Assistant Professor
Contact Information
Email: srguz@ua.edu
Research Areas and Expertise
- School-prison nexus
- School-based mental health services
- Education policy
- Qualitative methods
- Critical feminist studies
Education
- Ph.D. (University of Chicago)
- MSSW (University of Texas at Austin)
- BS (Texas A&M University)
Bio
I am a critical social work scholar with extensive direct practice experience who uses research to disentangle youth serving systems from the prison industrial complex. My research examines how social forces and organizational dynamics impact school practitioners and the experiences of families. Research on youth serving systems has an established history in social work scholarship. However, there has been less attention given to how school-based practice is influenced by outside systems. The private sector, acting as influential donors or direct service providers, shape what services families receive in schools and how they experience those services. Further, punitive shifts in the child welfare and criminal legal systems have a generational impact on educational experiences and outcomes. Lastly, due to safety net retrenchment and the shrinking of public health programs, families will increasingly rely on school-administered programs for food assistance, medical care, and housing support. If we want to understand dynamics of social inequities and identify innovative ways for social workers to intervene, we have to attend to the nexus of systems that shapes the lives of young people and their families.