My name is Dr. Buster C. Ogbuagu. I serve as professor in the Department of Social Work at USF. My educational repertoire includes a bachelor’s degree [Hons.] in Sociology & Anthropology from the University of Nigeria. While in the Nigerian civil service, I qualified and was awarded membership of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria-ASCON, a management development institution for training staffs in the civil service. I also received a Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work and a Ph.D. from McGill University.
My career spans a spectrum of teaching at secondary and tertiary (university) levels, radio broadcasting and human resources, as well as extensive clinical practice in child and family welfare as well as young offenders’ addictions, including polysubstance dependence and concurrent disorders. I have gained expertise in the United States, Canada and international policy making and their impacts on the citizenry and various consuming publics.
In 2008, I co-founded the “Strangers in New Homelands” Conference, an annual International Colloquium which brings together scholars, researchers, academics, graduate students, NGOs and government representatives from around the world, to promote exchanges and dialogue on various aspects of the integration and settlement processes of new immigrants in the Diaspora. I also possess an extensive volunteer repertoire in Canada and the United States.
Click here to review my curriculum vitae.
Research Interest/Focus:
- Social policy, ethics
- Race, anti-racist/anti-oppression social work, minority
- Gender issues
- Child welfare
- Multiculturalism, refugees, refugee movement and resettlement/transnational migration, and community organizing and advocacy
- Social welfare; ethics; child protection; mental health, including addictions; and disability.
- Critical evaluation of the intersectionalities of oppression
- Anti-oppressive epistemologies
Teaching Areas:
Graduate Level:
- Social Policy Analysis & Practice I
- Social Policy II: Ethics in Social Welfare
- Ethical Issues in Contemporary Social Work
- Issues of Domestic Violence: Families at Risk
- Practice and Policy Issues in Child Abuse and Neglect
- Crisis Intervention in Family Centered Practice
- Forensic Social Work (Legal & Ethical Issues in Social Work)
- Forensic Practice Skills Lab
- Seminar in Family Law
- Seminar in Criminal Law
- Independent Study
- Military Social Work: Social Work Practice with Service Men/Women, Veterans, & Their Families
Undergraduate Level:
- Social Policy I & II
- Readings in Social Work