Dr Bethany J Osborne

Dr. Bethany J. Osborne is a Program Coordinator and teaches in the Bachelor of Social and Community Development at Sheridan.  She was delighted to join the Sheridan team in 2015.  For over a decade before coming to Sheridan, she both developed curriculum and taught in community development and social service work programs at the University of Toronto, Guelph Humber University, George Brown College and Seneca College.

Bethany is an innovative educator and researcher with over 20 years of experience building and engaging diverse communities. She has her MA in Adult Education and Community Development in the collaborative program in Women and Gender Studies and a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto. Over her career, she has worked with non-profit organizations as a researcher, educator and consultant, enjoying a key role in supporting community transformation through innovative and creative program and project design, grant writing, and working with leadership to develop dynamic learning communities.

Bethany has worked extensively with different immigrant and refugee groups. Over the last decade, she has focussed her research on women’s experiences of state violence, focussing on forced migration, precarious immigration status and incarceration. She is particularly interested in the impact that violence has on learning, and how communities impacted by violence can be rebuilt. Bethany is committed to participatory action research and often uses creative modes to engage with the communities she is working with.

Bethany has both worked and travelled internationally, including Europe and Bangladesh where she worked with rural women employed by a fair trade organizations in order to increase their sustainability. She has published extensively in U.S. based media sources, academic books and journals and has had the opportunity to presented conference papers in both Canada and internationally.