Filomena Critelli
Associate Professor; Director of Undergraduate Studies; Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
"I view my research as a form of activism, and I love the cross-cultural aspects of research. My goal is to prepare students with a global perspective so they can advance social justice and human rights and to connect my research and teaching to the promotion of social change."
Education
- PhD, Social Welfare, University at Albany (2003)
- MSW, Master of Social Work, University at Buffalo (1977)
- BA, Sociology, SUNY Buffalo State College (1974)
Professional/Research Interests
Gender-based violence in domestic and global contexts; global migration; human rights of women, children, and migrants; intersection of trauma and human rights; global social work and social welfare
Biography
Filomena M. Critelli, LCSW, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Social Work. She received a Master’s in Social Work from the University at Buffalo and her PhD in Social Welfare from the University at Albany. Prior to entering academia she developed extensive experience in social work, ranging from casework, community organizing, training, and senior management in diverse communities and organizations in New York City that stimulated an interest in social welfare from a global perspective. Her work is guided by a deep interest in transnational research and a commitment to broadening global human rights content in social work education. She teaches courses in social welfare history and policy, trauma and human rights work and global social welfare. Critelli is Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Global Engagement, which promotes cross-national research projects, globally focused research that advances trauma informed and human rights perspectives and international scholarly exchanges. Her research focuses on women’s rights and gender-based violence in domestic as well as international contexts and she has been conducting research in Pakistan on this topic since 2006. A subset of her research focuses on human rights of immigrants and refugees, and global migration. She has been involved in research, development, and academic exchanges in India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, and Haiti.
Critelli is a recipient of a Research and Teaching Fellowship from the American Institute for Pakistan Studies and the 2019 recipient of the UB Council on International Studies and Programs’ (CISP) Outstanding Contributions to International Education Award. She was also appointed Coordinator of the UBSSW Undergraduate Studies Program in 2019.