Research Affiliate
Mirna Carranza- is a Social Worker and a trained Registered Marriage and Family Therapist. Dr. Carranza is a Professor at the School of Social Work, McMaster University. Currently, Dr. Carranza’s teaching focuses on advanced social work practice, working with families, graduate courses on immigration and refugee studies, and trauma. She has also worked with the Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton and the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton on a research project titled: “Examining the Intersection of Immigrants’ Integration Adaptation and Child Welfare” (2017). Dr. Carranza completed “Examining the Intersection of Immigrant Women’s Acculturation & Mental Health” (2018).
The Women’s acculturation and mental health research is the basis for Dr. Carranza’s latest form of knowledge mobilization, the popular theatre production of “We are not the Others”. Popular theatre is a newer arts-based KMb modality for social sciences, especially with Women Immigrants, racialized populations and migration. Dr. Carranza has extensive experience as a family practitioner, community organizer and advocate. Her experience includes the development of community-based social change initiatives focusing on the social inclusion of disadvantaged populations, particularly women and children both in Ontario and abroad.
Internationally, she works collaboratively with academic, government, non-government institutions and grassroots organizations to combat gender-based-violence particularly in Latin American countries (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru) and the Caribbean (Dominican Republic and Jamaica). She is currently the Principal Investigator on the SSHRC funded project “Borderless Violence: Central American Women at home and the Diaspora in Canada”, that focuses on intersections of Gender-Based-Violence (GBV) and immigration.
All of her projects use Community Based Participatory Methods to democratize knowledge. Her research projects also include developing collaborative partnerships with educational institutions, NGOs, grassroots organizations, government officials, and community leaders from vulnerable communities across borders.
Mirna teaches both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Undergrad courses include: General Social Work II, Field Practicum II, Social Work: Immigration and Settlement Inquiry. Graduate courses include: Trauma Informed SW Practice, and SW Research & Practice with the Colonized “Other”.