I am a researcher, an academic, an author, a social worker, an advocate and an editor. I seek to connect all of the above and translate theory, ideas, and speech into true, deep practice and change. And vice versa.
I am oppressed and I am privileged. I am reflexive of both. I use my experience and power to transform personal pain, suffering, and injustice into social change by embedding it within the social consciousness. I support others in doing so as well. I live with invisible chronic pain which teaches me that things are never as they appear on the surface and that there are worlds of depth which, if you don’t seek, you will not find.
I am a published author in the field of critical disability and gender studies (through independent research carried out at York
University) and the psychosocial aspects of health and illness for children (through my work as a research project coordinator at The Department of Social Work in the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto).
My education has been transformative and diverse and has thus far consisted of: Bais Yaakov, which taught me about ethics, innocence, and social responsibility; New England Academy of Torah, where I learned to be real and true to myself; Ryerson University, where I learned about social location, power, privilege, structural oppression, and, most importantly, anti-oppression; Pardes, where I learned about embracing differences and connecting – to myself, to others (especially those who seem radically different), my history, and my texts; York University, where my critical thinking developed and expanded to include critical disability studies, post-modernism, and critical research; and Bar Ilan University, where I had to reassess everything within the Israeli context.
I love research and believe in its power to hear, to validate, and to transform. I understand research and its dilemmas, bias, fragility, and the ease with which it warps. I believe in justice, subjectivity, human rights, social change, and incoherency. I am pretty far left, but am also sometimes right. I am open to shifting. I seek to challenge myself, break boundaries, create change, support creativity, stand up for the oppressed – to recognize and support their power – as well as to disrupt the ‘norm’ and expose its fallacy. I don’t believe in generalizations, categories, or labels – except for when they are used to connect, empower, and manipulate. I am anti-ableism, sexism, homophobia, racism, classism, and all other oppression that destroys others in order to allow us to feel worthy. I am always learning and sincerely appreciate creative ideas, even if I may not agree with them personally. I particularly enjoy working with others to focus, consolidate, and transform their ideas and bring them into fruition.
I am oppressed and I am privileged. I am reflexive of both. I use my experience and power to transform personal pain, suffering, and injustice into social change by embedding it within the social consciousness. I support others in doing so as well. I live with invisible chronic pain which teaches me that things are never as they appear on the surface and that there are worlds of depth which, if you don’t seek, you will not find.
I am a published author in the field of critical disability and gender studies (through independent research carried out at York
University) and the psychosocial aspects of health and illness for children (through my work as a research project coordinator at The Department of Social Work in the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto).
My education has been transformative and diverse and has thus far consisted of: Bais Yaakov, which taught me about ethics, innocence, and social responsibility; New England Academy of Torah, where I learned to be real and true to myself; Ryerson University, where I learned about social location, power, privilege, structural oppression, and, most importantly, anti-oppression; Pardes, where I learned about embracing differences and connecting – to myself, to others (especially those who seem radically different), my history, and my texts; York University, where my critical thinking developed and expanded to include critical disability studies, post-modernism, and critical research; and Bar Ilan University, where I had to reassess everything within the Israeli context.
I love research and believe in its power to hear, to validate, and to transform. I understand research and its dilemmas, bias, fragility, and the ease with which it warps. I believe in justice, subjectivity, human rights, social change, and incoherency. I am pretty far left, but am also sometimes right. I am open to shifting. I seek to challenge myself, break boundaries, create change, support creativity, stand up for the oppressed – to recognize and support their power – as well as to disrupt the ‘norm’ and expose its fallacy. I don’t believe in generalizations, categories, or labels – except for when they are used to connect, empower, and manipulate. I am anti-ableism, sexism, homophobia, racism, classism, and all other oppression that destroys others in order to allow us to feel worthy. I am always learning and sincerely appreciate creative ideas, even if I may not agree with them personally. I particularly enjoy working with others to focus, consolidate, and transform their ideas and bring them into fruition.
Publications include:
Kalfa, O.P. (2013 - in press). Deformed Knowledge. Patient Education and Counseling.
Kalfa, O. (2012). 'I know that aside from my arms I'm normal': Negotiating the incoherencies of a VACTERL Identity. Disability & Society. 27(1), 65-79
Kalfa, O.P. (2013 - in press). Deformed Knowledge. Patient Education and Counseling.
Kalfa, O. (2012). 'I know that aside from my arms I'm normal': Negotiating the incoherencies of a VACTERL Identity. Disability & Society. 27(1), 65-79
vacterlarticle.pdf | |
File Size: | 151 kb |
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Koller, D., Nicholas D., Gearing, R. & Kalfa, O. (2010). Health and Social Care in the Community. 18(4), 369-377
pandemicplanning.pdf | |
File Size: | 119 kb |
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