- pronouns She/her/hers
- education BA (Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy), Boston University
MA (Child Studies and Human Development), Tufts University Download CV
Noor Toraif (she/her/hers) is a doctoral candidate at the Boston University School of Social Work, a Graduate Fellow and Affiliate at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, and a 2022-2023 Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellow. She earned her MA in Child Development at Tufts University, specializing in children and families’ programs and policies. Her research draws from developmental and sociolegal theories to understand youth and young adults’ experiences in the United States child welfare, juvenile, and criminal legal systems.
She is specifically interested in the experiences of youth transitioning into, out of, and between state agencies such as the child welfare system and the juvenile legal system, and how these transitions shape youths’ development and future life trajectories. Her other research interests include policing and the criminal legal system, Youth Participatory Action Research, youth resistance to racism, and social theory.
Noor is currently involved in several research projects including two Youth Participatory Action Research projects on the cradle to prison pipeline, a project on Transition Age Youths’ reentry experiences during COVID-19, and a project on Black, Indigenous, and Youth of Color reentry experiences in Massachusetts.
Noor’s work has been recognized and funded by the 2022 Society for Social Work and Research Doctoral Fellows Award, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Rappaport Public Policy Fellowship Award, the Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award, the Boston University Initiative on Cities Early-Stage Urban Research Awards, and the Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.
Areas of Expertise
Children, Youth, and Families; Community Engagement; Racial Justice; Social Policy and Poverty
Courses
Racial Justice and Cultural Oppression (HB 735)
Research Methods I (SR743)
Publications
PUBLISHED
Eschmann, R., Thompson, J., Toraif, N. (accepted 2022). Tweeting Towards Transformation: Prison Abolition and Criminal Justice Reform in 140 Characters. Sociological Inquiry.
Augsberger, A., Toraif, N., Young, A., Dimitri, N., Pierre, J., Bautista, R., Le, C., Idahor, O., Sprague Martinez, L., Gergen-Barnett, K. (2022). COVID-19 shines a light on health inequities in communities of color: A youth-driven photovoice inquiry. The Journal of Community Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22866
Toraif, N., Augsberger, A., Young, A., Murillo, H., Bautista, R., Garcia, S., ... & Gergen Barnett, K. (2021). How to be an antiracist: Youth of color’s critical perspectives on antiracism in a youth participatory action research context. Journal of Adolescent Research, 36(5), 467-500.
Augsberger, A., Zeitlin, W., Rao, T., Weisberg, D., & Toraif, N. (2020). Examining a Child Welfare Parenting Intervention for Parents With Intellectual Disabilities. Research on Social Work Practice, 31(1), 65-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731520958489
Eschmann, R., Groshek, J., Li, S., Toraif, N., & Thompson, J. G. (2020). Bigger than sports: Identity politics, Colin Kaepernick, and concession making in #BoycottNike. Computers in Human Behavior, 114, 106583.
Zeitlin, W., Augsberger, A., Rao, T., Weisberg, D., & Toraif, N. (2020). Measuring Parenting Skills: Validating the Skills Assessment for Parents with Intellectual Disability. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 18(2), 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2020.1830909
Augsberger, A., Toraif, N., Springwater, J., Hilliard-Koshinsky, G., Sprague Martinez, L. (2020). Strategies for engaging current and former foster care youth in policy advocacy: Lessons from the New England Youth Coalition. Child Welfare, 97(6), 251-270.
Salazar, R.D., Ren, X., Ellis, T.D., Toraif, N., Barthelemy, O.J., Neargarder, S., Cronin-Golomb, A. (2017). Dual tasking in Parkinson’s disease: Cognitive consequences while walking. Neuropsychology, 31(6), 613-623.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. (forthcoming 2022). Making Policing Obsolete: The Harms of Policing and An Abolitionist Social Work Response. In Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice: Reckoning with Our History, Interrogating our Present, Re-Imagining our Future. Oxford University Press.
MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW
Eschmann, R., Grundy,S., Harbaugh, A., Guo, L., Toraif, & N.,Groshek, J. (revise and resubmit). Digital Rage: Testing the “Obama Effect” on Internet-based Expressions of Racism.
Toraif, N., Gondal, N., Paudel, P., & Frisella, A. (under review). Understanding Higher Education’s Response to the George Floyd Murder and the Black Lives Matter Movement: A Topic Modeling Approach.
Augsberger, A., Young, A.N., Toraif, N., & Gergen-Barnett, K. (under review). Practical Considerations for Youth Engagement in a Healthcare Setting.
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. (encyclopedia entry under review). Abolitionist Social Work. In Oxford Handbook of Social Work. Oxford University Press.
MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION
Toraif, N. Examining Youth Pathways into the Massachusetts Juvenile Legal System from the Child Welfare System: Youth, Social Worker, and Attorney Perspectives.
Toraif, N. Black, Indigenous, and Youth of Color in Reentry: Factors Associated with Positive Reentry Experiences.
Toraif, N. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Black and Latinx Dually-Involved Girls Experiences with the Child Welfare and Juvenile Legal System.
Toraif, N., Barnert, E.S, & Abrams, L. Transition Age Youths’ Conceptualizations of Health and Healthiness During Reentry in the COVID-19 Era.
Reed, T., Abrams, L., Bondoc, C., Toraif, N., Vilchez, J., & Barnert, E. Perspectives of Black and Latinx Young Adults on Probation on the 2020 Black Lives Matter Movement.
Young, A.N., Toraif, N., Augsberger, A., Murillo, H., & Gergen-Barnett, K. Facing Power: Navigating Power Dynamics in a Youth Participatory Action Research Project Situated within a Healthcare Setting.
Toraif, N., & Young, A.N. Teaching, Learning, and Bridging: Examining Graduate Student Researchers’ Roles in Youth Participatory Action Research Projects.
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. Racing time: Integrating synchronic racial temporalities into Ecological Systems Theory and research with Black, Indigenous, and Youth of Color.
Presentations
Toraif, N. (accepted 2022). Tracing the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline: State Agency, Adult Stakeholder, and Youth Perspectives on Dually-Involved Black and Latinx Youths’ Pathways into the Massachusetts Juvenile Legal System. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2022 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts.
Toraif, N., Augsberger, A., Young, A., Murillo, H., & Gergen-Barnett, K. (2022). “Show Us through Your Actions": Youths' Practical Recommendations for Antiracist Praxis in Youth Participatory Action Research Projects. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2022 Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C.
Toraif, N., & Young, A. (2022). Teaching, Learning, and Bridging: Examining Graduate Student Researchers' Roles in Youth Participatory Action Research Projects. Poster Presentation at the 2022 Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C.
Toraif, N., Young, A.N., Augsberger, A., Murillo, H., & Gergen-Barnett, K. (2022). Facing Power: Navigating Power Dynamics in a Youth Participatory Action Research Project Situated within a Healthcare Setting. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2022 Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C.
Tang Yan, C., Morris, K., Hamilton, G., Toraif, N., Brinkerhoff, C., & Tracy, N. (2022). Contesting Social and Racial Justice Frameworks in Knowledge Production Across Places, Experiences, and Community-Based Participatory Strategies in Social Work Research. Roundtable at the 2022 Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Toraif, N., Augsberger, A., Young, A., Murillo, H., Bautista, R., Garcia, S., Sprague Martinez, L., & Gergen-Barnett, K. (2021). How to Be an Antiracist: Exploring Youth of Color’s Perspectives on Antiracist Participatory Research Methods in a Healthcare Setting. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2021 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado.
Augsberger, A., Zeitlin, W., Toraif, N., & Chontow, K. (2021). Child Welfare Risk Factors and Program Interventions for Parents with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (I/DD): A Systematic Review of the Literature. Virtual Poster at the 2021 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado.
Augsberger, A., Toraif, N., Young, A., Dimitri, N., Pierre, J., Bautista, R., Le, C., Idahor, O., Sprague Martinez, L., & Gergen-Barnett, K. (2021). Shining a Light on the Impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color in the Greater Boston Area: A Photovoice Inquiry into Youth Conceptualizations of Health. Symposium Paper at the 2021 Boston Area Research Initiative Conference, Boston, MA.
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. (2021). Making Policing Obsolete: Abolitionist Social Work and Emancipatory Responses to Social Problems. Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice Symposium at the University of Houston School of Social Work, Houston, Texas.
Toraif, N., Augsberger, A., & Zeitlin, W. (2021). A Systematic Review of the Literature on Parents with Intellectual Disabilities Involved with Child Welfare Systems. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2021 Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Toraif, N. (2020). Child Welfare Professionals' Strategies for Preventing Youth Cross-Over from Child Welfare to Juvenile Justice Systems. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2020 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C.
Toraif, N., Smith, M., Beaugard, C., & Tan Yang, C. (2020). Theoretical, Methodological, and Applied Learning: Engaging Doctoral Students in Qualitative Research Training. Symposium at the 2020 Society for Qualitative Research in Psychology Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19)
Toraif, N., Horn, J.P., Augsberger, A., & Sprague Martinez, L.S. (2020). Applying a Critical Framework to the Experiences of Youth Involved in a Multi-State Foster Care Youth Advisory Board. Oral Paper Presentation at the 2020 Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C.
Toraif, N. (2019). Supporting parents with intellectual disabilities in the child welfare system. Oral Presentation at Westchester Institute for Human Development Conference, Westchester, New York.
Toraif, N., Salazar, R.D., Ren, X., Ellis, T.D., Toraif, N., Barthelemy, O.J., Neargarder, S., & Cronin-Golomb, A. (2015). The Effect of Dual-Tasking on Cognition and Gait in Parkinson’s Disease. Poster session presented at the Annual Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society, Boston, MA.
Professional Activities and Certifications
Co-Chair of Conference Sub-Committee, Doctoral Student Committee, Society for Social Work and Research
Board Member, Cradle-to-Prison Advisory Group, Northeastern School of Law, Boston, MA
Awards and Honors
Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award, 2022-2023
Award Amount: $28,000
Summer Graduate Fellow, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University, 2021
Award Amount: $6,000
Trainee, Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research, 2021, 2022
Boston University Initiative on Cities Early-Stage Urban Research, Boston University, 2021
Award Amount: $10,000
Graduate Research Award, Center for Antiracist Research, Boston University, 2020
Award Amount: $4,000
Rappaport Institute Public Policy Fellowship, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, 2020
Award Amount: $7,000
Tisch College of Civic Engagement Scholar Fellowship, Tufts University, 2017
Award Amount: $7,000
Tufts Child Development Graduate Scholarship, Tufts University, 2016
Award Amount: $15,000
Boston University Undergraduate Research Opportunity Award, Boston University, 2016
Award Amount: $4,000
School of Arts and Sciences Karbank Philosophy Fellowship, Boston University, 2015
Boston University Fitzgerald Translation Award, 2015
Award Amount: $3,500
Boston University Fitzgerald Translation Award, 2015
Award Amount: $350
Graduation Year
2023 (expected)
