PhD in Social Work Student Achievements

Recent Achievements

• Julia Read successfully defended her PhD dissertation on June 25th, 2026: “Narrative Resistance: Peer Specialists’ Experiences of Exploitation, Isolation, and Cooptation in Substance Use Services and the Impact on their Wholistic Health”
• Sarah Pearson successfully defended her PhD dissertation on April 30th, 2026: “My voice is trauma, my voice is healing:” a feminist, trauma-informed embodied study on the impact of gender-based violence in classical music communities
• Cheri Bilitz successfully defended her PhD dissertation on January 5th, 2026: A Contribution to Constructing a Theory and Model of Social Work Leadership
• Amilah Baksh, Alison Parnell, and Andrew Tibbetts are three of the co-authors for an article published in Transformative Social Work: Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy

Current Students: Achievement Highlights

Publications

Amilah Baksh

• Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy Baksh, A., Parnell, A., Pollack, S., Rattner, M., & Tibbetts, A. (2025). "Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy" Transformative Social Work, 3(2).
• Phenomenologies of Silence: On the Palestine Exception and the Complicity of Social Work Academe Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Baksh, A., Elkassem, S., & King, B. (2025). "Phenomenologies of Silence: On the Palestine Exception and the Complicity of Social Work Academe" Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, 3(2).
• "She didn’t mean it that way": theorizing gendered Islamophobia in academia Baksh, A. (2024). "'She didn’t mean it that way': theorizing gendered Islamophobia in academia" Race Ethnicity and Education, 27(1), 39-54.
• "Why Don't You Just Take it Off?": Hijab as Resistance Baksh, A., & Baksh, B. (2023). “Why Don’t You Just Take it Off?” Girlhood Studies, 16(3), 52–68. 
• Too Muslim to be a Feminist and Too Feminist to be a Muslim? Locating Lived Experiences of Feminism and Muslimness in Social Work Academe Baksh, A., & Khan, M. (2023). "Too Muslim to be a Feminist and Too Feminist to be a Muslim? Locating Lived Experiences of Feminism and Muslimness in Social Work Academe" Affilia, 38(4), 673-686.

Katie Barber

• Re-imagining Pedagogy in Social Work Education: Indigenous Love and Relationality Barber, K. (2025). "Re-imagining Pedagogy in Social Work Education: Indigenous Love and Relationality" Canadian Journal of Native Education, 42(1).

Alesya Courtnage

• Walk-In Single-Session Therapy at a University Counselling Clinic and Clinician Experience Cait, C. A., Courtnage, A., Bilitz, C., & Ruby, S. (2025). "Walk-In Single-Session Therapy at a University Counselling Clinic and Clinician Experience" In Implementing Single-Session Psychotherapy, Routledge, 208-233.
• Solution Focused Single Session Therapy: Small conversations for big social change Courtnage, A. (2024). "Solution Focused Single Session Therapy: Small conversations for big social change" In Women's Perspectives on the Solution Focused Approach, Routledge, 55-65.

Nathan Barnett

• A place to find community: the role of autonomy and care in managed encampments Pin, L., Suthakaran, A., Ermeta, N., & Barnett, N. R. G. (2025). "A place to find community: the role of autonomy and care in managed encampments". Urban Geography, 1–23.

Bhagwati Gautam

• Mental health services among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: perspectives from field service providers ElRayes W., Malik S., Akesson B., Mahmood I., Hafiz MG., Aldalaykeh M., Mahmood A., Gautam B., Hoque S., Ul Haque F., & Watanabe-Galloway S. (2025). "Mental health services among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: perspectives from field service providers". International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 21(1), 17–35.

Victoria Huang

• Using photo-voice to understand factors affecting mental health at a high school in China Huang, V. & Zhang, X. (2025). "Using photo-voice to understand factors affecting mental health at a high school in China" Transformative Social Work, 3(1).

Sabina Mezhibovsky

• The homeless grief - The loss of non-kin family: Middle-aged immigrant experience of disenfranchised grief over a friend’s death in Western society Mezhibovsky, S. (2025). "The homeless grief - The loss of non-kin family: Middle-aged immigrant experience of disenfranchised grief over a friend’s death in Western society" Transformative Social Work, 3(1). 
• Friendship Orphanhood: Visual Narratives of Immigration, Cultural Bereavement, and Disenfranchised Grief in the Pursuit of Meaning, Equity, and Inclusion. Mezhibovsky, S. (2025). "Friendship Orphanhood: Visual Narratives of Immigration, Cultural Bereavement, and Disenfranchised Grief in the Pursuit of Meaning, Equity, and Inclusion" Social Work & Policy Studies: Social Justice, Practice and Theory, 8(2).

Alison Parnell

• Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy Baksh, A., Parnell, A., Pollack, S., Rattner, M., & Tibbetts, A. (2025). "Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy" Transformative Social Work, 3(2).

Sarah Southey

• Autistic-inclusive employment: A qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis Morris, R., Southey, S., & Pilatzke, M. (2025). "Autistic-inclusive employment: A qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis" The British Journal of Social Work, 55(4), 1794-1815
• Barriers and Facilitators to Access to Post-secondary Education for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Narrative Literature Review McKenzie, C., & Southey, S. (2024). "Barriers and Facilitators to Access to Post-secondary Education for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Narrative Literature Review" Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 13(3).

Andrew Tibbetts

• Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy Baksh, A., Parnell, A., Pollack, S., Rattner, M., & Tibbetts, A. (2025). "Harms and possibilities: Social work doctoral students reflect on social justice pedagogy" Transformative Social Work, 3(2).

Sarah Tremblett

• Beyond risk: Centering relationality and reflexivity to transform child welfare Tremblett, S. (2025). "Beyond risk: Centering relationality and reflexivity to transform child welfare" Transformative Social Work, 3(1).
• People with Lived Experience as Support Workers and Community Leaders: Findings from a Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature and Expert Consultation Tremblett, S., Ellenbogen, S., Wadden, E., Koparan, L., Traverse, C., & Muise, M. (2025). "People with Lived Experience as Support Workers and Community Leaders: Findings from a Critical Interpretive Synthesis of the Literature and Expert Consultation" Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 1-22.
• Autistic Perspectives on Employment: A Scoping Review Southey, S., Morris, R., Nicholas, D. & Pilatzke, M. (2024) "Autistic Perspectives on Employment: A Scoping Review" Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation 34, 756–76.

Artwork, Podcasts, and Poetry

Cristina Aquilina

“There Are Teachers Everywhere.” An artistic representation of the Decolonizing Subgroup Panel Discussion, 2025 Read the Artist Statement here.

Amilah Baksh

Linked but distinct: Understanding anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim racism Baksh, A., Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Elkassem, S., & King, B. (2025). [Audio podcast episode]. In S. Aziz & E. M. S. Samarah (Hosts), The Race and Rights Podcast, Part 1, Episode 48. Center for Security, Race and Rights, Rutgers Law School.

Utamika Cummings van Zyl

An Invitation to Know Cummings Van Zyl, U. (2025) "An Invitation to Know" ADVANCE Journal, 6(1).

Graduate Student Dissertations

2026 Graduates

• Cheri Bilitz: A Contribution to Constructing a Theory and Model of Social Work Leadership
• Sarah Pearson: “My voice is trauma, my voice is healing:” a feminist, trauma-informed embodied study on the impact of gender-based violence in classical music communities
• Wen Juan Song: "Who Am I Here?" Exploring the Racial Identity Development of Chinese Adolescent International Students in Canada: A Constructivist Grounded Theory ApproachA Contribution to Constructing a Theory and Model of Social Work Leadership

2025 Graduates

• Alishau Diebold: Pathways to Sustainable Employment: Bridging Community Justice and Social Enterprise Programs for Criminalized Women
• Esther Hayford: Student Engagement and Resistance: Exploring the stories of African Canadian girls in high schools in southwestern Ontario
• Grace Ihejiamaizu: A Dance of War or Love: Applying a Gendered Lens on the Lived Experiences of Women Social Entrepreneurs in Nigeria
• Yugita Looknauth: "Just Checking": Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Black Students at Post-Secondary Institutions
• Wen Juan Song: Who Am I Here?”: Exploring the Racial Identity Development of Chinese Adolescent International Students in Canada - A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach
  

2024 Graduates

• Giselle Dias: Indigenous Wholistic Abolition: Visioning Indigenous Queer, Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Futures
• Amar Ghelani: “If somebody takes the time to listen”: Understanding the risks and reasons for cannabis use among youth who have experienced psychosis
• Lin Haag: "The Most Important Thing in IPV Right Now": The Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence and Brain Injury
• Azadeh Razbani-Tehrani: Young Adult Stepchildren's Lived Experience Of Blended Family Adjustment During Adolescence: A Retrospective Descriptive Phenomenological Analysis

2023 Graduates

• Samantha Clarke: Swimming Against the Tide: The Relational Praxis of Social Justice in Social Work
• Bronwyn Dickson: Ethical Dilemmas and Moral Distress in Companion Animal Veterinary Medicine: Mental Health Implications
• Cara Grosset: Deep in the shadows of loss: An exploration of grief, mourning, and intellectual disability
• Jessica Hutchison: “It Felt Like a Sense of Rape:” Women’s Experiences of Strip Searching in Prison as Gendered, Misogynoir, and Colonial Genocidal Sexual Violence
• Jacqueline Nobiss: Anishinaabeg Niizh Manitoag: Asha Amaa, We Were Always Here
• Judah Oudshoorn: Towards ending incarceration of Indigenous peoples in Canada: A critical, narrative inquiry of hegemonic power in the Gladue report process
• Maxxine Rattner: Disrupting and expanding the discourse: Palliative care clinicians' experiences with patients' non-physical suffering
• Stewart Smith: Best Practices for Social Workers Engaging with Spiritual/Religious Clients
• Elizabeth Watters: "I'm not working, but I'm a professional": Precarious employment pathways, consequences, and resistance strategies impacting the health of racialized immigrant women