and transnational social work; social policies; scholarship of teaching and learning in social work; Social work and global Indigenous movements; social work practice with diverse and marginalized populations; anti-oppressive social work approaches; interdisciplinary intersections (e.g. with critical disability studies, immigration and settlement studies, etc.).