Tanya Benjamin, PhD, OTR

Contact

tbenjamin4@twu.edu
713-794-2134

Biography

Tanya Benjamin is an Assistant Professor in the School of Occupational Therapy at Texas Woman’s University. Tanya’s teaching areas and interests include evidence-based practice, qualitative research methods and methodologies, and innovations in occupational therapy practice. Her research interests include working alongside children experiencing marginalization within local to global contexts through participatory action research and creative methodologies. She has published work addressing topics of participatory action research, participatory digital methodologies, occupational justice, childhood disability and participation, social innovation, and critical and ethical global health research and practice.

Education

Ph.D., Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
M.S., Occupational Therapy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
B.S., Occupational Therapy, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Expertise

Participatory Action Research; Creative Research Methodologies; Qualitative Research; Children and Youth Experiencing Marginalization; Children with Disabilities; Global Health Research and Practice; Occupation-Based Social Transformation

Latest Articles

Navigating Ethical Tensions Through Critical Reflexivity: A Participatory Filmmaking Research Project With Children With Disabilities
Journal of Participatory Research Methods (2024)
Tanya Elizabeth Benjamin-Thomas, D Laliberte-Rudman, J Gunaseelan

Participatory Action Research among People with Serious Mental Illness: A Scoping Review
Qualitative Health Research (2023)
Elizabeth Mary Thomas, Tanya Elizabeth Benjamin-Thomas, A Sithambaram, J Shankar, S Chen

Situating occupational injustices experienced by children with disabilities in rural India within sociocultural, economic, and systemic conditions
Journal of Occupational Science (2022)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, C. McGrath, D. Cameron, V.J. Abraham

Enacting Contextually Responsive Scholarship: Centering Occupation in Participatory Action Research with Children in India
South African Journal of Occupational Therapy (2021)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, D. M. Thomas

A rapid review of practices to support people experiencing homelessness during COVID-19
Housing, Care, and Support (2021)
A. Oudshoorn, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, T. Smith-Carrier, S. Benbow, C. A. Marshall

What do we mean by critical and ethical global engagement? Questions from a research partnership between universities in Canada and Rwanda
Global Public Health (2021)
Eugenia Canas, Robert Gough, Maxwell Smith, Erynn Monette, David McHugh

Participatory action research with older adults: A critical interpretive synthesis
The Gerontologist (2019)
A. M. Corrado, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, C. McGrath, C. Hand, D. Laliberte Rudman

A participatory filmmaking process with children with disabilities in rural India: Working towards inclusive research
Methodological Innovations (2019)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, J. Gunaseelan, V. J. Abraham, D. Cameron

Working towards the Promise of Participatory Action Research: Learning from Aging Research Exemplars
International Journal of Qualitative Methods (2018)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, A. M. Corrado, C. McGrath, D. Laliberte Rudman, C. Hand

Participatory digital methodologies: Potential of three approaches for transformative occupation-based research with children & youth
Journal of Occupational Science (2018)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, D. Cameron, B. Batorowicz

A critical interpretive synthesis: Use of the occupational justice framework in research
Australian Occupational Therapy Journal (2017)
Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman

Participation in early childhood educational environments for young children with and without developmental disabilities and delays: A mixed methods study
Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics: A Quarterly Journal of Developmental Therapy (2016)
Tanya E Benjamin, R.G. Lucas-Thompson, L. M. Little, P. L. Davies, M. A. Khetani

Books

Human Occupation: Contemporary Concepts and Lifespan Perspectives
Taylor & Francis (2025)
Niki Kiepek, Christian Mauricio Valderrama Núñez, Tanya Elizabeth Benjamin-Thomas, Michael Sy, Marcel Nazabal Amores

Qualitative Research Methodologies for Occupational Science and Therapy
Routledge (2023)
Tanya Elizabeth Benjamin-Thomas, Debbie Laliberte Rudman

Recent Presentations

A roadmap to partnership: Building a bridge between TWU Occupational Therapy Department and Houston based refugee agencies to promote occupational participation during the resettlement process
American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Annual Conference and Expo (2024)
Poster | S Sen, Tanya Benjamin, J Rogers, S Dennis, A Nillas

Is it possible to do Critical, occupation-based, community-engaged, cross-cultural doctoral research?
World Occupational Science Conference (2022)
Podium | Tanya Elizabeth Benjamin-Thomas, Stephanie Huff, Debbie Laliberte Rudman

Participatory Filmmaking with Children with Disabilities in rural India: A Participatory Action Research
Methods for Global Health Equity Webinar Series (2021)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas

A family-centered early intervention model using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure
International Conference on Early Intervention (2020)
Podium | J. MacLachlan, Z. Campbell, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, A. Bharathwaj, D. Krishna

The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure in India: A critical exploration
Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) Conference (2020)
Virtual | Z. Campbell, J. MacLachlan, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, A. Bharathwaj, D. Krishna

Global Mental Health
Co-Panelist at Power & Global Health Day 2019 (2019)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin, J. Edwards, A. Macdougall, M. Wedlake

Participatory Filmmaking for Transformative Occupation-Based Research with Children with Disabilities
Occupational Science Europe Conference (2019)
Symposium Paper | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, J. Gunaseelan, V. J. Abraham, D. Cameron

Evaluating the Challenges and Incentives of Volunteerism in East Africa
Western Student Research Conference (2019)
Poster | M. Aly, A. Hooda, A. Malik, S. Karunagaran, Tanya Benjamin

Participatory filmmaking with youth with disabilities in rural South Asia
Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists (CSOS) stream of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) Conference (2019)
Symposium Paper | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, J. Gunaseelan, V. J. Abraham, D. Cameron

Changing research relationships: Older adults with vision loss as co-researchers
Occupational Science Europe Conference (2019)
Symposium Paper | C. McGrath, D. Laliberte Rudman, C. Hand, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, A. M. Corrado

Initiating a participatory action research process with older adults experiencing vision loss
16th Qualitative Methods Conference (2018)
Podium | C. McGrath, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, A. M. Corrado, D. Laliberte Rudman, C. Hand

A Participatory Filmmaking Project with Children with Disabilities in Rural India
Pecha Kucha Presentation at the Power & Global Health Day (2018)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin, D. Laliberte Rudman

Key Principles of Participatory Action Research
Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Department of Community Health (2018)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin

Working Towards Building Inclusive Communities Through the VisAbility Kenya Volunteer Network
Africa-Western Collaboration Day (2018)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin, J. Carswell, M. Chege

Occupational Justice Research: Key Directions for Extending into Action
17th World Federation of Occupational Therapy (2018)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman

Participatory Digital Methodologies
World Café Research Institute at the 17th World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) (2018)
Round Table | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas

Participatory Digital Methods and Methodologies for Transformative Occupation-Based Research among Children and Youth: Utility and Cross-Cultural Relevance
17th World Federation of Occupational Therapy (2018)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, D. Laliberte Rudman, D. Cameron, B. Batorowicz

VisAbility Kenya: Making the Invisible, Visible
Africa-Western Collaboration Day (2017)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin, J. Carswell, M. Chege, B. Jackson, L. Ngina

A critical interpretive synthesis: Exploring how older adults are represented in participatory action research
23rd Annual Qualitative Health Research Conference (2017)
Podium | A. M. Corrado, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, C. McGrath, C. Hand, D. Laliberte Rudman

VisAbility Kenya: Making the Invisible, Visible
Global Health and Marginalized Populations Day (2017)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin, J. Carswell, M. Chege, B. Jackson, L. Ngina

Problematizing the uptake of occupational justice from a critical occupational perspective
Joint Research Conference of the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA (SS0: USA) and the Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists (CSOS) (2016)
Podium | L. Farias, Tanya Benjamin-Thomas, R. Janzen, D. Laliberte Rudman

Participation disparities in early childhood educational environments
Colorado State University Graduate Research Showcase (2015)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin, M. A. Khetani, L. Little, R. Lucas-Thompson, P. Davies

Participation disparities in early childhood educational environments
CSU Occupational Therapy Knowledge Exchange (2015)
Podium | Tanya Benjamin, M. A. Khetani, L. Little, R. Lucas-Thompson, P. Davies

Participation disparities between children with and without disabilities in early childhood educational environments
American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Annual Conference and Expo (2015)
Poster | Tanya Benjamin, M. A. Khetani, L. Little, R. Lucas-Thompson, P. Davies

Professional Affiliations

• All India Occupational Therapy Association
• American Occupational Therapy Association
• Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists
• Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists
• College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario
• Kids in Action Research, International Collaboration of Participatory Health Research
• World Federation of Occupational Therapists

Honors & Awards

• Outstanding Paper in the 2022, Emerald Literati Award (2022)
• Student Prize, Occupational Science Europe Conference (2019)
• Ontario Trillium Doctoral Scholarship, Government of Canada (2018)
• Travel Award, Faculty of Health Sciences Conference (2018)
• Travel Award, Health & Rehabilitation Sciences Conference (2018)
• Travel Award, Health & Rehabilitation Sciences Conference (2017)
• Travel Award, Faculty of Health Sciences Conference (2017)
• Ontario Trillium Doctoral Scholarship, Government of Canada (2017)
• Ontario Trillium Doctoral Scholarship, Government of Canada (2016)
• Travel Award, Faculty of Health Sciences Conference (2016)
• Travel Award, Health & Rehabilitation Sciences Conference (2016)