Centre for Social Work Innovation and Research

People

Directorate

Lisa Chenportrait image of jeri dammanThe Centre Co-Directors are:

 

Henglien (Lisa) Chen

 

 

 

  

 and Jeri Damman

 

Sussex academic staff

Dr Wendy Ashall (Anthropology)

Professor Janet Boddy (Education)

Professor Suzy Braye (Social Work and Social Care)

Dr Rachel Burr (Social Work and Social Care)

Dr Tam Cane (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Jackie Cassell (Brighton and Sussex Medical School)

Dr Henglien (Lisa) Chen (Social Work and Social Care)

Dr Jeri Damman (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Louise Gazeley (Education)

Dr Kristine Langhoff (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Michelle Lefevre (Social Work and Social Care)

Barry Luckock (Social Work and Social Care)

Dr Reima Ana Maglajlic (Social Work and Social Care)

Dr Tish Marrable (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Jo Moran-Ellis (Sociology)

Dr David Orr (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Gillian Ruch (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Elaine Sharland (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Rachel Thomson (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor Charles Watters (Social Work and Social Care)

Professor David Weir (Informatics)

Dr Russell Whiting (Social Work and Social Care)

Visiting research fellows

Current CSWIR Visiting Research Fellow: 

Dr Chia-Lee Yang, Principal Engineer (Taiwan's National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC)) 

Dr Chia-Lee Yang is a Principal Engineer at Taiwan's National Center for High Performance Computing (NCHC) and an interdisciplinary researcher blending social and computational sciences. Her work focuses on integrating data-driven approaches, including big data mining, Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), and machine learning, to delve into public responses to disaster crises like COVID-19 and environmental pollution, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations. Dr. Yang is the principal investigator for several gender and technology research projects funded by Taiwan's NSCT. She played a pivotal role in developing the "COVID-19 Pandemic Map," a widely used open database with over 36 million views, maintained entirely by volunteers. She founded the Women in High-Performance Computing (WHPC) Taiwan chapter. Currently, she is engaged in research on gender and age bias in large language models.

Watch Dr Yang's CSWIR seminar here.  

CSWIR also hosted the work of a number of Visiting Research Fellows during our inaugural year from around the world:

Dr Somnoma Valerie Ouedraogo
British Academy Fellow. Impact of Political Conflict on the Adult Social Services in Burkina Faso. 
2024

Dr. Fenghuaqin, School of Teacher Education, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, China
Comparative study of child protection in China and England
March - August 2015

Dr Chris Hall, Durham University
Social Work communication in practice
June 2014- June 2017

Professor Randi Juul and Inger Sophie Hsuby, Faculty of Health Education and Social Work, Trondheim 
Social Education and Child Welfare Work Program
September –December 2015

Dr Mona Livholts, Linkoping, Sweden
Social Work in a Glocalised World
January – August 2016

Doctoral researchers

CSWIR supports social work doctoral research undertaken on the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) and PhD courses:

Past CSWIR PhD titles:

  • Millicent Ayeh-Danquah Koomson:
    Youth at risk of smoking and illegal drug use: a comparative study of use by immigrants in Sweden and UK
  • Leethen Bartholomew:
    Accusations of child spirit possession and witchcraft: Experiences and outcomes for non-accused children within the same family network
  • Victoria Bromley:
    The Road to Temporary Accommodation and the Identity of the Single mother
  • Claire Durrant:
    Understanding the emotional consequences of severe dyslexia and developing strategies for teachers to support children in mainstream education
  • Jenny Hewitt:
    How do UK young adults’ experience civic and political engagement in their everyday lives?
  • Evelyn Keryova:
    Exploring Children and Young People’s Critical Thinking: The Case of YouTube
  • Nesreen HA Munshi:
    Using virtual reality games at Kindergarten in Saudi Arabia
  • May Nasrawy:
    Exploring the impact of engagement in extracurricular or community art activities on well-being: The experiences and voices of young people in Jerusalem
  • Sushri Sangita Puhan:
    The social process of being adopted and becoming family- An exploration of adoption practice in India
  • Loreto F. Rodriguez:
    Experiences and understandings of psychotherapy for young children in Chile who have experiences sexual abuse
  • Paul Shuttleworth:
    A critical analysis of kinship care to inform social work policy and practice
  • Emma Sowe:
    Learning My Place: Exploring peer relationships and other influences on adolescent identities in diverse and diversifying UK schools
  • Roma Thomas:
    Doing Boy work? Young masculine subjectivities and professional practice