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CQSW PhD (Brist) CertWSt (Open)Anita Gibbs image

Contact details

Room 6C17, Richardson Building
Tel +64 3 479 5677
Email anita.gibbs@otago.ac.nz

Anita trained as a social worker in the UK and worked in criminal justice, notably probation.

She completed her PhD at the University of Bristol and after postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford she moved to Otago in 1999.

She has taught numerous social work, sociology and criminology courses since with a particular interest in teaching in the area of families. Her research studies have included electronic monitoring, mental health, adoption, transcultural parenting, defining social work research, making social work accessible to sociologists, auto-ethnography, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and its impact on families, and the scholarship of publication.

Anita is a registered social worker and facilitates a parent support group for families where FASD is an issue.

Teaching

I co-ordinate and teach:

Postgraduate supervision

  • Adoption
  • Fostering
  • FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder)
  • Qualitative Research
  • Social Work Research
  • Family Welfare and Policy
  • Hidden/Invisible Disabilities

Current and recent students

  • Jo VanWyk (PhD) – The immediate and ongoing information needs of individuals diagnosed with FASD and the families and professionals who support them: Stakeholder perceptions and experiences of information seeking, finding and sharing
  • Natasha Jolly (PhD) – An analysis of the efficacy and historical accountability of post-war/conflict transitional justice with specific focus on sexual and gender-based violence
  • Hamuera Tyrin Tutaki (MA) – Matauranga Māori approaches to retail crime
  • Jamie Crook (MA) – Criminalisation and labelling of Covid “anti-vaxxers”
  • Isaac Bishop (BMedSc) – FASD and health professionals’ skills and knowledge – improving practice
  • Maia Cameron (Honours) – The ramraid rampage of our iwi youth: A modern moral panic?
  • Liz Denton (Honours) – Attention Deficit Disorder and Aotearoa New Zealand social work

Publications

Gibbs, A., Wei, J., Gilmour, F., Dougherty, J., Bond, P., Bohn, S., Silver, E., Biggs, L., & Rakuita, T. (Eds.). (2024). Proceedings of the Te Taura Takata Sociology, Gender Studies & Criminology Postgraduate Symposium VIII. Dunedin, New Zealand: Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Programme, University of Otago. 42p. Conference Contribution - Edited volume of conference proceedings

Gibbs, A. (2024, November). Dealing with invisible disabilities. Verbal presentation at the New Zealand Police Crime Managers Forum [Online]. [Research Presentation]. Other Research Output

Gibbs, A. (2024, October). Child and Adolescent-to-Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA). Webinar presentation for the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Care Action Network (FASD-CAN) Learning & Networking Group for Social Workers and Support Workers (LANSAS) Meeting [Online]. [Research Presentation]. Other Research Output

Gibbs, A. & Tempest, L. (2024, July). Caregivers coping with violence and abuse: The struggles, the strategies, and what caregivers want professionals to know. Webinar presentation for the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Care Action Network (FASD-CAN) Aotearoa New Zealand [Online]. Retrieved from https://www.fasd-can.org.nz/resources Other Research Output

Gibbs, A. (2024, September). ‘I’m gritting all night’: The unseen labour and caregivers’ reflections of strategies that help children and youth with FASD make it through the day. Poster session presented at the 7th European Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (EuFASD) Alliance Conference, Madrid, Spain. Conference Contribution - Poster Presentation (not in published proceedings)

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