Carol Cleaveland, PhD

Dr. Carol Cleaveland is an Associate Professor of Social Work at George Mason University. She has been researching Latino immigration since 2004, when she began working with Mexican day laborers in Freehold, N.J., to understand how they negotiated police harassment and anti-immigrant ordinances. Since 2013, her work has focused on Latinas from Central America and immigration-related trauma, including experiences in human smuggling. A recent study of a clinic-based sample (n=61) found that Latina immigrants had a rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder 10 times higher than would be found among an American sample in a typical year. Dr. Cleaveland also provides pro bono psychosocial assessments for Central American immigrants in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area for USCIS court hearings. She teaches SOCW 674 Psychopathology, SOCW 645 Community Clinical Practice and SOCW 653 Immigration Policy. Dr. Cleaveland also serves as a training coordinator for Mason’s VA SBIRT grant.

Research

Research Interests

• Advocacy and undocumented immigrants
• Welfare  

Select Publications

• Cleaveland, C. & Frankenfeld, C. (2019). “They kill people over nothing:” An exploratory study of Latina immigrant trauma. Journal of Social Service Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2019.1602100

• Cleaveland, C. & V. Kirsch. (2019). "They took all my clothes and made me walk naked for two days so I couldn’t escape": Latina immigrant experiences of human smuggling in Mexico. In press, Qualitative Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325018816362

• Cleaveland, C. & D.L. Shutika. (2018). “Wouldn’t You Walk Away?:” Foreclosures and Homeowner Understandings.” Families In Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044389418809779 

• Cleaveland, C. (2017). How the immigration and deportation systems work: A social workers guide. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 44 (3), 55-78.

• Matto, H. & Cleaveland, C. (2016). A social-spatial lens to examine poverty, violence and addiction. Manuscript accepted for publication in Social Work Practice In The Addictions, Special Issue on Violence.

• Goodman, R. D., Vesely, C., Letiecq, B., & Cleaveland, C. (2016). Trauma and resilience among refugee and undocumented immigrant women. Manuscript accepted for publication in the Journal of Counseling & Development, Special Issue on Traumatology.

• Cleaveland, C. (2013). 'I stepped over a dead body…': Latina immigrant narratives of immigration and poverty. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 23(1), p. 1-13.

• Cleaveland, C. (2012). 'Mexico City North': Identity and anti-immigrant sentiment. Qualitative Social Work, 12(4), 270-288.

• Cleaveland, C. & E. Ilhara. (2012). "They treat us like pests": Undocumented immigrant experiences obtaining health care in the wake of a "crackdown" ordinance, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 22, 771-788.

• Cleaveland, C. (2011). Borders, police and jobs: Viewing Latino immigration through a social spatial lens, Families in Society, 92(2), 139-145.

Books and Book Chapters

Cleaveland, C. (2017). Journeys Across The Border And Through The Legal System. In T. Maschi & G. Liebowitz (Eds.), Psychosocial and Legal Issues Across Diverse Settings (2nd ed.). NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Cleaveland, C. (2012). Family-Based Immigration: Counterpoint. In J. Gans & D. Tichenor (Eds.), Sage Debates on Immigration. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Cleaveland, C. (2009). Calling Some ‘Illegal:’ Practice Considerations in Work with Undocumented Immigrants. In T. Maschi, M.L. Killian, C. Bradley, & K. Ward (Eds.), Collaborative Forensic Social Work Practice. NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Honors and Awards

• Senior Faculty Master Teacher, 2016, College of Health and Human Services, George Mason University
• Senior Fellow, 2013, Urban Ethnography Project, Yale University Department of Sociology
• Hathaway Award for Academic Excellence, 1997, Bryn Mawr College
• Pennsylvania Bar Association 1991 Awards Competition, award for investigative reporting, Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Award for Investigative Reporting, 1990, Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists
• American Bar Association 1989 National Awards Competition, award for investigative reporting, American Bar Association
• New York State Associated Press Awards Competition 1984, award for excellence in features, New York State Associated Press Awards
• American News Service, 1980 Award, American News Service
• Kappa Tau Alpha Honors Society, 1980, Kappa Tau Alpha

Degrees

• PhD, Bryn Mawr College
• MSS, Bryn Mawr College
• BA, Political Science and Print Journalism, American University