Advisors: Dr. Anna Stetsenko (Human Development) and Dr. Jason VanOra (Critical Social/Personality Psychology).

Contact: jmelchior@gradcenter.cuny.edu

As an adult immigrant from Denmark, with a professional background in social work and organizational psychology, my dissertation research is directed toward conceptualizing and problematizing the continuous struggle experienced by practitioners in social work and other caring professions, in terms of developing working professional identities.

As an effort carried out through endless negotiations between on the one hand conflicting personal commitments and practice experiences, and on the other hand neoliberal discourses of degrees of citizenship, entitlement, and destructive professional agendas enforced through evidence based practice requirements and ever-increasing resource scarcity, I believe efforts aimed at supporting this type of identity work for both students and seasoned practitioners may be our best bet in terms of stemming the dehumanizing tide of bureaucratization and managerialism which threatens to destroy the invaluable work still carried out, and all but eradicate these professions.