Gerard Chung
I’m an assistant professor of Social Work at the National University of Singapore, researching on technology
I graduated with a PhD in social work from UNC at Chapel Hill. I did my postdoctoral at A*STAR, and Social Service Research Centre. Before academia, I practiced as a social worker at Fei Yue Family Service Centre.
I’m Singaporean 🇸🇬. In my free time, I enjoy making Scratch games with my kids.
As a social work researcher, I’m intrigued by the complex relationship between our social work professional identity and the rapid technological changes we’re experiencing, particularly the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our field. My research stems from a desire to understand how our professional identity conditions the way we interpret new technologies, influences the evolution of our roles and practices, and paradoxically, both enables and constrains our ability to adapt. It is important that in our use of technologies, our interactions with technologies is meaningful and that our work is oriented to quality standards and ethics. Three strategies are key for social workers: evaluative judgement, emotional reflexivity, and epistemic doubt.
Visit our SWAT SW and Tech research lab where I work with practitioners, students, and researchers to develop technologies. In 2025, I am also starting a SWAT:Share online community where you can share your ideas, apps, prompts, or model cards with others. I hope to build an open-source community powered by the ideas of professionals and practitioners from the social service sector.
News & Updates
| Jan’25 | “ADJACENT POSSIBILITIES IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION: TRANSFORMING ROLE-PLAYING WITH SWAT” in Social Dimension, SASW Publication link Started teaching course SW3224 “Social Work & Technology of the Future” Interviewed for Big Read article “Tech is easing the workload of burnt out social workers, but the challenges of emotional labour remain” in CNA link |
| Dec’24 | Presented our AI Roleplaying tool at Higher Education in Singapore Scoping Review on RolePlaying preprint |
| Nov’24 | Paper on “Why Does Household Chaos Affect Parenting? Examining Multiple Pathways Through Parents’ Self Control and Emotional States” preprint Finished teaching SW4103 “Adv Research & Evaluation” |
| Oct’24 | Presented at Social Welfare Conference in Taipei! |
| Sept’24 | I moderated a panel on positive youth development in Fei Yue Youth OutReach Conference. |
| July’24 | My replies “Social workers need to study use of AI carefully” to ST forum to an opinion letter. |
| June’24 | Social Work and Tech research lab created SWAT. TEG grant awarded! |
| May’24 | Taught Practice Capstone II for social work Masters students Spoke at NRF AI4Science Workshop for Education about LLM-powered Role-playing for social work training |
| Mar’24 | Awarded USD$5,000 AWS cloud credits by NUS IT for computational proposal work. Spoke at NUS Open House 2024 with Dr. Matthew Lim on “What Mental Wellness and Health Means in the 21st Century”. Guest speaker for SW4880 “Technology in Social Work” on “How should we use technology in SW practice” where I spoke on predictive risk modeling. |
| Feb’24 | Comments on non-offending caregivers’ reluctance to disclose child abuse in TodayOnline |
| Jan’24 | Taught SWM5117B “Practice Research Capstone” to MSW students |