Laurens Van Sluytman

My professional life is grounded in a personal commitment to critical thinking, inquiry and social justice. My scholarship focuses on increasing knowledge of the interactive forces that govern human potential, enforcing boundaries of human lives, and containing pathways to escape the bounds of oppression. My research and scholarship goals are: 1) to investigate and elaborate the interactive processes among micro (individual risk and behavior), meso (groups, families and social networks) and macro-level factors (employment, schools, communities and healthcare, trends in employment, incarceration and environmental stress) with marginalized communities; 2) to contribute to developing and testing models of the ways in which individual, community, and local/global-level factors influence disparate outcomes within these communities; and 3) to develop effective evidence based interventions with vulnerable communities. I have published several chapters in several books including Emergent Possibilities for Global Sustainability: Intersections of Race, Class and Gender, Social work practice with African Americans in Urban Environments. Psychology of Prejudice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Contemporary Issues Encyclopedia of Social Work Online (ESWO). I have also published in several well recognized journals including the Journal of Gerontological Social Work; Culture, Health & Sexuality; and Substance Use and Misuse. Publishing 8 issues per year, for over 30 years, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work publishes peer reviewed articles devoted to social work practice, theory, administration, and consultation in the field of aging. Since 1999 Culture, Health & Sexuality has published 10 issues per year. This international journal focuses on the impact of culture, sexual and gender inequality, social structures on health and quality of life. Similarly, for nearly 50 years, Substance Use & Misuse (formerly The International Journal of the Addictions) featured peer-reviewed articles focusing on state of the art quantitative and qualitative gender and ethnic focused research. In addition to these publications I presently have several articles under review in Critical Social Work, Reflections and the Journal of Social Work Education. In total, my publications have been cited 79 times. I have also been selected for several competitive conferences, both nationally and internationally. These include the 2015 Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) Conference, Denver, CO., the 17th Annual American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Conference, 2014 the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2014 Conference, the 5th Global Conference EXPERIENCING PRISON, 2014 Lisbon, Portugal, and the 9thInternational Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences Conference, Vancouver, Canada 2014.