Yuk-Lin Renita Wong
Professor
Office: Ross Building, S829
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 23081
Email: rylwong@yorku.ca
Professor Yuk-Lin Renita Wong’s scholarship and teaching aim at deconstructing the power relations in the knowledge production and discursive practices of social work; as well as re-centering marginalized voices and ways of knowing and being. She brings contemplative pedagogy into critical social work education and explores mindfulness as a pedagogy of decolonization and as critical reflective practice that nurtures awareness and wholeness in social justice work. She has been a mindfulness practitioner since 1998 and leads meditation and mindfulness training in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Alongside her academic life is her community service in end-of-life care. She has co-developed the Compassionate Care Program under the Buddhist Education Network of Ontario to provide hospice volunteer training and service for Chinese-speaking clients in palliative/hospice care and their families.
Degrees
PhD, OISE/University of TorontoMaster of Social Work, University of Hong Kong
Master of Philosophy (Sociology), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Bachelor of Social Science (Sociology), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesResearch Interests
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2019. "Mindfulness and Social Work." In The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theories. Ed. by Malcolm Payne and Emma Reith-Hall. New York: Routledge.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2018. "Please call me by my true names: The decolonizing pedagogy of mindfulness and interbeing for critical social work education." In Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization. Ed. by Sheila Batachary and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. Edmonton, Alberta: Athabasca University Press. Available online open access: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120269/ebook/10_Batacharya_Wong_2018-Sharing_Breath.pdf
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2014. “Radical acceptance: Mindfulness and critical social work education." In Mindfulness and acceptance in social work. Ed. by Matthew Boone. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Maoyichang zhaodengde rizi: Wosi kaowo yishangshou yangda wode zinude Ye Dajie (My days in the wool garment factories – Big Sister Ye: ‘I raise up my children with my own hands’),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Tongyi tiankongxiade zhiyiye chujing: Jenny yu minling chong Xianggang dao Duolunduode cheyi shengai (Situations of the garment industry under the same sky: Jenny’s and Minling’s garment factory lives from Hong Kong to Toronto),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Ziqiang buxide Zhang Qin: Sushizaide zhiyi shengaiyu Xianggang neikuchangde xingshuai (The self-strengthening of Zhang Qin: The rise and fall of underwear factories in Hong Kong),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2006. “Minzhengyu chengshi guanli: Pinglun (Civil affairs and city governance: Commentary).” In Shequ shehui gongzuo: Zhongwai shiyezhongde jiaoliu (Community social work: An insider-outsider exchange of perspectives). Ed. by Miu Chung Yan and GAO Jian Guo. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe (China Social Science Academy Press).
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and Jana Vinsky. 2021. “Beyond implicit bias: Embodied cognition, mindfulness and critical reflective practice in social work.” Australian Social Work 74(2): 186-197.
Ku, Hok-Bun and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. "State, Profession, and Religion: Reflecting on Spirituality and Indigenous Social Work in China in the Yushu Earthquake Relief." Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. Advanced online doi access: https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2018.1446863
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2013. "Returning to silence, connecting to wholeness: Contemplative pedagogy for critical social work education." Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. 32(3),269-285.
Long, Di and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2012. “Time bound: The timescape of secondary trauma among the surviving teachers of the Wenchuan Earthquake.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 82(2), 241-250.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Josephine P. Wong and Kenneth P. Fung. 2010. Mental health promotion through empowerment and community capacity building among East and Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee Women. Canadian Issues: Immigrant Mental Health. Summer Issue: 108-113.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Yuk Ki Timothy Leung, and Choi Wan Dorcas Lau. 2009. “Behind the allure of gambling: A qualitative exploration of the existential yearnings among Chinese men with problem gambling.” International Gambling Studies. 9(3), 189-205.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and Jana Vinsky. 2009. “Speaking from the margins: A critical reflection on the ‘spiritual-but-not-religious’ discourse in social work.” British Journal of Social Work. 39(7), 1343-1359.
Fung, Kenneth and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2007. “Factors influencing attitudes towards seeking professional help among East and Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee women.” International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 53(3): 216-231.
Yan, Miu Chung and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2005. “Rethinking self-awareness in cultural competence: Towards a dialogic self in cross-cultural social work.” Families in Society. 86(2): 181-188.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2004. “Knowing through discomfort: A mindfulness-based critical social work pedagogy.” Critical Social Work 5(1).
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and A. Ka Tat Tsang. 2004. “When Asian immigrant women speak: From mental health to strategies of being.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 74(4): 456-466.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2004. “When East meets West: Nation, colony, and Hong Kong women's subjectivities in gender and China-development.” Modern China 30 (2): 259-292.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2003. “Deconstructing culture in cultural competence: Dissenting voices from Asian-Canadian practitioners.” Canadian Social Work Review 20(2): 149-167.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2002. “Going ‘back’ and staying ‘out’: Articulating the postcolonial Hong Kong subjects in the development of China.” Journal of Contemporary China 11: 141-160.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2002. “Reclaiming Chinese women’s subjectivities: Indigenizing ‘social work with women’ in China through postcolonial ethnography.” Women’s Studies International Forum 25 (1): 66-77.
Hsiung, Ping-chun and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 1998. “Jie Gui – Connecting the tracks: Chinese women’s activism surrounding the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing.” Gender & History 10 (3): 470-497.
Wellman, Barry, Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, David Tindall and Nancy Nazer. 1997. “A decade of network change: Turnover, persistence and stability in personal communities.” Social Networks 19 (1): 27-50.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 1997. “Dispersing the ‘public’ and the ‘private’: Gender and the state in the birth planning policy of China.” Gender & Society 11(4): 509-525.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Leslie Jeffrey, Agnieszka Palalas, and Karen Robert. 2019. “Contemplative education and critical thinking.” Chair and Panel presented at the Canadian Society for the Studies in Education Annual Conference, Congress 2019 of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 3.
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. "Other ways of knowing: Toward a decolonization of contemplative education.” Panel Session co-presented with Drs. Sonya Atalay, Lezlie Frye, Miliann Kang, and Jennifer Cannon at the 10th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education titled, “Imagining Humane Institutions: Connection, Social Action, and Scholarship Rooted in Contemplative Practices,” Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, October 5-7.
Batacharya, Sheila and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. “Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization Round Table.” Co-presented at the Decolonizing Conference, University of Toronto. November 8-10.
“Mindful eating: The decolonizing pedagogy of interbeing.” In the 7th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, “Building Just Communities”. Howard University, Washington DC. October 8-10, 2015.
“ ‘Please call me by my true names’: The decolonizing pedagogy of mindfulness for critical social work education.” In the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference in the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Brock University, Canada. May 29, 2014.
“Embodiment, Pedagogy and Decolonization: Critical and material considerations.” A symposium co-organized with Dr. Sheila Batacharya in the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference in the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Brock University, Canada. May 29, 2014.
Invited presentation: “A thousand needles, ten thousands threads: The oral history of garment workers in Hong Kong,” in “Biography and the history of Hong Kong,” organized by the York Center for Asian Research. Toronto. November 26, 2009.
“Integrating research into practice: A capacity building approach to promote mental health and reduce stigma among immigrant and refugee communities.” Workshop Co-presentation as 2nd author with Josephine Wong and Linda Yoo in the conference titled, “Expanding our Horizons: Moving Mental Health and Wellness Promotion into the Mainstream,” organized by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. February 25, 2009.
“Social work: Walking with the students of Beichuan Middle School after the 512 Wenchuan Earthquake,” Co-presentation as third author with LONG, Di and Yuk Ki Timothy Leung in the Fourth Conference on the Humanities and Social Sciences in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, organized by Nanjing University. November 21-22, 2009.
Invited presentation: “Behind the allure of gambling: Mindfulness and existential yearnings of Chinese men with gambling problem in Hong Kong,” in Discovery 2008, organized by Responsible Gambling Council. Ottawa. April 14-16, 2008
Keynote Presentation: “From addiction to existential yearnings: Disconnection, hypnosis and spirituality among men in Hong Kong with a gambling problem.” In the Conference on Gambling: Culture, Community and Interventions, organized by COSTI Immigrant Services. Toronto. March 27, 2007.
Keynote Presentation: “Spirituality and critical social work.” In the Reflexive in Social Work Praxis Symposium, organized by the Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. May 27, 2006.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2009. Hong Fook Mental Health Association Consumers/Survivors Self-Help Program Quality of Life General Survey Report (2006-2007). December 27.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2019. “Contemplative Pedagogy and Decolonization.” Plenary Presentation and Workshops in the Summer Session on Contemplative Learning, organized by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A., August 4-9.
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2022 | AP/SOWK3041 3.0 | N | Communication | LECT |
| Winter 2022 | AP/SOWK3041 3.0 | O | Communication | LECT |
| Fall 2021 | GS/SOWK5907 3.0 | A | Mindfulness and Just Relations in Social | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2021 | GS/SOWK5350 6.0 | C | Advanced Practicum | PRAC |
Professor Yuk-Lin Renita Wong’s scholarship and teaching aim at deconstructing the power relations in the knowledge production and discursive practices of social work; as well as re-centering marginalized voices and ways of knowing and being. She brings contemplative pedagogy into critical social work education and explores mindfulness as a pedagogy of decolonization and as critical reflective practice that nurtures awareness and wholeness in social justice work. She has been a mindfulness practitioner since 1998 and leads meditation and mindfulness training in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Alongside her academic life is her community service in end-of-life care. She has co-developed the Compassionate Care Program under the Buddhist Education Network of Ontario to provide hospice volunteer training and service for Chinese-speaking clients in palliative/hospice care and their families.
Degrees
PhD, OISE/University of TorontoMaster of Social Work, University of Hong Kong
Master of Philosophy (Sociology), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Bachelor of Social Science (Sociology), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesResearch Interests
All Publications
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2019. "Mindfulness and Social Work." In The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theories. Ed. by Malcolm Payne and Emma Reith-Hall. New York: Routledge.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2018. "Please call me by my true names: The decolonizing pedagogy of mindfulness and interbeing for critical social work education." In Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization. Ed. by Sheila Batachary and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. Edmonton, Alberta: Athabasca University Press. Available online open access: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120269/ebook/10_Batacharya_Wong_2018-Sharing_Breath.pdf
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2014. “Radical acceptance: Mindfulness and critical social work education." In Mindfulness and acceptance in social work. Ed. by Matthew Boone. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Maoyichang zhaodengde rizi: Wosi kaowo yishangshou yangda wode zinude Ye Dajie (My days in the wool garment factories – Big Sister Ye: ‘I raise up my children with my own hands’),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Tongyi tiankongxiade zhiyiye chujing: Jenny yu minling chong Xianggang dao Duolunduode cheyi shengai (Situations of the garment industry under the same sky: Jenny’s and Minling’s garment factory lives from Hong Kong to Toronto),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2008. “Ziqiang buxide Zhang Qin: Sushizaide zhiyi shengaiyu Xianggang neikuchangde xingshuai (The self-strengthening of Zhang Qin: The rise and fall of underwear factories in Hong Kong),” in Qianjin wanxiang: Xianggang chengyi gongren koushu lishi (Thousands of needles and threads: The oral history of Hong Kong garment workers). Ed. by Po-king Choi. Hong Kong: Jinyibu Press.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2006. “Minzhengyu chengshi guanli: Pinglun (Civil affairs and city governance: Commentary).” In Shequ shehui gongzuo: Zhongwai shiyezhongde jiaoliu (Community social work: An insider-outsider exchange of perspectives). Ed. by Miu Chung Yan and GAO Jian Guo. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe (China Social Science Academy Press).
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and Jana Vinsky. 2021. “Beyond implicit bias: Embodied cognition, mindfulness and critical reflective practice in social work.” Australian Social Work 74(2): 186-197.
Ku, Hok-Bun and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. "State, Profession, and Religion: Reflecting on Spirituality and Indigenous Social Work in China in the Yushu Earthquake Relief." Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. Advanced online doi access: https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2018.1446863
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2013. "Returning to silence, connecting to wholeness: Contemplative pedagogy for critical social work education." Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work. 32(3),269-285.
Long, Di and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2012. “Time bound: The timescape of secondary trauma among the surviving teachers of the Wenchuan Earthquake.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 82(2), 241-250.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Josephine P. Wong and Kenneth P. Fung. 2010. Mental health promotion through empowerment and community capacity building among East and Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee Women. Canadian Issues: Immigrant Mental Health. Summer Issue: 108-113.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Yuk Ki Timothy Leung, and Choi Wan Dorcas Lau. 2009. “Behind the allure of gambling: A qualitative exploration of the existential yearnings among Chinese men with problem gambling.” International Gambling Studies. 9(3), 189-205.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and Jana Vinsky. 2009. “Speaking from the margins: A critical reflection on the ‘spiritual-but-not-religious’ discourse in social work.” British Journal of Social Work. 39(7), 1343-1359.
Fung, Kenneth and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2007. “Factors influencing attitudes towards seeking professional help among East and Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee women.” International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 53(3): 216-231.
Yan, Miu Chung and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2005. “Rethinking self-awareness in cultural competence: Towards a dialogic self in cross-cultural social work.” Families in Society. 86(2): 181-188.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2004. “Knowing through discomfort: A mindfulness-based critical social work pedagogy.” Critical Social Work 5(1).
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita and A. Ka Tat Tsang. 2004. “When Asian immigrant women speak: From mental health to strategies of being.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 74(4): 456-466.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2004. “When East meets West: Nation, colony, and Hong Kong women's subjectivities in gender and China-development.” Modern China 30 (2): 259-292.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2003. “Deconstructing culture in cultural competence: Dissenting voices from Asian-Canadian practitioners.” Canadian Social Work Review 20(2): 149-167.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2002. “Going ‘back’ and staying ‘out’: Articulating the postcolonial Hong Kong subjects in the development of China.” Journal of Contemporary China 11: 141-160.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2002. “Reclaiming Chinese women’s subjectivities: Indigenizing ‘social work with women’ in China through postcolonial ethnography.” Women’s Studies International Forum 25 (1): 66-77.
Hsiung, Ping-chun and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 1998. “Jie Gui – Connecting the tracks: Chinese women’s activism surrounding the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing.” Gender & History 10 (3): 470-497.
Wellman, Barry, Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, David Tindall and Nancy Nazer. 1997. “A decade of network change: Turnover, persistence and stability in personal communities.” Social Networks 19 (1): 27-50.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 1997. “Dispersing the ‘public’ and the ‘private’: Gender and the state in the birth planning policy of China.” Gender & Society 11(4): 509-525.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita, Leslie Jeffrey, Agnieszka Palalas, and Karen Robert. 2019. “Contemplative education and critical thinking.” Chair and Panel presented at the Canadian Society for the Studies in Education Annual Conference, Congress 2019 of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 3.
Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. "Other ways of knowing: Toward a decolonization of contemplative education.” Panel Session co-presented with Drs. Sonya Atalay, Lezlie Frye, Miliann Kang, and Jennifer Cannon at the 10th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education titled, “Imagining Humane Institutions: Connection, Social Action, and Scholarship Rooted in Contemplative Practices,” Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, October 5-7.
Batacharya, Sheila and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong. 2018. “Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization Round Table.” Co-presented at the Decolonizing Conference, University of Toronto. November 8-10.
“Mindful eating: The decolonizing pedagogy of interbeing.” In the 7th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, “Building Just Communities”. Howard University, Washington DC. October 8-10, 2015.
“ ‘Please call me by my true names’: The decolonizing pedagogy of mindfulness for critical social work education.” In the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference in the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Brock University, Canada. May 29, 2014.
“Embodiment, Pedagogy and Decolonization: Critical and material considerations.” A symposium co-organized with Dr. Sheila Batacharya in the Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference in the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Brock University, Canada. May 29, 2014.
Invited presentation: “A thousand needles, ten thousands threads: The oral history of garment workers in Hong Kong,” in “Biography and the history of Hong Kong,” organized by the York Center for Asian Research. Toronto. November 26, 2009.
“Integrating research into practice: A capacity building approach to promote mental health and reduce stigma among immigrant and refugee communities.” Workshop Co-presentation as 2nd author with Josephine Wong and Linda Yoo in the conference titled, “Expanding our Horizons: Moving Mental Health and Wellness Promotion into the Mainstream,” organized by the Mental Health Commission of Canada. February 25, 2009.
“Social work: Walking with the students of Beichuan Middle School after the 512 Wenchuan Earthquake,” Co-presentation as third author with LONG, Di and Yuk Ki Timothy Leung in the Fourth Conference on the Humanities and Social Sciences in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, organized by Nanjing University. November 21-22, 2009.
Invited presentation: “Behind the allure of gambling: Mindfulness and existential yearnings of Chinese men with gambling problem in Hong Kong,” in Discovery 2008, organized by Responsible Gambling Council. Ottawa. April 14-16, 2008
Keynote Presentation: “From addiction to existential yearnings: Disconnection, hypnosis and spirituality among men in Hong Kong with a gambling problem.” In the Conference on Gambling: Culture, Community and Interventions, organized by COSTI Immigrant Services. Toronto. March 27, 2007.
Keynote Presentation: “Spirituality and critical social work.” In the Reflexive in Social Work Praxis Symposium, organized by the Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. May 27, 2006.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2009. Hong Fook Mental Health Association Consumers/Survivors Self-Help Program Quality of Life General Survey Report (2006-2007). December 27.
Wong, Yuk-Lin Renita. 2019. “Contemplative Pedagogy and Decolonization.” Plenary Presentation and Workshops in the Summer Session on Contemplative Learning, organized by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.A., August 4-9.
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2022 | AP/SOWK3041 3.0 | N | Communication | LECT |
| Winter 2022 | AP/SOWK3041 3.0 | O | Communication | LECT |
| Fall 2021 | GS/SOWK5907 3.0 | A | Mindfulness and Just Relations in Social | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2021 | GS/SOWK5350 6.0 | C | Advanced Practicum | PRAC |
