Kalpana is a social work academic in the UniSA Justice & Society unit. Her teaching specialty is in the field of rural practice, community development, theories for social work, mental health, and ageing population. Her research focuses on immigrants’ and refugees settlement, coping and resilience, aged care, and teaching and learning in higher education. She has completed various research projects that include ‘Developing effective feedback strategies in higher education’, ‘Settlement of immigrants in the rural and regional area’, Immigrant workers in Aged care industry’, and ‘Self-care mental health practices of immigrants’ settled in the regional area’ and most recently on ‘Curriculum innovation in higher education’ in collaboration with Western Sydney University, Australia and, the National University of Education and Public Administration (NEUAPA) in New Delhi, India. She has also published a co-edited book on ‘Community work: theories, practices and challenges’ published by Niruta Publications, Bangalore, India.
She is supervising two Ph. D students who are researching ' How intergenerational care is perceived and practiced in Chinese international families living in Australia'?
and
'Transition Experiences of Young People from African Humanitarian Backgrounds from Higher Education to Employment in South Australia'.
She is serving as a doctoral advisor for two Ph. D candidates at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, India.
Kalpana also sits as a social work subject expert on the 'Board of Studies' of Alaggapa University, TN, India. She is being appointed as an Editorial Board member of the '‘Rajagiri Journal of Social Development’ until 2022 by Rajagiri Social Science Institute, Cochin, India.
She welcomes any inquiry from students for higher degree research and from colleagues for research collaborations in the areas of ageing and aged care, intergenerational care, immigrants, refugees and migration, community development, curriculum development in social work, and mental health coping and resilience.