Monica Anne Batac

• Doctor of Philosophy (Social Work) – McGill University, 2025

  Master of Professional Communication – Toronto Metropolitan University, 2015

  Master of Teaching – OISE/University of Toronto, 2012

  Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) – Queen’s University at Kingston, 2009

Dr. Monica Anne Batac is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Social Work. A 2026–2027 Fulbright Canada Visiting Research Chair and 2018 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar, she is a critical qualitative researcher, community practitioner, writer, and educator. Informed by self-help and empowerment traditions, her interdisciplinary work bridges scholarship and community organizing to advance Filipino Canadian community development, capacity-building, and collective action.

Born and raised in Toronto, Dr. Batac brings her experiences as a second-generation Filipina Canadian to her scholarship on migration, labour, diaspora, and decolonization. Her research draws on feminist, anti-racist, and decolonizing methodologies, including autoethnography, participatory action research, community-engaged inquiry, and decolonizing ethnography.
Dr. Batac is a founding member and co-organizer of the  Filipino Canadian Social and Community Workers Network (FCSCWN), a national network connecting Filipino social work scholars, practitioners, and community organizers. Her current projects examine Filipino helping professionals working with Filipino and Indigenous communities across urban, rural, remote, and Northern contexts; support Filipino non-profit organizations with program and organizational development; develop case studies for anti-racist social work education; and investigate Asian Canadians’ experiences of racism. She also fosters collaborations among universities, community organizations, and emerging scholars to strengthen Filipino Canadian research and practice.

Her writing appears in Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, Qualitative Inquiry, Asian Canada Is Burning: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies, and Praxes (Brill, 2025), and Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books, 2024).

Monica Batac’s interdisciplinary research program focuses on community capacity-building and mobilizing with Filipino community members, groups, and organizations in Canada.

Monica's research interests include: 

• Immigration, Labour Migration;
• Community Organizing, Community Development, Community Practice;
• Program Design and Evaluation; Non-profit Management;
• Critical Filipino/a/x studies, Filipino diaspora; Transnational Feminism, Anti-Racism;
• Decolonizing Methodologies, Critical Qualitative Research, Action Research, Community-based Research

Monica incorporates feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial/decolonial, and experimental pedagogical approaches. She is keen to develop critical-creative, action-oriented courses and applied projects that take learning outside the classroom.

Monica formally and informally works with students to develop their practice in their own communities of belonging.

Refereed Articles
Batac, M. (2021). “Failing” and finding a Filipina diasporic scholarly “home”: a de/colonizing autoethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 28(1): 62-69.

Bayley, J., Phipps, D., Batac, M., & Stevens, E. (2018). Development of a framework for knowledge mobilisation and impact competencies. Evidence & Policy, 14(4): 725-738.

Batac, M. (2017). Teaching for Social Justice: Bringing Activism into Communication Education. Canadian Journal of Communication, 42(1): 129-142.

Book chapters
Batac, M., Stohner, F. C., & Danan, K. V. (2022). From paperback to praxis: in search of Filipina/x feminisms in the diaspora. In G. J. Wilson, J. B. Acuff, & A. M Kraehe (Eds.), A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back (195-203). University of Arizona Press.

Creative writing
Batac, M. (in press). Sisters in practice: a readers theatre script. In T. Alcuitas, C.E. Gatchalian & P. Rivera (Eds.), Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing. Cormorant Books.

Batac, M. (2020). Growing Up Pinay. In J. Aquines (Ed.), Home is in the Body. ANAK Publishing.