Researcher

My program of study is influenced by my own bicultural identity and as such is informed by an overarching social justice lens.

I am the Founder of the Vividhatà Research Group. Vividhatà (વિવિધતા) is the Guajarati word for diversity. Gujarat is the city in Indian where my paternal grand parents were born and the common language spoken there is Guajarati. My family has a fascinating immigration history, which has fielded my interest in diversity and social justice research, and has inspired the name for our research lab. Our lab is made up of a group of dynamic researchers who all share a passion for issues of diversity. We are committed to conducting socially and culturally responsive research, which prioritizes community engagement.

My research presently includes two major foci. First, I am studying migration experiences across different groups (i.e., newcomer youth, women, LGBTQ peoples). Second, I am researching teaching and learning, investigating cultural and social justice responsiveness among graduate students and supervisors. I believe this scholarship has important implications for psychology training, practice, research, and policy.

Current Group Members

The University of British Columbia, School and Applied Child Psychology

Aisha Ghani, MA

Doctoral Supervision
Child-Parent Relationship in South Asian Youth
2020

Linnea F. Kalchos, MA

Doctoral Supervision
Arts-Based Research with Newcomer Young Women
2022

Julia Toews, MA

Doctoral Supervision
Gender-Based Violence and 2SLGBTQIA+ newcomers
2023

Veronica Shim, MA

Doctoral Supervision
Arts-Based Research with Newcomer Youth
2022

Harris Wong, MA

Doctoral Supervision
Critical Consciousness in Asian Canadian Youth
2022

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Current Projects

Funded by an IRCC Service Delivery and Innovation Grant (2021-2024)

Funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2021-2024)

Funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant (2020-2021)

Funded by a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant (2019-2021)

Funded by an IRCC Service Delivery and Innovation Grant (2018-2021)

Publications

“Anorexia doesn’t exist when you’re Latina”: Family, culture, and gendered expectations in eating disorder recovery

Saunder, J., Bravo, E. I., & Kassan, A. (in press). Journal of Latinx Psychology.

Feminist thought and guidelines for ethical psychological practice with self-identifying women and girls

Beks, T.A., Dyrda, A.J., Kassan, A., & Elleker, D.M.R. (in press). Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

A qualitative investigation of the factors that enhance, impede, and require attention for the school success and engagement of newcomer youth

Elia, J., Cohen, J.A., Kassan, A., Hieu, N., Stevens, K., Muralanda, D. (in press). Journal of Educational Research.

“Falling in love with me means that she can never go back”: A case study exploring the cumulative costs of multiple migrations

Kassan, A., Nakamura, N., Toews, J., & Beks, T. (2022). Journal of Lesbian Studies. Advanced online publication.

The seemingly impossible quest and longing for change

Kassan, A. (2022). In G. Shukla and E. Esina (Eds), Landed: Transformative Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women (pp. 25-30). Campfire Kinship Storytelling Inc.

Resilience in refugee children and youth: A critical literature review.

Jafari, H., Kassan, A., Reay, G., & Climie, E. A. (2022). Canadian Psychology, 63(4), 678-694.

Learning from the standpoints of minoritized students: An exploration of multicultural and social justice counselling training.

Cohen, J. A., Kassan, A., & Wada, K. (2022). The Qualitative Report,27(2), 385-413.

Supporting newcomer youth through the process of school integration in Canada: A brief report highlighting student voices.

Smith, D., Kassan, A., Domene, J. F., Mudry, T., Mukred, R., & Goopy S. (2022). Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 55(4), 484–496.

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Quick Research Summaries

The University of British Columbia

School and Applied Child Psychology

Master’s Supervision

• Bana Ashour, BA – Peer Relations among Newcomer Youth
• Sun Hong Min, BA – Resilience in Newcomer Youth
• Linnea Kalchos, MA – School-Based Supports for Newcomer Youth
• Julia Toews, BA – Conceptualization of Sexual Orientation among Newcomer Youth
• Harris Wong, MA – Anti-Asian Hate during Covid-19

University of Calgary

Educational Studies in Counselling Psychology

Post-Doctoral Supervision

• Jessica Saunders, PhD – Weight Bias and Social Justice
• Alberto Souza, PhD – HIV among Newcomer Gay Men

Doctoral Supervision

• Tiffany Beks, PhD – Intuitional Betrayal among Canadian Veterans
• Daniele Doucet, PhD – Pregnancy in Gender Variant Females
• Allisa Gallucci, MSc – A Collective Case Study of School Integration
• Amy R. Green, MA – Embodiment of Newcomer Women in Canada
• Helia Jafari, MA – Resilience in Refugee Youth in Canada
• Julie A. Cohen, MA – Multicultural Cultural Competence in Training
• Megan Suehn, MA – Identity of Multiply-Marginalized Individuals

Master’s Supervision

• Charis Falardeau, BA – Ethical Non-Monogamy
• Rabab Mukred, BA – School Integration Among Newcomer Youth
• Maryam Qureshi, BA – Cultural Competence in Cancer Care
• Danielle Smith, BA – School Integration Among Newcomer Youth
• Daniel Elleker, BSc – LGBTQ Newcomers Claiming Refuge in Canada
• Jasmin Nathoo, BSc – Pre-Service Teachers Working with Newcomer Youth
• Allisa Gallucci, BSc – School Integration Among Newcomer Youth

Achievements

LUMA AWARD (2019)

Association for Women in Psychology
Award for best manuscript – “Falling in love with me means she can never go home”
The immigration experience of a lesbian couple in a binational relationship

SEISOH SUKEMUNE AWARD (2018)

International Council of Psychologists
Early career research award

Researcher

My program of study is influenced by my own bicultural identity and as such is informed by an overarching social justice lens.

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Current Group Members

Aisha Ghani, MA

Linnea F. Kalchos, MA

Julia Toews, MA

Veronica Shim, MA

Harris Wong, MA

Current Projects

Remote and Online Services for Professional Immigrants

Newcomer Youth and School Integration: An Arts-Based Engagement Ethnography in the French and English Public System

The Factors that Help, Hinder, and are Necessary for Child Language Brokering in Newcomer Families

Filming Cultural Mosaics: A Research Study on Filming Immigrant Family Stories

Centering Student Learning through Social Justice Pedagogy in Canadian Counselling Psychology: A Collective Case Study

The Refugee and Newcomer Emotional Wellness Partnership for Best Practice

Publications

“Anorexia doesn’t exist when you’re Latina”: Family, culture, and gendered expectations in eating disorder recovery

Feminist thought and guidelines for ethical psychological practice with self-identifying women and girls

A qualitative investigation of the factors that enhance, impede, and require attention for the school success and engagement of newcomer youth

“Falling in love with me means that she can never go back”: A case study exploring the cumulative costs of multiple migrations

The seemingly impossible quest and longing for change

Resilience in refugee children and youth: A critical literature review.

Learning from the standpoints of minoritized students: An exploration of multicultural and social justice counselling training.

Supporting newcomer youth through the process of school integration in Canada: A brief report highlighting student voices.

Promoting reflexivity through multiple means of engagement: A UDL approach to enhancing cultural and social justice responsiveness

Immigration and globalization: Impacts on newcomer youth’s educational experiences

Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: A critical review

The internationalization of counseling, psychology, and psychotherapy: Decolonizing diversity and social justice training

The personal and the political: How a feminist standpoint theory epistemology guided an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Conceptualizing service related trauma: Controversies, challenges, and opportunities in the Canadian context

Bridging cultural identities: Examining newcomers’ post-secondary school integration experiences through an arts-based ethnographic approach

Growth during a global pandemic: A polyethnography among doctoral counselling psychology students

Enhancing students’ multicultural and social justice competencies through responsive pedagogy in Canadian counselling psychology

“Everything I’m doing right now is not what I was doing before” – A Phenomenological analysis of cultural transition among newcomer youth: The rationale for Intercultural counselling

The future of counselling psychology education and training in Canada: A post-conference reflection

Advocating for ourselves, advocating for our communities: Canadian counselling psychology into the next decade and beyond

Capturing the shadow and light of researcher positionality: A picture-prompted poly-ethnography

Living in exile: The experiences of individuals in same- sex binational relationships in Latin America

Community-based health data cooperatives towards Improving the community health: A scoping review

Becoming new together: Making meaning with newcomers through an arts-based ethnographic research design

Investigating migration though the phenomenon of school integration: Anaya’s experience of resettlement in Canada

Learning about social justice through a self-reflective field activity

Prioritizing experiential learning and self-reflection in the development of multicultural responsiveness

Arts-based engagement ethnography: An approach for making research engaging and knowledge transferable when working with harder-to-reach communities

Adapting descriptive psychological phenomenology to include didactic interviews: Practical considerations for data analysis

“Now what?”: Exploring newcomer youth’s transition to post-secondary education

Exploring newcomer women’s embodied selves: Culturally responsible qualitative research in Canadian Counselling Psychology

Using a feminist-multicultural lens when counselling adolescent females: Intersecting cultural identities and multiple social locations

By the water’s edge: A hermeneutic look at suffering and self-compassion in counselling psychology

Empathic Cultural Mapping: Little data, big data, knowledge transfer and exchange

Being in-between: A model of cultural identity negotiation for emerging adult immigrants

Weight bias: Twitter as a tool for opening dialogue among broad audiences

Multicultural counselling competencies with newcomer youth: A phenomenological study of client experiences

Cultural and social justice responsiveness in Assessment with children and adolescent

Immigration and gender

Resilience and migration: The experiences of same-sex binational couples in Canada

Employing polyethnography to navigate researcher positionality on weight bias

Positioning of weight bias: Moving towards social justice

Multicultural counselling competencies with female adolescents: A retrospective qualitative investigation of client experiences

Enhancing students’ multicultural counselling competencies: A self-reflective field activity

Immigrants in same-sex binational relationships under the Defense of Marriage Act

(Re)considering novice supervisor development through a social justice lens: An experiential account

The changing Canadian landscape: Immigration in Canada

A multi-method evaluation of a weight management program for the treatment of obesity

“This was my only option”: Career transitions of Canadian immigrants in same-sex binational relationship

Understanding the experiences of immigrant sexual minority women through a cultural identity mode

Feminist, multicultural, and social justice pedagogies in counselling psycholog

Using Community Portfolios in Teaching for Social Justice

Canadian counselling psychologists’ contributions to applied psychology

Cultural transition of Jewish immigrants: Education, employment, and integration