Feminist Manuscript Award
2021 Feminist Manuscript Award Recipients
The Feminist Manuscript selected this year had several authors. The title of the winning manuscript is "I Am Almost a Breadwinner for My Family:" Exploring the Manifestation of Agency in Sex Workers' Personal and Professional Contexts.
Sharvari Karandikar, PhD, is an associate professor at the College of Social Work, The Ohio State University. Sharvari began her career practicing as a social worker for sex workers and victims of sex trafficking in Mumbai, India. During her PhD program in social work at University of Utah, and through her work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and later at The Ohio State University, she has focused her research efforts on issues related to the female victims of sex trafficking, particularly on gender-based violence, and health and mental health issues. Dr. Karandikar’s current research relates to sex work and sex trafficking in Asia, egg donation, international surrogacy, and medical tourism and its impact on women.
Kaitlin Casassa, LISW-S, MSW, is a PhD student in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. Kaitlin received her bachelor and master’s in social work from The Ohio State University, and she is a licensed independent social worker with 3 years post-MSW practice experience. Throughout her time in school and practice she has been actively involved in antitrafficking efforts in Columbus, OH, partnering with the Salvation Army, She Has a Name, Gracehaven, CATCH Court, Amethyst, and other organizations. Her research focuses on gender-based violence, particularly sex trafficking, and she is committed to exploring the understudied phenomenon of trauma bonding.
Logan Knight, MSW, MA, is a PhD student in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. Her area of research is human trafficking, with focusing on relationships and hope and resilience experienced before, during, and after trafficking experiences.
Megan España is a PhD student at The Ohio State University College of Social Work. She obtained her BSW from Shippensburg University and her MSW from the University of Pittsburgh. Megan’s research interests include migration, human trafficking, sex work, and human rights in a global context. She is particularly interested in the human rights of migrants from Venezuela, specifically those in Colombia. Megan has worked as a graduate research associate since 2018 and has presented research in the United States, Colombia, and Indonesia. Megan has also taught an international service-learning course for undergraduate students preparing to study abroad.
Njeri Kagotho, PhD, is an associate professor at the College of Social Work, The Ohio State University. Dr. Kagotho’s research—which is deeply influenced by her international practice—explores the incontestable link between a family’s wealth holdings and the physical and mental health well-being of its members. Her work has focused on (a) the impact of chronic illness on wealth creation and wealth preservation, (b) the mechanisms through which wealth moderates health behaviors, and (c) the effect of HIV and AIDS on the intergenerational transmission of human capital. Currently Dr. Kagotho is examining best practices in working with low-income HIV-affected households as they attempt to navigate sociocultural and legal constraints to economic security.
2020 Feminist Manuscript Award Recipient
Yarneccia D. Dyson, PhD, MSW, is an equity-minded thought leader committed to inclusive excellence and social justice. As a social and behavioral scientist, Dr. Dyson performs health disparities research that focuses on reducing and alleviating negative health outcomes by empowering marginalized communities through impleme
ntation science. She is assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), where she teaches in the Joint Master of Social Work Program. She served on the development committee for the newly formed Joint PhD Program with North Carolins A &T State University.
Dr. Dyson grounds her teaching, scholarship, and research in empowerment-based theories and frameworks. She is a Black feminist scholar who embodies collectivism and supporting others. To this end, she uses Black feminist theory, womanism, and intersectionality as epistemological lenses to explore and understand the lived experiences of communities expoeriencing maladative health outcomes. She is the principal investigator of Engage3 , a pilot study that tests the feasibility of an HIV prevention intervention that she developed based on findings from an initial study that addressed the sexual health needs of Black college students enrolled at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions. With more than 20 years experience, Dr. Dyson is a co-principal investigator on two Health Resources and Services Administration awards totaling $3 million that helps MSW students obtain training in integrated health-care settings and training to work with opioid use disorder and other substance use disorder affected communities. She served as the project manager on a National Institutes of Health (R15) funded barbershop study and delivers sexual health-based prevention interventions to African American fathers, teaching them how to facilitate discussions regarding safer sex behaviors and disease prevention. Since 2019, she has seved on a subaward with Winston-Salem State University for the National Science Foundation Excellence in Research Grant Program.
Yarneccia D. Dyson is committed to faculty development with emphases on peer mentoring and supporting the success of Black women and women of color scholars in the academy. In addition to research and scholarship, Dr. Dyson provides service to professional organizations. She served as chair of the CSWE African Americans and the African Diaspora Track and co-chair of the CSWE Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity. She participates in the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Emerging leader-Scholar Initiative. Dr. Dyson is chair of the UNCG Department of Social Work Subcommittee of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and the Subcommittee on Social Behavioral Sciences for University Research Grants. As a true believer in ubuntu and the importance of "lift as you climb," Dr. Dyson mentors many students and has served on dissertation committees across the southeastern United States. She serves on various editorial boards and has served as guest editor and guest co-editor on special issues that highlighted the brilliant work of social work education at HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions.
Dr. Dyson is a graduate of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work at Clark Atlanta University, where she earned a PhD in social work policy, planning, and administration and social science (cognate: public health). She obtained a BSW from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and an MSW in clinical social work grom Florida State University.
2019 Feminist Manuscript Award Recipient
Ran Hu, MSW, MA, LMSW, is a third-year doctoral student at the University of Toronto Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Her research interests include stigma, structural and interpersonal violence, violence against women, and issues related to commercial sex and human trafficking. In her research Ran embraces and applies a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to explore the multifaceted complexity of these topics. Her previous experience includes program evaluation and development, direct practice in community-based organizations serving migrant women involved in the commercial sex industry and/or affected by human trafficking, and practice with groups affected by HIV/AIDS in China and the United States. Ran received her bachelor's degree in social work from Nanjing University, China; her MSW from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and her MA in International Crime & Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).
Previous Award Recipients