Faculty Members
Faculty in the School of Social Work hold a diverse array of research and teaching interests. The brief faculty profiles below provide a snapshot of these areas of expertise. More information is provided on individual faculty pages.
Full Professors
Full Professor
Tel: (709) 864-4512 Rm: J-2003
Email: pbanahene@mun.ca
Research interests: social justice education; Black parenting experiences; social work theories; social work interviewing skills; Indigenous African philosophies and their pedagogical possibilities; spirituality as self-care; integration and resettlement experiences of people of African descents; and violence and non-violence education. For more detailed information please see Dr. Adjei's faculty page.
University Research Professor
Full Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2555 Rm: J-4005
Email: blefrancois@mun.ca
Research interests: Critical Disability Studies; Mad Studies; Critical Childhood Studies; the psychiatrization of children; an ethics of care; anti-sanist and anti-racist care work within research; abolitionist/anarchist prefigurative politics. For more detailed information see Dr. LeFrancois' faculty page.
Full Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2181
Email: dmullings@mun.ca
Research interests: decolonizing post-secondary education; mothering and parenting; mental health and wellness in the Black church; racialized LGBTQ+; Black and racialized elders; settlement and integration in small urban centres, rural and remote areas; employment discrimination; and human rights policy. For more detailed information see Dr. Mullings' faculty page.
Associate Professors
Associate Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2554 Rm: J-3001
Email: cdeboer@mun.ca
Research interests: identity development and transformation; disengagement studies; social work practice (specifically therapeutic relationships and counselling); and narrative studies, including narrative theory, analysis and therapy. For more detailed information see Dr. de Boer's faculty page.
Associate Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2559 Rm: J-3020
Email: sellenbogen@mun.ca
Research interests: child welfare; social work education; public engagement social perceptions; human development, behavioural & emotional problems; gambling; and life course transitions. For more detailed information see Dr. Ellenbogen's faculty page.
Associate Professor
Interim Dean
Elected College Member, Royal Society of Canada
Tel: (709) 864-7940 Rm: J-2019
Email: sgiwa@mun.ca / deansocialwork@mun.ca
Research interests: forensic social work; critical race and anti-Black racism; race and sexuality; LGBTQ+ migration, settlement, and integration; intersectional stigma and human rights; minority stress and coping; queer of colour critique; critical analysis of whiteness; critical social work theories and pedagogy; and the criminal justice system (police and corrections). For more detailed information see Dr. Giwa's faculty page.
Associate Professor
Acting Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs
Tel: (709) 864-8688 Rm: J3019
Email: pissahaku@mun.ca
Research interests: domestic violence and intimate partner violence; children, youth & family services; social policy processes; ageing and older persons; community development; and program evaluation. For more detailed information see Dr. Issahaku's faculty page.
Associate Professor
Tel: (709) 864-8583 Rm: J-3021
Email: jjanes@mun.ca
Research interests: community-based participatory research; arts-informed, collaborative approaches to social work; critical gerontology; critical race, whiteness, post structural and anti-colonial theories; decolonizing epistemologies and methodologies; intersections between environmental and social justice; ableism/sanism; harm reduction; and community practice. For more detailed information see Dr. Janes' faculty page.
Associate Professor
Tel: (709) 864-7701 Rm: J-2009
Email: csmith13@mun.ca
Research interests: mental health and addiction; substance use and harm reduction; risk behavior among people who inject drugs; foregounding the expertise and experiences of People who Use Drugs; Critical Drug Studies; and substance use education in Social Work curriculum across Canada. For more detailed information see Dr. Smith's faculty page.
Assistant Professors
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-8151 Rm: J-2009
Email: fandersen@mun.ca
Research interests: Indigenous community capacity building; Indigenous ways of knowing, Indigenous knowledge translation and mobilization; action outcome co-creation of community-based, community-driven research with, for, and by Indigenous communities; promoting Indigenous communities™ ways of knowing and healing; anti-colonial social work practice, including its relevance for Indigenous communities; promotion of equitable partnerships and honouring of traditional knowledge; Indigenous circle pedagogy; and team and group work. For more information see Dr. Andersen's faculty page.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-8147 Rm: J-4004
Email: agoulden@mun.ca
Research interests: reproductive health and justice among disabled populations; sex-positive social work education and practice; sexual well-being among disabled people; healthcare decision-making among youth populations; young parenting in the child welfare system; universal design for social work education and practice; and service user and carer involvement in social work education. For more detailed information see Dr. Goulden's faculty page.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-4716 Rm: J-3022
Email: kdejong@mun.ca
Research interests: critical mental health service delivery to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and their providers; the lived experience of youth service users and how they have experienced the embedded heteronormativity in the service system; understanding how service providers experience the same and what they do to try and mitigate its impact; creating a safer and more inclusive mental health service delivery system for all children, youth and their families regardless of gender and sexual expression/identification. For more information see Dr. de Jong's faculty page.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2562 Rm: J-3002
Email: lpacheco@mun.ca
Research interests: reproductive justice and mothering with a disability: intersection of parenting with an intellectual disability and the child welfare system; structural and intimate partner violence against women with disabilities; intersecting identities and social justice; aging and neurodiversity; critically reflective practice and community engagement; narrative inquiry; critical discourse analysis; participatory approaches to research; and roles of professionals, accessibility of services and the critical examination of professionals™ power and privilege within the health and social service system. For more detailed information see Dr. Pacheco's faculty page.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-7516 Rm: J-4010
Email: sshaikh@mun.ca
Research interests: connections among social justice practice, organizational and community change and social policy from the standpoint of activists and social workers; critical social work; social policy; social justice praxis; critical research; community engagement; organizational change; social service administration; antiracism; advocacy and activism; intersectionality; environmental and social justice; families; disability; feminist theory; global migration; diaspora; decolonizing and anti-colonial knowledge production; professional ethics; and sociology of professional knowledge. For more detailed information see Dr. Shaikh's faculty page.
Assistant Professor
Tel: (709) 864-2562 Rm: J-3023
Email: tsering.watermeyer@mun.ca
Research interests: Indigenous groups and indigenization; diaspora studies; refugee and immigrant resettlement; Addictions & Mental Health; and development of decolonial Social Work praxis. For more information see Dr. Watermeyer's faculty page.