View Profile Page

Roxanna Ast

Assistant Professor, Social Work and Child Advocacy, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Office:: Dickson Hall
Email:: astr@montclair.edu
vCard:: Download vCard

Profile

Roxanna Sh. Ast,(She/Her/او) is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy at Montclair State University. In her research, she focuses on the intersections of quality of life, social policy, and experiences of violence victimization among marginalized groups including the LGBTQ+ community, international migrants, and Middle Eastern immigrant communities. She is a community-focused researcher and often collaborates with community partners to identify ways to improve quality of life through preventative and strengths-focused community-based initiatives and strategies.

Prior to joining MSU, Dr. Ast served as a gender-based violence prevention researcher for the Department of Children and Families (DCF). In this role, she worked closely with the CDC, NJ State entities, and grassroots organizations across the State to address disparities in gender-based violence prevention services. Prior to focusing on research and evaluation, she worked directly with survivors of violent crimes including survivors of child abuse, human trafficking, sexual assault, and survivors of torture in the United Kingdom and United States for many years. She also worked closely with minoritized refugees and asylum seekers in the Middle East for four years prior to moving to the United Kingdom.

Dr. Ast received her BA in English literature and translation from Guilan University, her MSc in Psychological Studies from the University of Glasgow, and her MSW from Rutgers University- New Brunswick. She completed her MSW with a focus on management and policy (MAP). After graduating with her MSW, Dr. Ast worked as a community evaluator for programs receiving Ryan White- Part A funding that offer services to people living with HIV/AIDS in central NJ for many years. She completed her PhD in Social Work at Rutgers-New Brunswick in 2022.

Dr. Ast is a member of many national committees including the Child Well-Being Research Network, and the Sexuality, Relationships, and Gender (SRG) research collective. Dr. Ast's work has received several awards including from the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment as well as the emerging scholar IIDEA (Inclusion, Intersectionality, Diversity, Equity, and Advancement) research award.

Office Hours

Fall

Monday: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm; In-person or online
Thursday: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm; In-person or online

Links

Montclair State does not endorse the views or opinions expressed in a faculty member's webpage or website. Consistent with the principles of academic freedom, the content provided is that of the author and does not express the opinions or views of Montclair State University.