Rupaleem Bhuyan

Assistant Professor
Phone: (416) 946-5085

Rupaleem Bhuyan is an Assistant Professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. She is a second-generation immigrant of Assamese/Indian heritage. She was born and raised in the United States and has lived and worked in the U.S., France and Thailand. Dr. Bhuyan has an interdisciplinary background in International Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Social Welfare.

Dr. Bhuyan's research integrates interpretive policy analysis and community-based participatory action research to address the sociocultural and political context of domestic violence, migration, citizenship and social rights. She completed her doctorate in Social Welfare at the University of Washington, where she took part in several community-based participatory research projects in areas of HIV and domestic violence prevention and intervention. Dr. Bhuyan's current research explores how political pressure to deny immigrant access to public benefits impacts their response to domestic violence and related health sequelae.

Since 1991, Dr. Bhuyan has been part of the anti-violence movement as a peer-rape prevention educator, domestic violence and sexual assault advocate, community educator and community-based researcher. She has worked closely with indigenous, immigrant and refugee communities in addition to collaborations with advocates in organizations serving the general population.

Dr. Bhuyan teaches courses in the first and second year of the MSW program. First year courses include: Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations and Foundations in Social Work: Knowledge, Theory, and Values. She also teaches courses in the Diversity and Social Justice Stream including: Social Exclusion, Marginalization and Resistance and Globalization & Trans-nationalization: Social Work Responses Locally & Globally (click the hyperlinks to check out previous and on-going course blogs).

Interests

Political Social Work & Anti-Oppression Practice
Globalization, Migration, Citizenship and Social Rights
Anti-violence Advocacy & Social Movements
Post-structural, Feminist, Critical Race, and Post-Colonial theories
Interpretive Methodologies & Participant Action Research

Articles in Refereed Journals

Bhuyan, R. (In press). Reconstructing citizenship in a global economy: How restricting immigrants from welfare undermines social rights for U.S. citizens. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. Accepted January 2009.

Bhuyan, R. (2008). The Production of the “battered immigrant” in public policy and
domestic violence advocacy. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Vol. 23(2), pp. 153-170.

Walters, Karina L., Tessa Evans-Campbell, Jane M. Simoni, Theresa Ronquillo, and Rupaleem
Bhuyan (2006) “My spirit in my heart”: Identity Experiences and Challenges among American Indian Two-Spirit Women. Journal of Lesbian Studies, Vol. 10 (1/2), pp 125-149.

Bhuyan, Rupaleem and Kirsten Senturia (2005). Understanding domestic violence resource
utilization and survivor solutions among immigrant and refugee women: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20(8), pp. 895-901.

Bhuyan, Rupaleem, Molly Mell, Kirsten Senturia, Marianne Sullivan, Sharyne Shiu-Thornton
(2005). “Women must endure according to their karma”: Cambodian immigrant women talk about domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 20(8). pp. 902-921.

Sullivan, Marrianne, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Kirsten Senturia, Sharyne Shiu-Thornton, Sandy Ciske
(2005). Participatory action research in practice: A case study in addressing domestic violence in nine cultural communities. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 20(8), pp. 977-995.

Nurius, Paula S., Rebecca S. Macy, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Victoria L. Holt, Mary A. Kernic,
Frederick P. Rivara (2003). Contextualizing Depression and Physical Functioning in Battered Women: Adding Vulnerability and Resources to the Analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(12), pp. 1411(21).

Other Publications

Bhuyan, Rupaleem, Woochan Shim and Kavya Velagapudi (In press). Domestic Violence
Advocacy with Immigrants and Refugees. In Lockhart, Lettie L. and Fran Danis (Eds.) Domestic Violence Mosaic: Culturally Competent Practice with Diverse Populations. Columbia University Press.

Bhuyan, Rupaleem (2007). Navigating Immigration, Gender, and Domestic Violence: Domestic
Violence Advocacy with Work Visa Holders. In Shamita Das Dasgupta (Ed.) Body Evidence: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America. Rutgers University Press.

University of Toronto

Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work