Faculty and Research Associates

Dr. Karki is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Human Services at the University of the Fraser Valley. He holds a PhD in Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, and a Master of Social Work from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. Additionally, he has a Master’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s degree in English Literature from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He is a recipient of more than a dozen fellowships and scholarships, including the Huel D. Perkins Fellowship Award at Louisiana State University (2012), Laurier Graduate Fellowship (2013-2016), Laurier Graduate Scholarship (2013-2016), Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2015, 2018), Metropolis Professional Development Award (2015), Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Scholarship (2015), Social Work Academic Development Award (2016), Social Work Alumni Award (2017), Dr. John Melichercik PhD Social Work Award (2017), and Helmut Braun Memorial Scholarship Award (2017).

His scholarly inquiries are grounded in critical theories, including anti-racism, anti-colonialism, intersectionality, and anti-oppressive social justice praxis. Additionally, informed by postcolonial theory and posthumanism, he is more interested in understanding how biopolitical and necropolitical spaces within the borders of the nation-states govern people and how the state’s sovereign power becomes a persistent recurrence of the process of exclusion and disposition of people in light of today’s urgent issues, including the migration crisis, the rise of populism, homonationalist practices, and state-sanctioned targeting of gender, sexual, racial, and ethnic “others.” He examines these issues through the theoretical bedrocks of biopower (Foucault), necropower (Mbembe), and sovereign power (Agamben). Precisely, his scholarly inquiries investigate the socio-economic and civic inclusion/exclusion of minoritized communities, including immigrants, refugees, and LGBTQ+ people in Canada and beyond.

His teaching interests include Social Work philosophy and practice; Anti-oppressive Social Work practice; Social welfare policy; Social Work research; and International Social Work. In his social work practice, he adopts collaborative and community-based approaches that foreground the values of equity, inclusivity, and social justice. His community services include working with diasporic and minoritized communities.