Corey S. Shdaimah

Corey Shdaimah, LL.M., PhD is the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice and Academic Coordinator for the MSW/JD and MSW/MPP dual degrees at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Wok. Her work focuses on how policies unfold on the ground, with a special interest in how people charged with implementing policy work in and around policies that they believe are unjust or inefficient. She is also interested in how people who are targeted by policies work around them.  In the past ten years she has focused on prostiution policy, including prostitution diversion programs that target street-based sex work, dependency court reforms, and child care policy (often with Elizabeth). Because Corey is interested in learning from people who are most affected by policy but least often heard, her research methods almost always include participatory components ranging from input in research design, engaged qualitative techniques including ethnographic research and photovoice, and work with community groups about how and where to disseminate knowledge that will be of practical as well as academic use. Corey is the author and co-author of many articles, three books including Change Research: A Case Study on Collaborative Methods for Social Workers and Advocates (with Sanford Schram and Roland Stahl, Columbia University Press) and co-editor (with Katie Hail-Jares and Chrysanthi Leon) of Challenging Perspectives on Street-Based Sex Work (Temple University Press).