Alex Akhup is Professor in Centre for Social Justice and Governance, School of Social Work, TISS Mumbai Campus.  He completed Master of Arts and M.Phil Degrees in Social Work from the Delhi School of Social Work, Delhi University, and was awarded Doctorate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has been a teaching faculty member of the School of Social Work, Mumbai since 2003.

Located within the Centre of Social Justice and Governance, he contributed to curriculum formulation, teaching, research, fieldwork and publication on issues concerning social justice and governance within social work education and practice. He has been part of the faculty team responsible for the conceptualization and implementation of social work education and practice unique to the Indian context. Importantly, he has been actively involved in coordination/guidance of research projects of students, a six credit compulsory course, at the Master Degree level in the School of Social Work in the capacity of the Research Coordinator of the Centre and also member of the Research Committee of the School. He has also contributed a thematic optional course for the Mphil/Ph.D. programme, and also successfully guided number of Mphil/Ph.D. Scholars of the School of Social Work and the Institute. Presently, he is part of the Research Committee member that engages on designing the curriculum and pedagogy of the Ph.D. programme at the School of Social Work in the light of the National Education Policy 2020. Besides, he has also been responsible in strengthening the foundation course of the Institute and research teaching and guidance of students across schools of the Institute on topics concerning rural/tribal areas. 

As part of the fieldwork and education within the Social Work Master Degree programme, he has been actively involved with student supervision and field practicum component of the social work education and practice. Through this engagement, he has also been involved in strengthening grassroots organizations in tribal areas of the country. 

As part of policy research and practice, he has conducted implementation assessment studies under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Ministry of Tribal Affairs in relation to family Counselling Centres in India and Grant-in-Aid given to Voluntary Organizations working for the Scheduled Tribes. Under the sponsorship of Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, he also conducted research projects on ‘Gender Issues and Women Empowerment among Tribes in the Northeast Region’ and ‘Local-self Governance and Empowerment in Manipur and Tripura’. These works have resulted in publications to inform policy and practice.

As an institutional response (both internal and external), he has undertaken the responsibility for the welfare and wellbeing of the students in the capacity of hostel warden and also served various committees of the Institute related to students affairs. He has also been actively involved in the implementation of UGC guidelines to University campuses on establishing accessibility friendly environments for students who belong to ‘persons with disabilities’. He has also contributed to  research and policy on special education under the Department of Education of Groups with Special Needs, NCERT New Delhi in the capacity of Departmental Advisory Board member, and curriculum development of Political Science, B.K. Birla College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Kalyan Maharashtra in the capacity of member of Board of Studies. 

Being part of the faculty of Social Work who firmly believes in social work education and practice, he has actively contributed to curriculum and practice through active academic engagement – teaching, research and publication. In this endeavour, he has been instrumental in reimagining social work education and practice in the Indian context. For example through his work(edited), “Identities and Struggles in Northeast''(2015) published by Adivaani, and articles namely “Social Work Research through Tribal/Adivasi People Lens: Some Observations from Academic Engagement”(2022) published in Journal of Social Work Education and Practice, “Social Welfare Administration Practice in India: A Context Centric Social Work Approach”(2020) published in British Journal of Social Work and “Social Work Practice During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Learning from the Scavenger Community”(2022) published in the Indian Journal of Social Work, he has contributed to contextualization of social work research and practice. These works have been responsible in creating a line of social work discourse that informs knowledge building and practice from the perspective of ‘the south’, ‘margins’ and ‘peripheralized’ (non western european locations). 

As part of the academic response to the Mphil/Ph.D. programme of School of Social Work during the Covid-19 Pandemic, he initiated a virtual pedagogic platform with the help of the School of Social Work Research Scholars' Forum.  This initiative has successfully managed to bring rigour among scholars and faculties across eight centres of thematic practice of the School on strengthening research, teaching and publication through virtual Research Methodology Colloquium and Research Paper Presentation series. The platform has not only responded effectively to the Ph.D. programme of the School in the contingencies of the Covid-19 pandemic but actually created a new space for conversation/discourse on social work research methodologies and practice across schools of social work in the country.