Gordon Pon

Gordon Pon is an associate professor in the School of Social Work. He holds a Master of Social Work degree from Carleton University and a PhD in Language, Culture and Teaching from York University. Prior to joining TMU, he worked in frontline positions in child welfare. His research interests include anti-racism and anti-colonialism, particularly in relation to child welfare and Asian Canadian Studies. He was the recipient of the Sue Williams Excellence in Teaching Award in 2023.

• Anti-racism.
• Anti-colonialism.

Research projects:

• Project: Anti-Black racism: Criminalization, community, and resistance.
• Year: 2015.
• Role: Co-investigator.
• Funding received: $25,000.
• Granting body: SSHRC, Connections Grant.

• Project: Building and mobilizing knowledge on race and colonialism in Canada.
• Year: 2012.
• Role: Collaborator.
• Funding received: $198,000.
• Granting body: SSHRC Partnership Development Grant.

• Project: Building and mobilizing knowledge on race and colonialism in Canada.
• Year: 2012.
• Role: Collaborator.
• Funding received: $238,000.
• Granting body: Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Selected Articles:

• Pon, G., & Phillips, D. (2023). Exceeding quotidian kindness: A Christian response to lateral violence in academe and social work. Journal of Social Work and Christianity, 50(1), 30-51 
• Phillips, D., & Pon, G. (2018). Anti-black racism, bio-power, and governmentality: Deconstructing the suffering of black families involved with child welfare (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of Law and Social Policy, 28, 81-100.
  
• Bailey, A., Zanchetta, M., Pon, G., Velasco, D., & Hassan, A. (2015). Building a scholar in writing (BSW): A model for developing students’ critical writing skills. Nurse Education in Practice, 15(6): 524-529.
  
• Clarke, J., Pon, G., Benjamin, A., & Bailey, A. (2015). Ethnicity, race, oppression and social work: The Canadian case. The International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., 8: 152-156.
• Pon, G., Gosine, K., & Phillips, D. (2011). Immediate response: Addressing anti-Native and anti-black racism in child welfare (external link, opens in new window) . International Journal of Child, Youth, and Family Studies, 3 & 4: 385-409.
  
• Gosine, K., & Pon, G. (2010). On the front lines: The voices and experiences of racialized child welfare workers in Toronto, Canada. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 22(2): 135-159.
• Pon, G. (2009). Cultural competency as new racism: An ontology of forgetting. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 20(1): 59-71.
• Pon, G. (2007). A labour of love or response? Anti-racism and responsibility. Canadian Social Work Review, 24(2): 141-153.
• Pon, G. (2007). Becoming lost and found: Peace, Christianity, and anti-oppression (external link, opens in new window) . Critical Social Work, 8(1).
  
• Pon, G. (2005). Anti-racism in the cosmopolis: Race, class, and gender in the lives of elite Chinese Canadian women. Social Justice 32(4): 161-179.

Edited Books:

• Coloma, Roland Sintos, & Pon, G. (Eds.). (2017).  Asian Canadian Studies Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.  

Selected Book Chapters:

• Phillips, D., & Pon, G. (2022). Black families suffering with child welfare: Anti-black racism, bio-power and governmentality. In D. Baines, N. Clark, & B. Bennett (Eds.), Doing anti-oppressive practice (pp. 228-243). 4^th Ed. Fernwood.
• Clarke, J., Pon, G., & Phillips, D. (2021). The colour of child welfare: Overrepresentation of black children in Ontario child welfare. In D. Mullings, J. Clarke, W. Thomas Bernard, D. Este, & S. Giwa (Eds.). Africentric social work: Best practices in working with African communities in the diaspora (pp 94-123). Fernwood.
• Bonnie, N., & Pon, G. (2015). Critical well being in child welfare: A journey towards creating a new social contract for Black communities (pp. 105-123). In S. Strega & J. Carriere (Eds.), Walking this path together, 2nd ed. Fernwood.
• Pon, G., Giwa, S. & Razack, N. (2016). Foundations of anti-racist/anti-oppressive social work practice. In Al-Krenin and Graham, J. (Eds.) Diversity and social work in Canada (pp. 38-58). Oxford University Press.
• Sookraj, N., Phillips, D., Pon, G. (2017). Breaking barriers: Obstacles to the use of family group conferencing. In S. Wehbi & H. Parada (Eds.), Re-imagining anti-oppression in practice and research. Fernwood Press.
• Pon, G. (2015). Importing the Asian “model minority” discourse into Canada: Implications for social work and education.  In N. Hartlep (Ed.). Killing the model minority stereotype: Asian American counter-stories and complicity (pp. 83-95). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
• Bailey, A., Zanchetta, M., Pon, G., Velasco, D., Wilson-Mitchell, K., & Hassan, A.,     (2016). The audacity of critical awakening through intellectual partnerships. In J. Gingras, P. Robinson, J. Wadell, & L. D. Cooper & (Eds.). Teaching as scholarship: Preparing students for professional practice in community services (pp. 59-73). Toronto: Centre for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Wilfred Laurier Press.
• Pon, G. (2012). Queering Asian masculinities and transnationalism: Implications for anti-oppression and consciousness-raising. In K. Moffatt (Ed.), Troubled masculinities. University of Toronto Press.
  
• Pon, G., Goldstein, T., & Schecter, S. (2001). Interrupted by silence: The contemporary education of Hong-Kong born Chinese Canadians. In R. Bayley and S. Schecter (Eds.), Language socialization in bilingual and multilingual societies (pp. 114-127). Multilingual Matters.