Jeff Halvorsen

Associate faculty

Humanitarian Studies

Social justice

Ally roles

Gender-based violence prevention

Dr. Jeff Halvorsen is interested in how colonialism, race, class and gender have worked historically to organize contemporary social life and create inequalities. 

Jeff examines these from his positionality as a white male settler of Norwegian, Scottish and German ancestry living on unceded T’Sou-ke traditional territory through the Douglas treaties. 

In particular, Jeff is interested in how structural oppression leads to active processes of marginalization. He critically interrogates the tensions experienced by helping professions and allies who seek to meaningfully contribute to justice rather than replicating oppressive practices. 

As an instructor, Jeff draws on a transformative learning framework, to facilitate students developing their critical analysis and systems thinking, while integrating their personal and professional identities and commitments to social justice.

Experience

Dr. Halvorsen began his career in frontline and leadership positions in homeless serving agencies. He was the manager of innovation and systems change at the Calgary Homeless Foundation and co-chair of the Youth Sector of the Calgary Action Committee on Housing and Homelessness. 

Jeff has held leadership positions at RESET (formerly Servants Anonymous Society) supporting people recovering from sexual exploitation. He also worked in a domestic violence organization, facilitating ongoing organizational and system learning projects.

Recently, Jeff worked on gender and transnational justice projects, including a seven-country study of men’s roles in anti-violence against women and a community-led mindfulness group for Latino men experiencing racism and building healthy relationship skills. 

He was a researcher on projects examining experiences of anti-Black racism at the University of Calgary, evaluating an anti-racist anti-colonial learning series and the lead researcher on a province wide study in Alberta that examined how racism is enacted in hiring processes to exclude racialized immigrant women and the solutions developed by allies in human resources. 

Memberships and Committees
  • Credentialed Evaluator, Canadian Evaluation Society

Education

2022
PhD, Faculty of Social Work

University of Calgary

2013
Master of Public Administration (with Distinction)

DeVry University

2007
Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), International Development Studies

University of Calgary

Awards

2022
MITACS Postdoctoral Fellowship

MITACS

2021
Teaching Excellence Award - Honorable Mention

Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary

2019-2022
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council

2018
Graduate Scholarship

Lorne and Pat Gordon/YWCA of Calgary

2017
Awarded for Innovation in the Pursuit of Social Justice

James Gripton Doctoral Scholarship in Social Work

Research

Research interest

Well-being

Masculinities

Anti-racism

Publications

Lorenzetti, L., Jamal, A., Dhungel, R., Hosein, G., Thomas, S., & Halvorsen, J. (In press). Transforming masculinities through cross-cultural collaboration: Reflections on building a community of practice framework. Journal of Participatory Research Methods.

Halvorsen, J. (2023). Book review: Ben Almassi, Non-toxic: Masculinity, allyship, and feminist philosophy. Men and Masculinitieshttps://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X231161068 

Halvorsen, J. (2022). Interrogating White men’s allyship: Implications of performativity for qualitative methodologies. Qualitative Inquiryhttps://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221144070

Lorenzetti, L., Lorenzetti, D., Halvorsen, J., & Durrani, Z. (2022). Community-based experiential learning: An emerging framework for transformative learning in social work education. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/1894 

Halvorsen, J., King, R., Lorenzetti, L., Wolfleg, A., & Haile, L. (2022). White entitlement. In A. Gebhard, S. Mclean, V. St. Denis (Eds.), Whiteness at work: Disturbing practices of racism across the Canadian prairies. Fernwood Publishing.

Halvorsen, J., & Singlot, R. (2022). Immigrant women – Employment equity infographic series: Barriers, solutions, and strategies. Alberta Network of Immigrant Women.

Benavides, S., Oliphant, F., Chirino, V., Halvorsen, J., Humphrey, T., & Lorenzetti, L., (2022). Latino men’s well-being community support group. Alberta Men’s Network/ University of Calgary, Faculty of Social Work. http://www.albertamen.com/toolkits-1/2022/4/8/latino-mens-wellbeing-community-support-group

Lorenzetti, L., Lantion, V., Este, D., Murwisi, P., Halvorsen, J., Oshchepkova, T., Sadhwani, H., Oliphant, F., Wolfleg, A., & Hoyt, M. (2021). A survey for men: Exploring well-being, healthy relationships, and violence prevention. Journal of Men’s Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F10608265211018817

Halvorsen, J., Beebe, P., Haile, L., Jamal, O., Oliphant, F., Mancey, A., Sehgal, K., Wolfleg, A., & Lorenzetti, L. (2021). Guiding white men’s allyship infographic series: Resisting oppression, constructing white men, expectations of white men aspiring to allyship. Alberta Men’s Network.

Lorenzetti, L., Halvorsen, J., Dhungal, R., Lorenzetti, D., Oshchepkova, T., Haile, L., & Biscette, K. (2019). Community based mentors and journey guides: A transformative learning approach to social work education. Social Work Education. 38(3), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2019.1593956 

Humphrey, T., & Halvorsen, J. (2017). Applying for an emergency protection order: Night and day maps. Calgary Domestic Violence Collective. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53a3568be4b07cf349cc12cf/t/5deffb978d1a5a7f901a9708/1576008600940/EPO+Mapv4+Branded+20190020+-+BRANDED.pdf

Hogan, L., & Halvorsen, J. (2017). Cultural thinking: Moving towards agency cultural competency. Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter.