Indigenized PhD in Social Work: 2022 Offering

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Created with First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) Learners in Mind

The Faculty of Social Work Indigenous Field of Study (IFS) and PhD Program are offering an Indigenized PhD in Social Work to start Sept. 2022. The program is designed for First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) peoples. The 2022 PhD intake will be for full-time doctoral studies that are situated within Indigenous knowledges. The program builds on a successful pilot that was started in 2018.

Admission Deadline: Jan. 31, 2022

What is Unique About the Indigenized PhD Offering?

• The majority of courses will be taught by Indigenous scholars from the FSW Indigenous Field of Study (IFS).
• Course content will privilege Indigenous scholarship and discourses relevant to Indigenous issues in practice, research and education.
• Indigegogy is a term that is employed by the MSW-IFS at Laurier to capture the Indigenous theories and practices that underpin the transformative Indigenous educational process. Indigegogy underpins the Indigenized PhD offering.
• Each course will be wholistic in design and flow from Indigenous ways of seeing, being, knowing, and doing. The program will be land-based where possible.
• The program will be taught through a team-based model of delivery to ensure the continuity of knowledge articulation, and the seamless flow from one course to the next.
• The preferred pedagogical mechanism for delivery will be the sharing circle in the presence of medicines, ceremony, and Elders.

Testimonials

"Doing my PhD through the Indigenous program offered me my first opportunity to ground my academic learning and research process in both Indigenous ways of knowing as well as being in community and ceremony with other Indigenous academics and peers.

"The most valuable part of this program for me is the support in building a community of learning with other Indigenous scholars with faculty and classmates, and with other scholars in the field through reading and considering their work. Being able to focus and center my reading and research in the area of Indigenous epistemologies, research methodologies, and community practice offered an opportunity to deepen my understanding in ways that would not have been possible in programs where Indigenous perspectives are marginalized."

Amanda Thompson, Anishinaabekwe, Ojibway (Flying Post First Nation)

"Being in Circle process has fundamentally changed the way that I engage in learning and teachings. Circle process, Indigenous content, Indigenous professors and being in ceremony within academia allowed me to bring my entire self into the program. I have been wholistically transformed during my PhD and it has healed a lot of past academic trauma where I was expected to leave my spirit and heart at the door.

"The IFS PhD program is still situated within a colonial institution, however, the IFS faculty and allies within the mainstream PhD program have worked tirelessly to ensure that our growth as Indigenous scholars are nurtured and protected wherever possible."

Giselle Dias

Learn More

Information sessions will be held in September, October, November, December and January.

Register Here