Associate Professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
Rupaleem Bhuyan 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. Her research integrates feminist, participatory, and interpretive methodologies and to address the sociocultural and political context of migration, social rights, and gender based violence. 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 is currently the principal investigator for the Migrant Mothers Project, a research and community engagement project that works in collaboration with a network of community-based organizations, women’s rights and immigrant rights groups, and grassroots activists. This research documents different forms of inequality that are produced through Canada’s immigration system that intersect with the spectrum of violence against women. Though our research and community organizing efforts, the Migrant Mothers Project aims to foster deeper knowledge about the inequities that shape our lives and to identify strategies for collectively bring about changes that improve the dignity, and human rights for all.
Dr. Bhuyan teaches introductory and advanced qualitative methodology courses in the Faculty of Social Work. She is the Coordinator for the Social Justice and Diversity Field of Specialization and an affiliate member of the Women & Gender Studies Institute and the Centre for Critical Qualitative Research at the University of Toronto.
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
- Lairos, L., Bhuyan, R., Schmidt, C., Bergen, H., (In press). The Structural Violence of Everyday Bordering: Legal and Bureaucratic Exclusions for Immigrants with Precarious Status in Canada. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies. Accepted February 26, 2023.
- Bhuyan, R., Sarma, M., Azad, A.K. and Bordoloi, A. (In press). De facto statelessness through Administrative Violence: An intersectional analysis of bordering through the National Registry of Citizens in Assam, India. International Journal of Migration and Border Studies. Accepted February 26, 2023.
- Bhuyan, R. and Leung, V.* (2022). Framing Migrant Resilience as a Civic Responsibility: A Case Study of Municipal and Provincial Immigrant Integration Policies in Toronto, Ontario. British Journal of Social Work. 52(2), 796-815.
- Bhuyan, R. Chime, T. Bobadilla, A., Alam, A., Jahangir, S., Dolma, R. (Under Review). “Transformative Resilience through Migrant Led Collective Action.”
- Schmidt, C., Bergen, H., Hajjar, O., Larios, L., Bhuyan, R. (In progress). “Navigating Bureaucratic Violence in Canada’s Two-Step Immigration System”
- Bhuyan, R. and Leung, V., 2021: Framing Migrant Resilience as a Civic Responsibility: A Case Study of Municipal and Provincial Immigrant Integration Policies in Toronto, Ontario.
- Bhuyan, R., Chime, T., Alam, A., and Bobadilla, A. (2021). Transformative Resilience through Collective Action: A Study on Migrant Organizing in Toronto. Building Migrant Resilience in Cities/Immigration et resilience en milieu urbain (BMRC/IRMU). Toronto.
- Chime, T., Bhuyan, R., Alam, A., and Bobadilla, A. (2021). Lessons on transformative resilience from migrant collective action in Toronto. Building Migrant Resilience in Cities/Immigration et résilience en milieu urbain (BMRC/IRMU). Toronto.
- Bhuyan, R. & Leung, V. (2021). Is migrant resilience a civic responsibility: A framing analysis of “resilience” in City of Toronto and Ontario integration policies. Building Migrant Resilience in Cities, Toronto, ON.
- Bhuyan, R. & Chime, T. (2020). Promoting migrant resilience through collective action. Building Migrant Resilience in Cities, Toronto, ON.
- Bhuyan, R., & Velagapudi, K. (2013). From one “dragon sleigh” to another: Advocating for immigrant women facing violence in Kansas. Affilia, 28(1), 65-78.
- Lee, Eunjung and Bhuyan, R. (In press). Negotiating within whiteness in cross cultural clinical encounters. Social Service Review.
- Bhuyan, R. and Smith-Carrier, T. (2012). Constructions of migrants’ rights in Canada: Is subnational citizenship possible? Citizenship Studies, Vol. 16(2), pp. 203-221.
- Bhuyan, R. (2012). Negotiating citizenship on the frontlines: How the devolution of Canadian immigration policy shapes service delivery to women fleeing abuse. Law & Policy, Vol. 3(2), pp. 211-236.
- Park, Y. and Bhuyan, R. (2012). Whom should we serve? A discourse analysis of social workers’ commentary on undocumented immigrants. Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 23(1), pp. 18-40.
- Bhuyan, R. (2010). Reconstructing citizenship in a global economy: How restricting immigrants from welfare undermines social rights for U.S. citizens. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Vol. 38(2), pp. 63-85.
- 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.
- Bhuyan, R., Mell, M., Senturia, K., Sullivan, M., Shiu-Thornton, S. (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.
- Critical Examination of Settlement Sector Discourses and Practices of Resilience: A Comparative Study of Three Ontario Cities
- Analysis of governance structures and policy discourses shaping migration and resilience
- The perspectives of government officials on migration and resilience: a comparative examination of Canada's federal, provincial and municipal governments
- Critical Examination of Settlement Sector Discourses and Practices of Resilience: A Comparative Study of Three Ontario Cities
- The Praxis of Migrant Transformative resilience:understanding how collective action among immigrant communities impact resilience and system change - 2018
- Migrant Resilience in the Context of Transitions in Immigration Status
Presentations
Presentations at Conferences
- Bhuyan, R. (2022). Coloniality of Bordering and Belonging: Deconstructing everyday symbolic and structural violence of migrant “illegality” and reimagining belonging in decolonial futures [Roundtable Chair and Participant]. Global Meeting on Law and Society. July 13, 2022. Lisbon, Portugal.
- Veronis, L., Mesana, V., Walton-Roberts, M., Bhuyan, R. and Leung, V. (2019, June). Framing (im)migrant resilience: A comparative policy discourse analysis of municipal governments in Canada. International Metropolis Conference, Ottawa, ON.
Invited Presentations
- Bhuyan, R. (2022). Lessons on Transformative Resilience from Migrant-Led Collection Action [Invited Keynote] presented at 1st Congrès international L’ÉDIQ, l'Université Laval, à Québec. June 8, 2022.
- Bhuyan, R., Sharma, M., Azad, A.K., Bordoloi, A. (2022). De facto Statelessness through Bureaucratic Violence: Bordering through Direct and Indirect Discrimination through the National Registry of Citizens in Assam, India [Invited lecture] presented at the 5th Annual Racial Violence Hub Virtual Workshop Series Feminist Approaches to Theorizing Genocidal Violence, Wars and Occupations, Department of Gender Studies, University of California Los Angeles. January 7, 2022.
- Bhuyan, R. and Tenzin, C. (2022). Knowledge mobilization in the immigrant and refugee-serving sector [Invited panel member]. Research in Action, Wellesley Institute, Toronto, ON. February 16, 2022.
- Bhuyan, R. & Chime, T. (2020). Promoting Migrant Resilience through Migrant-Led Collective Action [Invited lecture]. Research Colloquia, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, December 17, 2020.
- Bhuyan, R. (2019). Promoting Collective Action among Migrant Communities to Address the Structural Violence of Precarious Status and Precarious Work [Invited Presentation]. Gender-Based Violence Work in Context: Learning Network Forum. Western University, London, ON, October 7, 2019.
- Bhuyan, R. (2019). Fostering Gender Responsiveness in Migration Resilience, Research and Action [Invited Panelist]. Building Migrant Resilience in Urban Cities, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, ON April 11, 2019.
- Bhuyan, R. (2019). Migrant rights in Canada—Resisting racism, seeking justice [Invited Panelist]. Urban Alliance for Race Relations, Toronto City Hall, March 21, 2019.