NCID-2705
Susan Lares-Nakaoka
Director of Field Education, Social Welfare
UCLA
Education/Degree:
1 Urban Planning (UCLA)
About
Dr. Susan Lares-Nakaoka is the Social Welfare Practicum Director at UCLA. As a third generation Japanese American/Chicana, her family’s World War II incarceration informs her commitment to racial justice. She received her MA in Asian American Studies, Master of Social Welfare and Ph.D. in Urban Planning at UCLA.
Dr. Lares-Nakaoka’s research focuses on the intersection of race and community development, critical race pedagogy and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Research projects include a photovoice project in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, oral histories of Japanese American women activities, a case study of social enterprise and organic farming in rural Hawai‘i and a case study of Asian American community development corporations.
Dr. Lares-Nakaoka helped to found the Critical Race Scholars in Social Work (CRSSW) collective. Before entering academia, she spent over 12 years providing social services for low-income housing residents across the country.
Current Work
I focus on two substantive areas. The first is critical race social work - this means I investigate the ways in which race and racism infiltrates the field of social work, and work towards social justice through pedagogy, curriculum development and writing about innovate strategies for change. The second is Asian American and Pacific Islander community development. I have done case studies and oral histories of practitioners in the Asian American and Native Hawaiian communities that use a social justice lens in their provision of low-income housing and social and behavioral services.
Research Area Keyword(s)
Critical Race Theory, Critical race pedagogy in social work, Asian American community development