Tareq Hardan

Health and Well-being | Mental Health | Social Work | Community | Education | Health | Youth | Co-Creative Intersectoral Partnerships, Decolonial and Community-Engaged Practice, Northern Social Work, Trauma-Informed, Spirituality, Peace-building, Healing-Centred Approaches, Child and Youth Mental Health and Well-being, Participatory, Arts-Based, and Creative Research Methodologies, Displacement and refugees, Sumud (Resilience) and Social Justice in Settler-Colonial Contexts, Social Work Education, Graduate Student Mentorship.

I am an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern British Columbia, based in Fort St. John on the unceded lands of Dane-zaa Peoples of the Doig River First Nation, Blueberry River First Nation, and Halfway River First Nation in the Peace Region. I carry with me a deep belief that research is a living, breathing relationship which is rooted in care, shaped by context, and capable of opening space for healing, solidarity, and bold transformation. For over a decade, my work across Turtle Island (Canada) and my native Palestine has lived at the crossroads of knowledge, power, and action. I explore how community–academic partnerships between people and institutions across various sectors can become pathways to justice. My research weaves together trauma-informed care, child and youth mental health, spirituality in social work, displacement and refugees, Sumud as an Indigenous Palestinian praxis—a daily act of resilience shaped by the lived experiences of those facing displacement, colonial violence, and structural injustice—, asset-based community development, peace-building, and critical macro community practice. Also, I am especially drawn to art-based and participatory methods that honour lived experience and invite collective voice and action. More than anything, I see research as dialogue, something we build in relationship with others. I am always open to collaboration and warmly welcome graduate students, community members, and fellow travellers who want to imagine and create more just worlds together.