Staff profile

I joined Durham University in the Summer of 2017 as Assistant Professor in Social Work following a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Hong Kong. I was first trained as a social worker in Hong Kong, and later completed my PhD at the University of York (UK) in 2015. I have always been interested in social work practice research, methodological innovation, and theorising intimate partner violence and practices of intimacy. My research interests encompass all these elements to look at how to collaborate with separated abused women for providing post-separation care and support, and to develop culturally appropriate practices in end-of-life care.

My enthusiasm to advance social work knowledge for improving intimate lives is a lasting one. Other than my PhD, I have conducted a number of research studies for theorising the stay-leave decision making of abused women; for documenting social workers’ responses to social isolation experienced by abused women in Hong Kong; and to conceptualize the best practice of social workers in preserving the familial self of Chinese older adults in end-of-life care. My academic activities also involve developing participatory methods, including the theatrical work carried out with women activists in Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, Cooperative Grounded Inquiry developed for working with abused women in service development and end-of-life case graph for co-constructing practice narratives with social work practitioners. 

• Social Work Practice Research – theorising practice and theorising for practice
• Qualitative Methodologies – innovative methods and participatory methodologies
• Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse
• End-of-Life Care for Older Adults

• Communities and Social Justice
• Violence and Abuse

• 2020: RE200194: A Practitioner led Approach to Secondary Data Analysis: Practical and Ethical Challenges and best practice in COVID-19 , £5000, September 2020 - July 2021
• 2018: RC200168: Translating CORE-UPHOLD Model into Practice Protocol, £2395.00, 2018-03-01-2018-12-31

Chapter in book

• Kong,S.T., Ho, P.S.Y. & Huang, Y.T. (2021). Extending women's voice through innovative methods: Lessons from struggles for democracy in Hong Kong. In The Routledge International Handbook of Domestic Violence and Abuse. Devaney, J., Bradbury-Jones, C., Macy, R. J., Øverlien, C. & Holt, S. Routledge International. 765-782.
• Ho, P.S.Y., Chan, C.H.Y. & Kong, S.T. (2018). Expanding paradigm: Arts as performance and performance as communication in politically turbulent times. In Art-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice. Siegesmund, R. & Cahnmann-Taylor, M. Routledge.
• Wang, X.L. & Kong, S.T. (2017). Performance Management in Social Service Provision: A Framework for Collective Learning. In Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Farazmand, A. Springer.

Journal Article

• Kong, S.T., Noone, C. & Shears, J. (2021). Sensual Bodies during COVID-19: The Suspended, Displaced and Reconstituted Body in Social Work Practice. British Journal of Social Work
• Kong, Sui-Ting, Ho, Petula Sik-Ying & Jackson, Stevi (2021). Doing being observed: Experimenting with collaborative focus group analysis in post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong. Sociological Research Online 26(3): 485-504.
• Kong, Sui-Ting (2021). Beyond ‘Safeguarding’ and ‘Empowerment’ in Hong Kong: Towards a Relational Model for Supporting Women who Have Left their Abusive Partners. Journal of Family Violence 36(6): 683-694.
• Kong, Sui Ting, Banks, Sarah, Brandon, Toby, Chappell, Stewart, Charnley, Helen, Hwang, Se Kwang, Rudd, Danielle, Shaw, Sue, Slatcher, Sam & Ward, Nicki (2020). Extending Voice and Autonomy through Participatory Action Research: Ethical and Practical Issues. Ethics and Social Welfare 14(2): 220-229.
• Lenette, Caroline, Stavropoulou, Nelli, Nunn, Caitlin, Kong, Sui Ting, Cook, Tina, Coddington, Kate & Banks, Sarah (2019). Brushed under the carpet: Examining the complexities of participatory research. Research for All 3(2): 161.
• Ho, P.S.Y., Kong, S-T. & Huang, Y-T. (2018). Democratising qualitative research methods: Reflections on Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Qualitative Social Work 17(3): 469-481.
• Ho, P.S.Y., Jackson, S. & Kong, S.T. (2018). Speaking against Silence: Finding a Voice in Hong Kong Chinese Families through the Umbrella Movement. Sociology 52(5): 966-982.
• Kong, S.T. & Hooper, C.A. (2018). Building a Community of Practice for Transforming ‘Mothering’ of Abused Women into a ‘Mutual Care Project’ A New Focus on Partnership and Mutuality. British Journal of Social Work 48(3): 633-655.
• Kong, S.T. Fanga, M-S.C. & Lou, W.V. (2017). Organizational capacities for ‘residential care homes for the elderly’ to provide culturally appropriate end-of- life care for Chinese elders and their families. Journal of Aging Studies 40: 1-7.
• Kong, S.T., Fang, C.M.S. & Lou, V.W. (2017). Solving the ‘Personhood Jigsaw Puzzles’ in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly in the Hong Kong Chinese Context. Qualitative Health Research 27(3): 421-433.
• Kong, S.T. (2016). Social work practice research innovation, implementation and implications: A case of ‘Cooperative Grounded Inquiry’ with formerly abused women in Hong Kong. Qualitative Social Work 15(4): 533-551.

Report

• Kong, S.T. Noone, C., with Quintana, A. Pharoah, C., Wills, D. Shears, J., Sildatke, K., Roberts, W., Thanki, V., Stepanova, E., Charnley, H., Smith, R., Banks, S. & Hawkes, S. (2021). Social Work During Covid-19: Learning for the Future Challenges, Best Practice and Professional Transformation. Department of Sociology, Durham University. Durham University and British Association of Social Workers.
• Fang, C.M.S., Lou, V.W. & Kong, S.T. (2017). Best Practice for Working with the Dying and the Family in End-of-Life Care in Residential Care Homes. Hong Kong, Salvation Army.
• Fang, C.M.S., Lou, V.W. & Kong, S.T. (2016). Four Medical-Social Shared Care Models Providing End-of-Life Care in Residential Care Homes. Hong Kong: Salvation Army.
• Kong, S.T. (2013). 親密伴侶暴力受害人「孤立狀況」研究 (A Study on the Social Isolation of Victims of Intimate Partner Violence). Cyd Ho’s Office, in Chinese.
• Ho, K. L. & Kong, S.T. (2011). A review of the impact of the implementation of the Domestic Violence Ordinance (Cap. 189, revised 2008) on the well-being of domestic violence victims. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Working Paper

• Kong, S.T. (2017). Post-Separation Support as the Key to Abused Women and their Children’s Recovery.
• Fang, M.S., Lou, W.V. & Kong, S.T. (2016). The Provision of End-of-Life Care in Residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) as a Feasible Option to Living and Dying Well for an Ageing Population (Policy No. 1).
• Fang, M.S., Lou, W.V. & Kong, S.T. (2016). Aligning Medical and Social Care to Deliver Quality, Effective and Compassionate End of Life Care for the Dying in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (Policy No. 3).
• Fang, M.S., Lou, W.V. & Kong, S.T. (2016). Empowering Residential Homes for the Elderly (RCHEs) as a Key Strategy for Delivering Quality End-of-Life Care in Hong Kong (Policy No. 2).
• Fang, M.S., Lou, W.V. & Kong, S.T. (2016). Overview of the Legal and Administrative Barriers to Caring and Dying in Place in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (RCHEs) (Policy No. 4).