Professor Dr. Odessa Gonzalez Benson

Biography

Odessa Gonzalez Benson is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where she also serves as a faculty affiliate of the LSA International Institute and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Her research focuses on refugee resettlement, state-civil society relations regarding migration, labor migration, critical policy studies, and epistemic justice within social welfare studies and forced migration studies. She has contributed significantly to the understanding of grassroots organizations, particularly refugee-run community organizations (RCOs), and aims to inform participatory approaches within social work practice and urban governance. Her work has included exploring the organizational legitimacy of RCOs, their crisis response during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their roles in urban governance and resettlement practices. Her research employs varied methodological approaches—including quantitative analyses of federal data and discourse analyses—and has been published in several academic journals. Gonzalez Benson draws upon over a decade of experience engaging with refugee communities, which informs her research and teaching.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards