SSWR honors Murshid with book award

By Tiffany J. Nhan

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) has honored Nadine Shaanta Murshid, PhD, associate professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, for her book, Intimacies of Violence: Reading Transnational Middle-Class Women in Bangladeshi America. 

Murshid will receive the honorable mention for the 2026 SSWR Book Award for Best Scholarly Book Published at SSWR’s national conference in January in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions that advance social work knowledge with direct applications to practice, policy and the resolution of social issues.

The book highlights the complex intersections of structural violence, migration and intimate relationships among transnational Bangladeshi women. Murshid points out ways that violence is produced, perpetuated and resisted. She provides insight into the private lives of migrant women and their experiences of violence across borders. 

Additionally, the book calls attention to the nature of person-centered and trauma-informed social work through its examination of violence and suggestions in reducing intimate partner violence for transnational Bangladeshi women. 

Murshid reflected on her first book and its person-centered framework: “I wanted to paint these women as women with full lives, not women defined by violence, as victims. One important thing to do is to see victims as human beings.” 

Murshid’s early research focused on microfinance, financial inclusion and fintech in Bangladesh, exposing how predatory lending and digital surveillance deepen marginalization. Her current work examines migration, analyzing displacement driven by economic precarity, conflict and need for upward mobility. Advocating for equity-centered policy and grassroots solutions, she challenges systemic violence at its roots.

Intimacies of Violence, which was released in November 2024, is available for purchase through Oxford University Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and eBooks.