Maria Moberg Stephenson

Maria Moberg Stephenson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work Research at Karlstad University. She is affiliated with the KuFo research group for culture studies, the Centre for Gender Studies at Karlstad University, and the Nordic network FlickForsk! for girlhood studies. Her research focuses on young people's life situations, gender, migration, belonging, racism, and anti-racist social work practices. She teaches on bachelor's and master's programs in Social Work, emphasizing criminality, postcolonial theories, and issues of racism.

Her current research projects include studies on girls in homelessness, criminal gangs, deprived areas, and street-level social work for migrant inclusion (TESMI). Earlier work explored NGO social work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and constructions of belonging among young migrants. She holds a PhD in Social Work and has backgrounds in Social Anthropology and Cultural Politics.

Dr. Stephenson's publications span media portrayals of violent girls, asylum policies, and ethnographic studies of marginalized youth. Her work is funded by institutions like the Swedish Research Council, Forte, and NordForsk. She advises PhD students and supervises graduate/postgraduate research in Social Work, contributing to critical debates on migration, gender, and social justice.