Research - PhD theses
Current PhD students are listed below alphabetically together with details of their research projects and where applicable, publications.
Matteo Allodi
Awaiting details.
Roxana Anghel
PhD student and researcher, Social Work and Social Policy Department, Anglia Ruskin University, England
PhD research topic: Transition within Transition: An exploration of the process of transition from public residential care, as experienced by Romanian young people and childcare practitioners(Supervisors: Prof. Carol Munn-Giddings and Dr. Dave Backwith)
Roxana worked as a social worker in Romania in an international adoptions agency before coming to Anglia Ruskin in 1999 on a European academic exchange programme. She later enrolled on a part-time PhD undertaking research on leaving care in Romania. In parallel she has worked at Anglia Ruskin as a European programme administrator since 2000 and as a researcher since 2004.
Meegan Crawford
Meegan Crawford, PhD candidate, School of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith University, Australia
Email m.crawford@griffith.edu.au
PhD topic : Young people in care: The influence of carers and caseworkers on the transition from school to further education and work
After working as a social worker in the statutory child protection agency for 15 years, Meegan commenced researching this topic in late 2007 . This study is part of a larger Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage-Project, ‘Promoting successful school to work transitions for young people in care’ being undertaken by a team of Griffith University investigators, Prof Peter Creed, Prof Nicholas Buys and A/Prof Clare Tilbury, with industry partners, the Department of Child Safety and Education Queensland. Meegan is the senior research assistant for this larger study.
Tamar Dinisman
PhD student, School for Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
PhD research topic: Individual, Social Support Networks and Institutional Characteristics as Predictors of Successful Transition to Independent Living of Youth in Residential Care.
Supervisor: Dr. Anat Zeira.
Tamar works as a teaching and Research assistance in the School of Social Work and Social Welfare in The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
E-mail contact: tamar.dinisman@mail.huji.ac.il
Annemiek Harder
PhD student and lecturer, Dept of Special Needs Education and Child Care, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
http://www.rug.nl/staff/a.t.harder/cv
PhD research topic: ‘The Downside Up? A process- and evaluation study on the care in a secure treatment centre in The Netherlands’ (Supervisor Professor Erik Knorth)
Before starting with her PhD-study, Annemiek worked as a researcher on the project ‘Residential child and youth care in the spotlights’ and contributed to a national programming study on child and youth care.
Georgia Hyde-Dryden
PhD student, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University, England
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/ccfr/Staff/Georgia_Hyde-Dryden.htm
PhD research topic: ‘Overcoming by Degrees’ Exploring the impact of support measures designed to improve care leavers’ experiences of higher education. (Supervisor Professor Harriet Ward.)
Georgia worked as a solicitor and for a consultancy involved in training and research on disability issues before commencing a full-time PhD in 2007.
Rawan W. Ibrahim
PhD Student,School of Social Work & Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich. UK
http://www.uea.ac.uk/swp/people/ribrahim
Rawan is a final year PhD student. Her research explores transitioning experiences of young people from residential care to adulthood in Jordan. Prior to her PhD, she was the acting director of Dar Al Aman at the Jordan River Foundation; a therapeutic home for severely abused children. Currently, she is also a friend of Al Aman Fund; a leaving care educational scheme. (http://www.alamanfund.jo)
Reeny Jurczyszyn (uratician)
PhD Student, Research School, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Contact - reenj@optusnet.com.au
PhD Research Topic: Learn From Those Who Learnt- Care Leaver Experiences of Higher and Further Education (Supervisors: Dr Clare Tilbury and Professor Lesley Chenoweth)
Reeny is researching care leaver experiences of higher and further education, looking into the constraining and facilitating factors that enabled access for this group of young people. As a care leaver, Reeny has a special interest in the area. Reeny is a social worker employed in Health and has been a social worker for ten years.
Samuel Keller
Samuel Keller – Member of Research Staff, Research & Development at ZHAW, School of Social Work, CH-8600 Dübenorf
Email: Samuel.keller@zhaw.ch
Samuel Keller is actually doing research on topics with a focus on Assessment, Decision Making and Output Measurement (Evaluation) in Child Care in the connection with conceptualization of well-being. He has a Master of Arts (MA) in Pedagogy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Zurich. After having worked for three years on the project “Parenting and Right-Wing Extremism” (NRP40) during his studies, he’s now a member of Dr. Thomas Gabriel's Research Stuff at ZHAW, School of Social Work. After just finishing a study on “Outcomes in Child Care”, he is involved in preparing further research activities in area of transitions to adulthood of young care leavers in Switzerland.
Research Interests: Conditions and Effects of Parenting and Care. Well-being of Children and Youth.
Current Projects:
Orientation towards Effects in Youth Care
Adoption - Survey on Factors influencing Child and Family
Mónica López López
PhD student, Child and Family Research Group, University of Oviedo, Spain
Mónica has been involved in child welfare research for four years. Her research interests focus particularly on foster care and leaving care. She has completed the National Evaluation of Foster Care, project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Social Affairs, and an exploratory study on the use of long term stays in residential care.
Recent publications:
Del Valle, J.F., López, M., Montserrat, C. y Bravo, A. (2009) Twenty years of foster care in Spain. Profiles, patterns and outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 31 (8), 847-853.
Del Valle, J.F., Bravo, A. y López, M., (2009). El acogimiento familiar en España: implantación y retos actuales. Papeles del Psicólogo, 30(1), 33-41.
Click here for 'Social adjustment in care leavers from children's homes' conference poster.
Olga Novozhylova
PhD student, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/InstituteofChildCareResearch/
PostgraduateLifeLearning/PostgraduateResearch/OlgaNovozhylova/
#d.en.52238
PhD research topic:
A social psychological interpretation of life course trajectories for residential care leavers in Ukraine (Supervisor Professor John Pinkerton) Click here for conference poster.
Olga started her full-time PhD programme in October 2006. Her PhD project aims at exploring the life stories of residential care leavers to identify factors that help/hinder their transition to the post-care environment. Olga received her MA in Educational Psychology (Learning and Development) from the University of Victoria, Canada. Olga previously taught at a university level and worked in a European Union’s project in Ukraine.
Iriana Santos
Awaiting details.
Click here for 'Social adjustment in care leavers from children's homes' conference poster.
Renata Stohler
Awaiting details.
Yafit Sulimani-Aidan
Yafit Sulimani-Aidan, PhD student, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Louis & Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar Illan University, Israel.
Yafit has received both her BA and MA in social work and is interested in working with youth at risk.
Her PhD research topic: "Transition to independent life among young people leaving care: Personal and environmental variables predicting their status immediately before and after transition to adulthood" (Supervisor Professor Rami Benbenishty).
Yafit held a position as a the head of a youth treatment team in the welfare youth department and as the head of a centre for youth at risk, before commencing her PhD research in 2008.