Aalih Hussein
JPhD Portfolio
About Aalih
I am a second-generation Indo-Guyanese Muslim American and as the child of immigrants, education was emphasized as a sole path to success in America. Coupled with education, my family taught me the importance of kindness, service, and social justice. In 2017, I received my accredited Master of Social Work degree at the Marywood University and, in 2015, I earned my Bachelor of Social Work degree from East Stroudsburg University. Upon completion of my Bachelor’s degree, I practiced Oncology Social Work for 3 years in East Stroudsburg, PA.
During my undergraduate career, my involvement and leadership on campus focused on advocacy, equity, and promoting social justice. My extra-curricular activities aligned with the National Association of Social Work Core Values. Inspired by these values, my research interests include the intersecting identities of Muslim American women and their mental health. I hope to provide insight about a misunderstood population in America. My professional goals include giving voice to the voiceless through research and teaching. I hope to engage in a sustained dialogue to create a transformative, brave classroom and a beneficial body of research.
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
bell hooks
Statement of Multicultural Responsiveness
Throughout my life, multicultural approaches have shaped my values from a young age. I can remember joining the Diversity club in high school and as one of the first members, I remember feeling inspired by the principles of the club— “to promote social justice and diversity education”. When I went to college, these same sentiments were evident in my social work education. I can remember attending Continuing Education workshops and always writing in the suggestions to have a deeper dialogue about diversity and cultural competence in social work. As I grow into my role as a researcher, my multicultural responsive techniques are enhanced as I realize that I am blessed with the position to generate that deeper discussion around cultural competence and social work practice.
As a researcher, multicultural responsiveness and inclusion motivates my line of inquiry to inform the dearth of knowledge about Muslim American women. Multicultural responsive research begins in finding value in diverse bodies, cultures, attitudes, etc., without attributing hierarchy to these varying outlooks in life. Research serves as the foundation to facilitate productive multicultural responsive dialogue in academia, the classroom and in practice. It is important to make the distinction that multicultural responsive research does not aim to understand a population, as the researcher can never truly experience life from another person’s perspective. Rather, the goal is to create a space for the marginalized voices to speak their truth and the role of the researcher is to respect each unique truth. Multiculturally informed research leads to multicultural responsive educators, in which facilitating dialogue around diversity, inclusion and social justices involves emotional, physical, and intentional recognition of the mind and body. As a teacher, it is essential to recognize one’s positionality in the classroom to have productive social justice conversations. With my doctorate, I aim to generate a productive space for multicultural classrooms, discussions and research to inform social work practice, policy, and education.
Statement of Scholarship
Focus
My social work research explores the mental health of Muslim American women (MAW). Through my research, I intend to give voice to the voiceless through education, advocacy, and inclusion. Upholding the values of cultural competence requires social workers to consistently explore aspects of injustice inflicted upon diverse and marginalized populations. My interest in researching in the mental health of MAW aims to reduce mental health disparities among diverse populations by informed culturally competent social work education and practice.
Experience and Aspirations
Informing this research topic involves mindful inclusion of the diverse population and its complex intersecting identities. My goals involve leaning on these intersecting identities to strengthen the research. This requires considering identities unique to Muslim Americans, (a revert to Islam, a co-wife, or refugee) and how these identities impact aspects of mental health. In the first semester, my quantitative project examined the relationship of social media and its impact on self-esteem and hijab for MAW. While the results for the project are inconclusive, it confirmed my knowledge of multi-faceted identities of Muslim American women and how my research can capture the diversity and its impact on mental health, self-care, and overall well-being. Along with my quantitative project, my work as a Graduate Research Assistant with Dr. Parker in completing qualitative research has informed my understanding of context in research. I recognized that the context of qualitative research would fulfill my goal of giving voice to the voiceless and capture the diverse experiences of Muslim American women. Having culturally appropriate research techniques generates beneficial knowledge to implement culturally responsive social work education and practice.
Upon completion of my PhD, I intend to continue my research as well as teach social work. I aspire to teach at a Research level 2 institution to fulfill this need. More specifically, my goal is to teach at an institution that embraces a culturally responsive curriculum that embeds the teaching of multiculturism and intersectionality throughout coursework. I believe this engages the student’s mind and body in the learning environment, allowing them further opportunities to grow personally and professionally.
Line of Inquiry
Since making this determination, I have proposed a qualitative research project consisting of in-depth interviews to study perceptions of self-care practice among Muslim American Women. This project considers the intersection identities of Muslim Women to understand the multicultural concepts of self-care is and how it is practiced. This project is a steppingstone for future research endeavors that will explore other aspects of MAW’s identities and how it forms perceptions of mental health among MAW. From this research, I intend to complete another qualitative research study examining the perceived impact of Islamophobia on the mental health of MAW. In building on the body of knowledge around this population, my goal is for this research to inform culturally responsive teaching and practice in social work in regard to this population. Essentially, I aim to provide a platform of MAW’s identities and voices that may not align with the dominant culture. In understanding this, I hope to inform social work practice with ways to uphold the practice of cultural competence when working with MAW.