Nicole Ives

Nicole Ives began her academic life with a BA in foreign area studies from Barnard College. Since then, she has nurtured a passion for issues affecting immigrant and refugee populations combined with a pursuit of social justice and societal change. Ives came to McGill from the USA, where she taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers. Informed by her own experience of the migration process from the inside, she has deepened her commitment to studying immigration and acculturation from an academic perspective.

Nicole Ives first took an in-depth look at the issues facing refugees during a year of undergraduate study in Denmark where she volunteered at the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims. Back in Copenhagen after completing her MSW, Ives worked as a volunteer with the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Red Cross, where she taught English to asylum seekers. Ives returned to the USA with an idea for a dissertation: refugee integration in different countries of resettlement.

Ives, a qualitative researcher with a focus on refugee and immigrant issues and issues of acculturation, explores the lived experience of policies. Her research has included examining outcomes for refugees that have been sponsored by religious congregations, the effects of US immigration policy on Liberian refugee families, and Bosnian refugee resettlement in the United States and Denmark. Ives teaches Anti-Oppression Social Work Practice and Qualitative Research Methods, participates on the BSW Program Task Force, and is a member of the First Nations and Inuit Social Work Program Steering Group.

Education

Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania) 2005

M.S.W. (University of Pennsylvania) 1996

Danish International Study Program (Copenhagen University) 1991

B.A. (Barnard College) 1991

Employment

2006-present Assistant Professor

McGill University, Faculty of Arts, School of Social Work

2005-2006 Adjunct Professor

Rutgers, The State University of NJ, School of Social Work

2006 Adjunct Professor

University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work

2003-2004 Co-teacher

University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work

2000-2002 Teaching Assistant

University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Work

2005-2006 Research Associate

R&P Associates, Ltd., Alexandria, VA

Areas of interest

• Immigration
• Refugees
• Issues of acculturation
• Indigenous social work education
• Lived experience of policy

Description of current research

Nicole Ives is presently working on several projects examining outcomes for specific refugee and immigrant communities in the United States and Canada. One project looks at refugees that have been sponsored by religious congregations. Another explores the relationship between US immigration policy and the high rate of divorce among Liberian couples. Ives is also conducting qualitative research in connection with a McGill-based social work consultation project with First Nations and Inuit communities in Quebec. In Fall 2007, she joins Jim Torczyner, Professor at McGill School of Social Work, conducting research on immigrant integration and faith-based social service delivery with the Black Communities Demographic Project in Montreal.

Ives, N., Witmer Sinha, J., & Cnaan, R. (2010). Who is welcoming the stranger? Exploring faith-based service provision to refugees in Philadelphia. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 19, 71-89.

Ives, N., ; Aitken, O. (2009). From colonized region to globalized region? Challenges to addressing social issues in Nunavik in the transition to regional government. Indigenous Policy Journal, 20, 3. Available at: http://ipjournal.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/from-colonized-region-to-globa...

Ives, N.,; Aitken, O. (2008). Technology and access: Responding to the social work education needs of First Nations and Inuit Communities. Social Work Education, 27, 686-694.

Ives, N. (2007). More than a "good back": Looking for integration in refugee resettlement. Refuge, 24, 2, 54-63.

Ives. N., & Aitken, O. (2008). Technology and access: Responding to the social work education needs of First Nations and Inuit communities. Social Work Education.

Ives, N. (under review). Sponsorship status and integration in the USA: The impact of social support in navigating the refugee resettlement labyrinth.

Franz, B., & Ives, N. (under review). Wading through muddy water: Challenges to Liberian refugee family restoration in resettlement.

Ives, N., Loft, M., Aitken, O., & Phillips, M. (2007). Rethinking social work education for Indigenous students: Creating space for multiple ways of knowing and learning. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 4(3), 13-20.

Estes, R., Azaola, E., & Ives, N. (2005). The commercial sexual exploitation of children in North America. In S. W. Cooper, R. J. Estes, A. P. Giardino, N. D. Kellogg, and V. I. Vieth (Eds.), Medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation: A comprehensive review of pornography, prostitution, and internet crimes. St. Louis, MO: G. W. Medical Publishing.

Ives, N., & Estes. R. (2005). US Federal laws relating to sexually exploited and commercially sexually exploited children (Supplementary CD-ROM). In S. W. Cooper, R. J. Estes, A. P. Giardino, N. D. Kellogg, and V. I. Vieth (Eds.), Medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation: A comprehensive review of pornography, prostitution, and internet crimes. St. Louis, MO: G. W. Medical Publishing.

Ives, N., & Estes, R. (2005). International agreements, covenants and declarations relating to children and families, including to sexually exploited and commercially sexually exploited children (Supplementary CD-ROM). In S. W. Cooper, R. J. Estes, A. P. Giardino, N. D. Kellogg, and V. I. Vieth (Eds.), Medical, legal, and social science aspects of child sexual exploitation: A comprehensive review of pornography, prostitution, and internet crimes. St. Louis, MO: G. W. Medical Publishing.