Dr Chijioke Obasi is the Head of Research and External Engagement for social work within the division of Psychology and Social Work in the School of Education and Social Sciences. Dr Obasi has worked in higher education across a number of institutions and her academic career stretches over 18 years. The majority of her time in HE has been working in issues of equality, diversity and inclusion; both delivering equality and diversity academic content and working as an equality and diversity practitioner. Dr Obasi has a professional background as a social worker and also a qualified sign language interpreter. She has an established track record as a published academic and is also the Principal Investigator on the ESRC funded project "Unmasking Educational Inequalities: The impact of Covid-19 on deaf students in higher education". In her role of Head of Research and external engagment, Chijioke is keen to work closely with local authories and other organisations in the public, private and third sector on further research collaborations aimed at bringing about improvements in practice.

Dr Obasi continues to offer the following CPD opportunities that she has designed and delivered to staff in HEIs

Equality & Diversity in the Higher Education Landscape

Rights and Responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010)

Equality & Diversity in the Curriculum

Equality & Diversity and the Changing Higher Education Context

Challenges and Opportunities in HE Equality & Diversity

The following co-designed and delivered CPD offer are particularly relevant to social work practitioners:

Cultural Identities in Social Work 1

Cultural Identities in Social Work 2 (Please note workshop 2 is aimed at practitioners who will be able to apply their learning from workshop1)

Most of my publications are in some way linked to issues of identity and intersectionality but particularly race, gender, disability and cultural and linguistic understandings of Deaf identity. My PhD research looked at experiences of Black women and Deaf women working across a range of organisations mainly in the public sector including: health, education, social care, civil service and social care regulation. Research methodology and the impact of researchers on research outcomes, forms a significant part of the PhD and has led to a number of peer-reviewed papers on reflexivity in research. ‘Africanist Sista-hood in Britain’ is the theoretical framework used in my research and also forms a central part of my research and publications.

Details of current joint research on sign language interpring and translation can be found below:

BSL version is here, via YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0CpheLREd9I (with the translation below)

Hi my name is Robert Adam and I am from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. Are you training to become or work as a translator or an interpreter? Do you live or predominately work in the UK? If so, we’re asking you to get involved with the Sign Language Translator and Interpreter (SLTI) UK Census. The purpose of this census is to establish a baseline demographic description of the sign language translator and interpreter workforce in the UK. This kind of information can tell us more about how needs are met.

This is an exciting opportunity to help us understand who makes up the UK translator and interpreter community and where gaps or barriers exist. The census is open for 2 weeks and takes between 20 - 30 minutes to complete. To begin the census click here: https://hwsml.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0uoexiZ4yP0yVFj 

Twitter tag: #SLTICensus #SLRPDC @HeriotWattBSL @HW_CTISS @wlv_uni @ @UniWestScotland @ASLIUK @VLP_TerpTweets @NRCPD @RBSLItoday @_scosli @IoCN_1@NUBSLI @Signworldlearn @deafaccesscomms.

Facebook tag: #SLTICensus #Interpretersofcolournetwork #SRLPDC @HeriotWattUni @uniwolverhampton @UniWestofScotland @ASLIuk @VisualLanguageProfessionals @nrcpdorg   @scosli @nubsli @UKCouncilonDeafness @likesignworld