Rupaleem Bhuyan

Rupaleem wb

 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.

Contact:

Phone: (416) 946-5085

Email: r.bhuyan@utoronto.ca

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

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.