Miriam Kuttikat

Associate professor

Email: kuttikatm@vcu.edu
Phone: (804) 828-3616

Miriam Kuttikat, Ph.D., is a tenured associate professor of social work and the director of the Community Engaged Migrant Health Research (CEMiHR) lab at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. Dr. Kuttikat is faculty advisor for STAR @ Virginia Commonwealth University and a member of Richmond Refugee Dialogue, a Richmond Community and CEMiHR partnership that brings innovation to community-engaged migration inquiry that enriches migrants' experiences in the Greater Richmond Area.

Dr. Kuttikat has broad social work practice and research experience in national and international migration. Her research expert areas are individual, family, and community-level consequences of human-caused trauma; intergenerational transmission of trauma; migrant family conflict; migrant health; and healthy aging among migrants. Her research shifts individualized research paradigms by utilizing novel theoretical concepts, including structural approaches to develop theory-driven family-based interventions for migrants. Her research team uses a family-based cluster randomized control trial to guide the intervention by engaging with each migrant family as a cluster and contributing to positive family health outcomes. In particular, Kuttikat’s research team has focused on developing and testing evidence-based, culturally appropriate family-based health interventions that address migrant families’ multidimensional needs, changes and complexities over time.

Kuttikat’s research has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. Her work has been published in leading social work journals, including Refugee Survey Quarterly, Social Work in Mental Health, the British Journal of Social Work and clinical social work journals. Kuttikat has received various awards, including the Social Justice Award for Radical Alliance for Anti-Racism, Change, and Equity (RAACE), the National Institute of Health Fogarty International’s International Research Scientist Award, Oxford University Fellowship at the Harris Manchester College, and Lois Claxton Excellence in Research Award, Canada.

Areas of expertise

Aging and Migrants
Community-Based Participatory Research
Community Mental Health
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model
Migrant Family Dynamics
Migrant Health
Immigrants and Refugees
International Social Work and Global Issues
Research design and Measurement
Social Work Practice

Education and credentials

Postdoctoral Fellow, CAMH, University of Toronto
Ph.D., University of Toronto
M.A., University of Toronto
M.S.W., University of Toronto
M.S.W., Mahatma Gandhi University
BA. University of Calicut

View Miriam Kuttikat's curriculum vitae.

Author: Kuttikat, M.

Topic: Community-based Participatory Research, Family, Health, Immigrants and Refugees, Mental Health, Social Work Practice

Work

Selected publications

Sahoo, I., Chan, D., Kuttikat, M., & *Amona, E. (in-preparation). Using Forest Model for Tailored Treatment for Adult Mental Health Among Sri Lankan Camp Refugees

Kuttikat, M. & **Murphy, J. (in-preparation). A Community-Based Participatory Research in a refugee camp

Murphy, J. L., Saleh, M., & Kuttikat, M. (in preparation). Community health workers’ perspectives on parental behavior, parental practices and family relationship among Sri Lankan Tamils. Manuscript in development.

Kuttikat, M., Chan, D., Sahoo, I., & Amona, E. (in-preparation). A conceptual model of family dynamics in a refugee camp.

Chan, D., Kuttikat, M., Sahoo, I., & Amona, E. (in-preparation). Network analysis of refugee resource utilization in a refugee camp.

Sahoo, I., Amona, E., Kuttikat, M. & Chan, D.(submitted). Gradient Boosted Prediction Model for Adult Mental Health Among Sri Lankan Camp Refugees.

Sahoo, I., Kuttikat, M., Chan, D., *Murphy, J., & *Saleh, M. (submitted). Transmigration Stressors, Parent Mental Health, and Family Functioning Among Camp Refugees.

Saleh, M., Amona, E., Kuttikat, M., Sahoo, I., Chan, D., Kim, K., & George, H. (under review). Child Mental Health Predictors Among Camp Refugees: Utilizing Linear and XGBOOST Models.

Kuttikat, M. (revision). A conceptual model of parenting process in a refugee camp. Journal of Biosocial Science.

Kuttikat, M., *George, H.& *George, D (2022). Proverbs, and gender: The interface between proverbs and human relations in a refugee camp. International Journal of Social Science Studies, 10 (6), November. DOI: 10.11114/ijsss.v10i6.5755

Kuttikat, M., Vaillancourt, A., & Massey, M. (2019). Battered but bold: Sri Lankan Tamil refugee war experiences, camp challenges and resilience. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 14 (3), 245-259.

Gandhi, M., Manuel, J., & George, M. (2018). Understanding engagement in the Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) from the perspectives of individuals receiving treatment. Social Work in Mental Health, 16 (4), 400-418.

George, M. (2017). Application of Conservation of Resource Theory (COR) with camp refugees. Migration and Development, 6 (3), 460-478.

George, M., Vaillancourt, A., & Rajan, I. (2016). Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India: Conceptual framework of repatriation success. Refuge – Canada’s Journal for Refugees, 32 (3), 73-83.

George, M., Manuel, J., & Gandhi, M. (2016). “Sometimes what they think is helpful is not really helpful”: Understanding engagement in the Program of Assertive Community Treatment. Community Mental Health Journal, 52 (8), 882–890.

George, M., & Jettner, J. (2016). Migration stressors, psychological distress and family - A Sri Lankan Tamil refugee analysis. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 17 (2), 341-353.

George, M. & Jettner, J. (2015). Impact of daily stressors on psychological distress: A Sri Lankan Tamil refugee analysis. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies, 11 (1), 1-16.

George, M. (2015). Ethical lessons learned from conducting refugee-based research in an Indian refugee camp. Journal of Human Rights Practice, 7(3), 451 -465.

George, M., Kliewer, W., & Rajan, I. (2015). “Rather than talking in Tamil, they should be talking to Tamils”: Sri Lankan Tamil refugee readiness for repatriation. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 34 (2), 1-22.

Role: Faculty

Professional highlights

Research projects and funding

Principal investigator: “Testing family dynamics among Eritrean and El-Salvadorian migrants in the Greater Washington, D.C. area,” VCU Presidential Research Quest Fund
Principal investigator: “Family Mental Health Intervention (FMHI) for Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Youth – A Pilot Study,” Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work Internal traveling support
Principal investigator: “Testing a refugee family dynamics model: A study with Sri Lankan Tamils,” National Institute of Health Fogarty International’s K01-TW 009648 International Research Scientist Development Award
Principal investigator: “Community readiness assessment for repatriation of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Indian refugee camps,” VCU School of Social Work Internal Grant

Accomplishments

2021: Social Justice Award for Radical Alliance for Anti-Racism, Change and Equity (RAACE)
2021: Faculty Affiliate, The International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD)
2013: National Institute of Health Fogarty International’s K01 International Research Scientist Development Award
2013: Faculty Affiliate, Union Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs Research Unit on International Migration, Center for Development Studies, India
2012: Oxford Fellow, Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, U.K.
2011: Lois Claxton Excellence in Research Award, Canada

VCU appointments

Associate professor, VCU School of Social Work
Affiliate faculty, VCU Clinical and Translational Research
Affiliated faculty, VCU Institute for Women’s Health

Teaching areas and interests

Courses

Ph.D. Program

Doctoral Faculty Advisor
Dissertation Committee Member
Social Work Teaching Practicum (SWKD 896)

M.S.W. Program

Concentration Social Policy: U.S. Migration Policies and Human Rights (SLWK 710)
Social Work Research for Clinical Practice I (SLWK 706)
Social Work Research for Clinical Practice II (SLWK 707)
Foundations of Research in Social Work Practice (SLWK 609)
Social Work and Social Justice (SLWK 603)

B.S.W. Program

Social Work and Oppressed Groups (SLWK 311)
Communication in the Helping Process (SLWK 230)
Introduction to Social Work-Service Learning (SLWK 201)
Building a Just Society (SLWK 200)

Areas of teaching and mentoring expertise

Social work research
Social work practice with migrants and refugees
Migration policies and human rights
Social work practice in mental health
Social justice and social work