Professor of Social Work at the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Valencia) and researcher at the Interuniversity Institute for Local Development. IV Dolors Artamans Social Research Award and VII National Social Research Award.

For 30 years she has worked as a social worker with a special interest in the public social services system and psychosocial intervention. She was secretary of the Professional Association of Social Work of Valencia.

Her lines of research are social intervention methods, family and family justice based on Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy's contextual model, clinical social work, and professional and identity issues in social work. She is the director of the Social Work collection at Editorial Nau Llibres.

Xavier Montagud Mayor. Diploma in Social Work at the University of Valencia (1989) and degree in Sociology and Political Science at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (1995). Professor Permanent Laboral (accredited to TEU) at the University of Valencia. Member of the SOCIAL-COM research group and currently secretary of the Interuniversity Institute of Local Development (IIDL). I teach in the Degree of Social Work and in the Master of Social Welfare: Family Intervention. In addition, I participate as a teacher in postgraduate courses at other universities and in continuing education. My areas of interest are focused on the study of children in situations of social risk, the challenges of social services in the local area and the possibilities of professional improvement from a reflective perspective. I have directed research projects in the fields of children at risk, social services and volunteering. I am currently working on the analysis of changes in volunteering at local and university level.

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I am an Assistant Professor (PhD) in the Department of Social Work and Social Services. I am an International PhD in Gender Studies and Equality Policies, with a doctoral thesis on embodied experiences of fatness from a feminist and interdisciplinary perspective. I hold a Degree in Social Work, a Master's Degree in Gender and Equality Policies from the University of Valencia and a Master´s Degree in Narrative Therapy and Community Work from the University of Extremadura. Diploma in Single-Session Therapy. I have also trained in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

My doctoral thesis was awarded the Isabel Folguera Prize for Best Unpublished Doctoral Thesis and received a Special Mention (Accèssit) in the Diversitats Prize. This work is the first research project in the Spanish-speaking context to analyze the embodied experience of fatness in women through the lens of feminism and Fat Studies, and it reflects a trajectory of over ten years dedicated to the critical study of fatness, its representations, and its social and political implications.

I have also received other awards for my research activity: the Olga Quiñones Prize for Best Master’s Thesis, the First Prize in the 1st Edition of the Article Writing Contest organized by the COTSV (Official College of Social Work of Valencia), and the Jane Addams Prize for Best Undergraduate Thesis.

My research interests focus on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against fat people (fatphobia or weight stigma); narrative practices; relational and anti-oppressive social work; the sociology of the body; gender-sensitive approaches to health; family caregiving; and cinema as a learning tool. I also incorporate methodological approaches that are still emerging in the field of social sciences, such as qualitative techniques for Foucauldian discourse analysis from a feminist perspective, autoethnography, and life histories. I have published scientific articles in journals such as Azarbe: International Journal of Social Work and Welfare, Quaderns de Ciències Socials, Athenea Digital, and Cuadernos de Trabajo Social. I have also contributed chapters to books published by Tirant Humanitats, Dykinson, and Icària. With the latter, I also co-coordinated the book Miradas sociológicas de género. Una sociología sin barreras, cerraduras ni cerrojos.

I was born in Jersey and have lived in Bradford, London, Barcelona, and Valencia. I spend most of my time with my partner and our two dogs. I enjoy taking care of my plants, reading, listening to the radio, cycling, making collages, and crafting handmade books.