Susan Silver

Susan Silver is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work.  She has an MSW from the University of Toronto and PhD from Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia.  Susan is the former Director of the School (1998-2003, 2017-2019/Interim) and the former Graduate Program Director for the MSW program (2009-2011).  Her areas of interest include critical approaches to quantitative and qualitative research, community-based program evaluation, critical use of interactive communication technologies in research, women’s health, precarious work, and social welfare policy.  She has conducted a number of large-scale research studies, nationally and internationally, and has extensive experience evaluating community-based programs.  

Her research projects include a national study to develop an evaluation framework for family support programs. Working with Family Resource Programs across Canada, this was the first study to develop evaluation indicators that are grounded in the experiences most valued by program participants.  Reports are available at the project web-site.  Susan also completed a national study examining the role of labour market restructuring in creating pathways towards precarity and exclusion of Canadian workers.  Susan has also worked with Canadian and Dominican researchers and community organizations in the evaluation of community-based programs for child protection.  She has also worked with occupational and health professionals from Brazil, in a project promoting equity and safety among industrial workers.  Currently, Susan is exploring chronic illness and women’s health, as well as the critical use of virtual interactive technologies in community-based research and evaluation.

Susan is the 2019 recipient of the Janice Waddell Collegiality Award from the Faculty of Community Services. Susan is also the 2023 recipient of TMU's Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award.

• SWP50/51 Advanced Social Work Practice and Practicum (Undergraduate)
• SWP 538 Social Work Research Part I (Undergraduate)
• SWP 538 Social work Research Part II (Undergraduate)
• SK 8103 Advanced Research for Social Change (Graduate)
• SW 8104 MSW Research Practice Seminar (Graduate)

Project: Centers for the Integral Attention of Children in Dominican Republic (CIANIs) and Local Community Organizations for Child Protection (LCOCP)

Year: 2012-2015

Role: Co-Investigator

Funding received: $246,445

Funded by: Network of European Foundations: Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge FundProject: Urban Community Hubs as Services and as Community Places: The Case of the Ontario Early Years Centers

Year: 2006-2007

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding received: $20,000

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, , CURA Letter of IntentProject: A Family Support Model of Early Childhood Learning and Care: Development of an Evaluation Framework for Family Resource Programs

Year: 2001-2003

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Funding received: $626,359

Funded by: Human Resources Development Canada [currently Social Development Canada]Project: Involuntary Job Loss: Understanding the Post-Displacement Experience

Year 1998-2001

Role: Principal Investigator

Funding received: $64,800

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Standard Research Grant

Peer-reviewed Publications

Articles:

• Perreault-Laird, J., & Silver, S. (2019).  Precarity as the new reality? Millennials’ representation in the Changing Workplaces Review policy process. Alternative Routes, 30 (2), 78-106.
• George, P., Silver, S., Preston, S.  (2014). Reimagining Field Education in Social Work: The Promise Unveiled. Advances in Social Work. 14 (2), 624-657.
• Preston, S., George, P., Silver, S. (2013). Field education in social work: The need for re-imagining. Critical Social Work. 15(1).
• Berman, R., Silver, S. & Wilson, S. (2007). Don’t look down on me because I have one” - Young mothers resisting the discourse of “a young mother is a bad mother”. Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, 9(1), 42-52.
  
• Shields, J., Silver, S. & Wilson, S. (2006). Assessing employment risk: New dimensions in the measurement of unemployment. Socialist Studies, 2 (2), 105-112.
• Silver, S., Shields, J., & Wilson, S. (2005). Restructuring of Canadian full-time workers: A case of transitional dislocation or social exclusion?  Lessons from the 1990s. Social Policy and Administration, 39 (7), 786-802.
  
• Silver, S., Shields, J., & Wilson, S. (2005). The excluded, the vulnerable and the reintegrated in a neoliberal era: Qualitative dimensions of the unemployment experience. Socialist Studies, 1(1), 31-56. 
• Silver, S., Wilson, S., & Shields, J.M. (2004). Job restructuring and worker displacement ... Does gender matter?  Canadian Women’s Studies, 23 (3, 4), 7-13.
  

Book chapters:

• Preston, S., Silver, S., & George, P. (2024). Teaching to the tensions: Pushing the boundaries of qualitative social work research. In D. Onishenko, N. Doran, R. Torres, & D. Nyaga (Eds.), Critical reflexive research methodologies: Interdisciplinary approaches. Brill Publishers.
• Silver, S. (2017). Decolonizing a graduate research course ... Moving away from innocence and ignorance. In H. Parada and S. Wehbi (Eds.), Re-imagining anti-oppressive social work research (pp. 111-121). Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
• Burke, M., & Silver, S. (2012). Canadian Health Care … Reclaiming Universal Legacies, in A. Westhues and B. Wharf (Eds.), Canadian Social Policy. (5 th ed., pp. 371-400). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
• Burke, M., & Silver, S. (2006). Universal health care … Normative legacies adrift. In A. Westhues (Ed.), Canadian social policy (4th ed.). Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press: 375-396.
• Burke, M., & Silver, S. (2003). Universal health care … Current challenges to normative legacies. In A. Westhues (Ed.), Canadian social policy: Issues and perspectives (3rd ed.). Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press: 164 -181.

Community reports:

• Parada, H., Silver, S., & Burke, M. (2016). Evaluation of Centers for the Integral Attention of Children in the Dominican Republic (CIANIs) and Local Community Organizations for Child Protection (LCOCP): Funder: Network of European Foundations: Children and Violence Evaluation Challenge Fund.
• Silver, S. (2007). A Mid-term Implementation Review: Enhancement of occupational and health and safety in Brazilian Industry. Ryerson University: Toronto. Project funder: CIDA 
• Silver, S., Berman, R., & Wilson, S. (2005). A Place to Go:  Stories from Participants of Family Resource Programs. Ryerson University: Toronto, Project Funder: Social Development Canada.
  Project website
• Silver, S., Berman, R., & Wilson, S. (2005). What Participants Value: Practices and Outcomes at Family Resource Programs, Ryerson University: Toronto, Project Funder: Social Development Canada.
  Project website