Community-engaged qualitative researcher in social work

I study how welfare systems are reshaped through data, AI, and migration, and how communities resist, rework, and reimagine them.

Research Focus

My work sits at the intersections of:

• Social reproduction and welfare restructuring

• Datafication, AI, and governance

• Critical data and AI studies

• Migration, diaspora, and community organizing

• Social policy and the settlement sector

Why This Work Matters

Digital systems are rapidly transforming how welfare and migration are governed. These changes are often framed as innovation, but they can deepen inequality and obscure accountability.

My research examines how these systems operate in practice and how migrant and racialized communities navigate and contest them. I work with community partners to produce research that is grounded, critical, and oriented toward more just social policy futures.

Fellowships

• PhD Fellow and Convener of Student Caucuses in Social Work

• Stephen Lewis Fellow in Social Policy and Archival Research

• Graduate Resident, Lewis & Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship

Selected Work

My research has been published in journals including British Journal of Social Work and Nations and Nationalism.

I am also involved in collaborative and community-based research initiatives such as:

• Asian Parents Participatory Action Research

• Critical AI Talks

• Filipino Canadian Social and Community Workers’ Network

• Generative AI and the Settlement Sector

Community Engagement

My work extends beyond academia. In Hamilton, I co-convened the Hamilton Asian Alliance and co-founded Filipinas of HamOnt. I also developed Sadya: Filipino Conversation Circle, a monthly gathering hosted at the Hamilton Public Library that creates space for language, culture, and community connection.

Get in Touch

I welcome collaborations across research, policy, and community work.

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