Craig Mortley, M.S., M.A.T., M.Sc.
Craig Mortley, M.S., M.A.T., M.Sc., is a PhD candidate, researcher, educator, and scholar-practitioner whose work examines the intersections of migration, human rights, public policy, and institutional systems. His scholarship focuses on forced migration and refugee belonging, exploring how law, policy, and institutional decision-making shape protection, health, and social inclusion among forcibly displaced populations. His broader research interests include social welfare and immigration policy, LGBTQ+ migration, health equity, gender-based violence, and community-engaged research, with particular attention to how racialized, gendered, sexual, and immigration-status inequalities become embedded within ostensibly neutral policies and administrative systems. He is also interested in the ethics of representation, refugee narratives and knowledge production, and the role of social workers and community organizations in advancing equity within restrictive policy environments.
His dissertation examines how U.S. asylum law, immigration policy, and institutional practice shape access to protection and belonging for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Using constructivist grounded theory as the study’s overarching methodology, he conducts semi-structured interviews with institutional actors and analyzes legal and policy texts. He examines how particular social group doctrine, credibility standards, bureaucratic gatekeeping, and shifting policy environments shape inclusion and exclusion. The study uses precarious belonging as an orienting concept to show how legal recognition may coexist with instability in security, participation, and inclusion.
His academic work is grounded in substantial applied experience. Craig has worked across refugee and asylum advocacy, domestic and gender-based violence services, racial justice and gender equity, violence prevention, human rights education, community organizing, and organizational change. His work in gender-based violence has included interagency collaboration across survivor-service organizations, courts, law enforcement, high-risk response teams, and other community systems. His immigration and refugee work has included sustained engagement with refugee- and asylum-serving organizations, immigrant-rights advocacy, community sponsorship, and support for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. These experiences inform his interest in how policy becomes institutional practice and how frontline organizations navigate systems that protect while also reproducing exclusion.
Craig’s community-engaged scholarship includes Making Worcester Home, a youth participatory action research initiative examining belonging, identity, urban space, and civic participation among young people from refugee backgrounds. He is also a co-founder of Share the Platform, an international initiative promoting refugee leadership and equitable research partnerships.
His peer-reviewed and forthcoming scholarship spans forced migration and refugee belonging, LGBTQ+ health and well-being, immigration and social welfare policy, health equity, gender-based violence, human rights education, and social work practice. Across this work, he examines how law, policy, institutions, and community contexts shape access to care, protection, inclusion, and belonging for marginalized and displaced populations. Craig has presented his research at national and international conferences, including the Society for Social Work and Research, Council on Social Work Education, International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. His research and professional development have been supported through competitive doctoral fellowships, scholarships, and awards, including the Society for Social Work and Research Institute for Scholarly Excellence (RISE) and the JPMorgan Chase Doctoral Scholars Program at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.
As an educator, Craig teaches MSW students at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. His teaching has included Analysis of Social Welfare Policy and Social Delivery Systems, Macro Foundation Practice, Human Rights and Social Work, and Human Oppression, delivered online and in person. His pedagogy is informed by critical and dialogical approaches that encourage students to examine how policy, power, history, and institutional structures influence social problems and social work practice. He emphasizes connecting theory to contemporary policy challenges, community knowledge, and actionable approaches to policy and systems change.
Dissertation
The Architecture of Precarious Belonging: How Asylum Law and Institutional Practice Shape the Structural Conditions of Belonging for LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers
Education
M.S., Justice Studies
Arizona State University
Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) – Social Studies and Geography
The University of the West Indies, Mona
M.Sc., Governance and Public Policy
The University of the West Indies, Mona
B.Sc., Public Sector Management
The University of the West Indies, Mona
Research Interests
- U.S. asylum law and immigration policy
- Refugees, forced migration, queer migration, and asylum among sexual and gender diverse populations
- Belonging and integration among forcibly displaced sexual and gender diverse populations at the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and legal status
- Human rights and social welfare policy
- Institutional practice and policy implementation
- Trauma, resilience, and well-being
- Ethics of representation and knowledge production
- Community-engaged and participatory research
- Refugee community sponsorship and social networks
- Social work policy education and macro practice
Methodological Interests
- Constructivist grounded theory
- Critical discourse analysis
- Community-based participatory research
- Participatory action research
| craig.mortley@uconn.edu |