In one of the rural places of Nepal, Raj Yadav was born the year that Foucault passed away; the same year that the Lyotard’s report on the postmodern condition was first translated into English, in 1984. It would be another three decades when Raj would begin encountering Foucault and Lyotard for the first time for his PhD at the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2013. His PhD, highly inspired by Foucault’s discourse and Lyotard’s postmodernism, explored the competing dynamics of the west versus the non-west in Social Work discipline. In solidarity with Others’ struggles, as well as building on Others’ history, knowledge, and experiences, his PhD thesis offered the very first account of decolonised and developmental social work. Given Raj’s interests in the areas of post-debates, especially committed to knowledge production in post-modernism, post-colonialism, and post-structuralism, he wishes to utilise these to (re-)imagining and (re-)vitalising social work in ‘our time’.
Potential research projects for HDR and Honours students
- Decolonising social work
- Developmental social work
- Social work and politics
Research areas
- Decolonising social work
- Non-government organisations in development
- Developmental social work
- Post debates - Post-colonialism and post-development
Teaching areas
- Advocacy and leadership in social policy and legal context
- Ethical social work practice in complex contexts
Program coordinator
- Yadav, R. (2019). Decolonised and developmental social work: A model from Nepal. New York, NY: Routledge
- Yadav, R. K. (2018). Shifting grounds in Nepali social work: A decolonizing perspective. Critical Social Work. 19(2). 75-92
- Yadav, R. K. (2016). Social worker(ers) in national building. In P. Jaiswal (Ed.), Contemporary Nepalese issues (pp. 245-272). New Delhi, India: Synergy
Raj Yadav's specialist areas of knowledge include social work education, decolonising social work, developmental social work, and social work and politics.