Rate My Professor Aniqa Farwa

Aniqa Farwa is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Australian Catholic University, based at the Strathfield campus. She holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, where her doctoral research advanced critical analyses of power, discourse, and professional practice. With 23 years of domestic and international experience in social work research, teaching, and practice, Farwa joined ACU in 2019 and has since assumed key leadership roles in the School of Allied Health. These include serving as Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Course Coordinator, BSW Honours Coordinator, and previously leading the Master of Social Work (Qualifying) program for six years. She also acts as Assistant Deputy Head of School, Discipline Lead, and Co-Convener of the School of Allied Health Research Network (SOAHRN), as well as Social Work Lead on the School’s Inter-Professional Education (IPE) core working group. Her teaching spans undergraduate, postgraduate, and interdisciplinary programs, covering mental health, skills-based learning, and research methodologies.

Farwa’s research specializes in decolonising knowledge, research, and social work practice, with foci on institutional power, professional discourse, frontline practice, mental health systems, culturally and linguistically diverse contexts, street-level bureaucracy, critical discourse analysis, research ethics, and critical disability justice. She critically examines the implications of artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making for human services and professional ethics. Key publications include 'Informal third-party actors in street-level welfare decisions: a case study of Pakistan social assistance' (Journal of Social Policy, 2023, with P. Henman); 'The translation of recovery-oriented social work practice in child and youth mental health: A scoping review' (British Journal of Social Work, 2024, with K. Reid et al.); 'Everything is white: Exposing and deconstructing whiteness as risk in the helping professions' (2024, with J. Russ-Smith and A. Wheeler); 'A decolonising critical discourse analysis framework for positive behaviour support plans' (Australian Social Work, 2026, with A. Wheeler et al.); and 'Human Services 2.0: Navigating ethics, innovation, and AI in human services' (2025, with D. J. Keegan). Her contributions have earned awards such as the 2024 Faculty of Health Sciences Employee Values Award for Research Supervision, the 2023 Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award for Student Experience (team), and the 2016 TASA Postgraduate Conference Best Paper Award. Farwa maintains active research partnerships with universities, government, and non-government organisations, fostering equity, critical inquiry, and transformative change in social work and allied health.