Assistant Professor of social work
Bala Nikku, PhD hails from an agricultural family in India. Bala Joined Thompson Rivers University School of Social Work and Human Service as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Dr. Nikku served in the academia and grassroots social work practice in India, Nepal, Malaysia and held adjunct positions in the UK and Thailand. He served as founding director of the Nepal School of Social Work (2005- 2011).
I have been a social work and social policy teaching faculty, researcher and practitioner for the last 20 years. I bring an interdisciplinary, racial and cultural safety to my work space and classrooms. I had the opportunity to collaborate a diverse group to carry out research projects that are curiosity driven and find solutions that empower communities.
As an interdisciplinary policy researcher, I am interested in politics of policies (disasters, health, poverty) and their framing and implementation on the ground. My research focus continues to be on South Asia a dynamic but fragmented, resource poor, culturally diverse region. I am currently part of a research collective (www.canada-asia-researchcollective.org) and interested in applying rights-based approaches to human displacement. We are currently involved in book projects and covid19 epidemic management and analyzing whether the current regional frameworks are adequate enough to protect the rights of epidemic victims and internally displaced persons.
Research Interests:
International Social Work, Green Social Work, Disasters and Epidemics, Community engagement, Health equity action framework, Scholarship of teaching and learning, Decolonization, intercultural studies, Race and immigration, comparative social policy, curricular innovations
Joined 2022
Organisation
Thompson Rivers University
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
