Maryam Khan

Greetings/Salaams! Prior to Laurier, I was pursuing my doctoral studies in Social Work at York University, Toronto, Ontario. My doctoral research critically examined the resistance strategies and agency of LBTQ Muslim women living their intersectional identities (race, ethnicity, religiosity, spirituality, sexuality, gender identity and expression) in the Global North amongst the hegemonic norms existing in both normative Muslim and LGBTQ communities. Data from this research is featured in my new co-edited volume:

(2024, October 18). Queer/Muslim/Canadian: Identities, Experiences and Belonging. Co-Editors Momin Rahman and Maryam Khan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55840-5

My cumulative social work practice has ranged in interdisciplinary non-profit (community, clinical, youth justice, educational) settings with a myriad of individuals and communities. I bring over 10 years of clinical and community-based expertise in mental health and recovery, substance use and addictions, suicide prevention and crisis management, VAW, poverty, and homelessness with many diverse individuals and communities such as LGBTQ, women, youth, children and adults. I have taught graduate and undergraduate courses at York University in Social Work, and in the Social Service Worker Diploma Programs at Centennial and Seneca Colleges.

In my research and teaching (pedagogically and politically), I draw on interdisciplinary critical perspectives such as: decolonial perspectives, anti-colonial thought and postcolonialism, intersectionality theory, critical race and transnational feminisms, critical social work, structural and AOP social work practice, and liberatory/emancipatory approaches.

I engage mostly in the qualitative tradition (community-based) and mixed methods research (standpoint, ethnographic, narrative, feminist, and interpretivist methods).

Research Affiliations

-Academic researcher, Manulife Centre for Community Health Research (MCCHR)

-Research Affiliate, Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC)

My research interests and areas of expertise include community-based research, community development and clinical counselling with the following individuals and communities: LGBTQ+ Muslims in the Global North; Racialized Trans and gender-variant persons and access to healthcare; Racialized, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities; Violence against women and gender variant persons; Non-normative sexualities, gender identities and expressions; substance use, addictions, mental health and sanism; Visible and invisible (dis)abilities, neurodiversity and ableism; Social policy, service and program provision to gender and sexually diverse persons and communities; Race, racialization and imperialism; Sexual minorities and Islam; Religiosity, spirituality and social work practice; and Intersectional identities and identity politics. See below for my research program and funding details:

2024-2028 Co-Principal Investigator, Our Health: A Community-Based Participatory Study of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) of Two-Spirit and LGBTQQIA+ People Across Canada, CIHR, $2, 610, 366

2024-2026 Co-Investigator, PROCESS: PRinciples to Operationalize Community Engagement, Equity, and Sustainability in South Asian Health Research in Canada, CIHR, $309, 826

2023-2024 Nominated Principal Investigator, Paying Attention to Chlamydia Testing and Management Needs of Disabled IBPOC Trans and Cis Queer Women, Femme Presenting Two-Spirit and Non-binary Individuals in Ontario, CIHR, $99, 810

2023-2022 Co-Principal Investigator, Exploring the Health, Wellness, Safety, Service Access, and Minority Stressors across the Lifecourse of 2SLGBTQ+ in the Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada: A Mixed-Methods Ecosocial Study, CIHR, $90, 061

2022-2028 Co-Investigator, Interdisciplinary LGBTQ/2S HEALTH Hub: Healing Through Education and Awareness in Stigma Reduction and Lifecourse Training in Health, CIHR, $399, 277

2020-2022 Principal Investigator, Service Needs of Sexually & Gender Diverse Muslims and Their Families: A Partnership with Salaam Canada, SSHRC, $24, 204

2020-2021 Principal Investigator, Supporting Sexually and Gender Diverse Muslims in Social Work, SSHRC, $41, 524

2020-2021 Co-Investigator, Critical Diasporic South Asian Feminisms Symposium, SSHRC, $19, 616

2019-2020 Co-Investigator, Positive Well-being and Community Experiences Among LGBTQ Immigrants and Refugees in Waterloo Region, SSHRC, $24, 950

2018-2019 Co-Investigator, Assessing Services for LGBTQ2S+ People in Kitchener-Waterloo: An Evaluation of OK2BME, KW Counselling Centre, $20, 452

2015-2016 Principal Investigator, Intersectional Identities and Resistance Strategies of LBTQ Muslim Women, OGS, $15, 000

Co-Edited Volume in English

Rahman, M. & Khan, M. (Co-Eds.). (2024). Queer/Muslim/Canadian: Identities, Experiences and Belonging. Palgrave Macmillan. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55840-5

Refereed book chapters

Khan, M. (2024). Building bridges between queer and normative Muslims. In Y. Saikia & C. Haines (Eds.), On othering: Processes and politics of unpeace (pp. 221-243). AB: AU Press.
Shah, S. & Khan, M. (2023). The impact of systemic Islamophobia on sexually and gender diverse Muslims in Canada. In A.M. Emon (Ed.), Islamophobia: A research agenda (pp. 31-41). UofT Press.
Khan, M., & Absolon, K. (2023). Meeting on a bridge: Opposing whiteness in social work education and practice/ Begegnung auf einer Brücke: Widerstand gegen die weiße Dominanz in Ausbildung und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit (pp. 448-466). In Y. Akbaba & A. M. B. Heinemann (Eds.), Erziehungswissenschaften dekolonisieren: Theoretische debatten und praxisorientierte impulse. Germany: Beltz Juventa.
Shah, S. & Khan, M. (2023). The search for ethics in research: Learning from non-binary, queer, and trans Muslims. In J. Jean-Pierre, V. Watts, C. E. James, P. Albanese, X. Chen & M. Graydon (Eds.), Reading sociology: Unsettling a settler colonial project & re/writing sociological narratives, (4th ed.). (pp. 140-144). OUP Canada.
Khan, M. (2021). Working with Muslim LGBTQ service users: Assessing and locating supportive care and teaching practices. In S. Hillock (Ed.), Teaching about sex and sexualities in higher education (pp. 164-181). Toronto, ON: UofT Press.
Shah, S., Khan, M., & Abdel-Latif, S. (2021). Decolonizing Muslim same-sex relations: Reframing queerness as gender flexibility to build positive relationships in Muslim communities. In N. Pasha-Zaidi (Ed.), Developing a positive psychology of Islam and Muslims (pp. 261-283). Springer Publishing.
Khan, M. (2021). Sexually diverse Muslim women converts: Where do they stand? In N. Pasha-Zaidi (Eds.), Developing a positive psychology of Islam and Muslims (pp. 165-179). Springer Publishing.
Vance, K., Mulé, N.J., Khan, M. & McKenzie, C. (2018). The rise of SOGI: Human hights for LGBT people at the United Nation. In N. Nicol, A. Jjuuko, R. Lusimbo, N.J. Mulé, S. Ursell, A. Wahab and P. Waugh (Eds.), Envisioning global LGBT human rights: (Neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, resistance and hope (pp. 223-246). London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies/Human Rights Consortium.

Refereed journal articles

Khan, M. & Wilson, C. (2023). We have some reconciliatory work to do: Kitchen table conversations between Black and Brown scholars in Canadian academe. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping Journal, 29(2), 84-97. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1954
*Baksh, A. & Khan, M. (2023). Too Muslim to be a feminist and too feminist to be a Muslim? Locating lived experiences of feminism and Muslimness in social work academe. Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, 1-14. Published online, https://doi.org/10.1177/08861099231188732
McKenzie, C., & Khan, M. (2023). The university and social work under neoliberalism: Where’s the social inclusion for disabled faculty? Journal of Social Inclusion, 11(2), doi: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v11i2.6241 [Open Access]

Khan, M. & Absolon, K. (2022). Conversations on a bridge: Reflections of an Indigenous and racialized scholar opposing whiteness in social work education and practices. The Canadian Social Work Review / Revue Canadienne de Service Social (CSWR-RCSS), 38(2), 159–178. https://doi.org/10.7202/1086124ar
Cox, E., Warren, T., Khan, M., Wilson, C., Cameron, R., Davis, C., Coleman, T., Steffler, J., Coulombe, S., & Woodford, M. (2022). Experiences of discrimination and its impacts on well-being among racialised LGBTQ+ newcomers living in waterloo region, Ontario, Canada. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(5), E2980-E2988. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13743
Khan, M., Dias, G., & Thompson, A. (2021). Mapping out Indigenous and racialized critical community-based perspectives and experiences in the time of COVID. Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, & Practice, 9(1), 188–198. doi: Dhttps://doi.org/10.48336/IJFKCO6547 [Open Access]
Khan, M. & Mulé, N.J. (2021). Voices of resistance and agency: LBTQ Muslim women living out intersectional lives in North America. Journal of Homosexuality, 68(7), 1144-1168, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1888583
McKenzie, C., Mulé, N.J., & Khan, M. (2021). Where is LGBTQ+ in Ontario's health care policies and programs? Sexuality Research and Social Policy Journal, 22, 1-12. doi: 10.1007/s13178-021-00577-8
Mulé, N. J., Khan, M., & McKenzie, C. (2019). Queering Canadian social work accreditation standards and procedures: A content analysis. Journal of Social Work Education, 1-14. doi: 10.1080/02615479.2019.1648408
Khan, M. (2019). A social work perspective on Indigenous knowledges, anticolonial thought and contemplative pedagogy: Thoughts on decolonization and resistance. Journal of Critical Anti-Oppressive Social Inquiry, (2), 18-46. [Open Access].
Mulé, N. J., Khan, M., & McKenzie, C. (2017). The growing presence of LGBTQIs at the UN: Arguments and counter-arguments. Journal of International Social Work, 1-13. doi: 10.1177/0020872817702706

Professional and community reports

Arayata, C.B., Davis, C., Nobiss, J., Vo, T., Sookpaiboon, S., Khan, M., Zafarr, F., Oakes, H., Giessen, E.V., &Woodford, M.R. (2022). Thriving On Campus: The Experiences of BIPOC 2SLGBTQ+ Students. Thriving On Campus, Wilfrid Laurier University: Kitchener, ON. https://lgbtq2sthrivingoncampus.ca/en_ca/community-reports/
Cook, K., Woodford, M. R., Coulombe, S., Khan, M., McKenzie, C., & Lafrenière, G. (2020, August). Assessing OK2BME’s Support Services: A Multi-Service Evaluation Report. Kitchener, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University. https://ok2bme.ca/about/publications-and-media/
McKenzie, C., & Khan, M., Mulé, N. J. (2019, May). Towards a Federal LGBTQ2 Health Equity Strategy. Policy Brief prepared for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, LGBTQ2 Health in Canada.
Mulé, N. J., McKenzie, C., & Khan, M. (2017, May). Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) and the CASWE-ACFTS accreditation standards and procedures Report. Toronto: Queer Caucus, Canadian Association for Social Work Education. https://caswe-acfts.ca/about-us/caucuses/queer-caucus/

Biography / Academic Background

Research Interests / Ongoing Projects

Awards and Achievements

Student Opportunities / Supervising

Selected Publications

Courses Taught

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