CASD is a student organized workshop series generously funded for a third consecutive year through the Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop Program and the Dean's Office of the School of Social Work.

CASD is a student-run initiative, with the goal of stimulating conversations about timely topics that cross disciplinary boundaries. The CASD workshop series aims to build intellectual bridges through discussion among scholars in social work and the social sciences.

As social work doctoral students in an interdisciplinary program we carry out research that cuts across traditional academic boundaries. To do this successfully requires one to develop skills that take into account differences between the social science disciplines and social work in problem definition, research methodologies, and applied versus basic approaches.

This workshop seeks to combine opportunities for student discussion and reading groups with an interdisciplinary workshop series involving faculty and students from social work and the five social science disciplines affiliated with the joint doctoral program.

To contact the CASD Workshop Coordinators, please send an email to: CASD@umich.edu.

Stigma, Sexuality, and Social Inequality: Perspectives on HIV/AIDS in India and the Dominican Republic
Wednesday, 4/9/2008, 4:00 - 6:00, 4154 LSA
Conversations Across Social Disciplines (CASD) presents a workshop in social work and anthropology. Speakers are Mark Padilla, Assistant Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Anthropology; and Michael R. Woodford, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work. They will talk about different perspectives on HIV/AIDS in India and the Dominican Republic. Please also join us for an informal dinner discussion immediately following the talks. CASD is a student-run initiative, with the goal of stimulating conversation about timely topics that cross disciplinary boundaries. The CASD series aims to build intellectual bridges through discussion among scholars in social work and the social sciences.
An Interdisciplinary Panel on Poverty
Tuesday, 4/1/2008, 4:00 - 6:00, 4154 LSA
CONVERSATIONS ACROSS SOCIAL DISCIPLINES (CASD) and INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP ON POVERTY AND INEQUALITY (IGPI) present An Interdisciplinary Panel on Poverty. Panelists are Alford Young, Jr., Associate Professor of Sociology; Greg Markus, Professor and Research Professor of Political Science; Elizabeth Gershoff, Assistant Professor of Social Work; Laura Wernick, Joint Doctoral Student in Social Work and Political Science. Moderator is Mike Spencer, Associate Professor of Social Work. The panelists will discuss the key questions and emerging issues related to poverty in their discipline/profession, as well as provide an overview of their own poverty-related research. Food and a discussion will follow. The panel is a joint effort of Conversations Across Social Disciplines (a Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science) and the new Interdisciplinary Group on Poverty and Inequality. CASD is a student-run initiative, with the goal of stimulating conversation about timely topics that cross disciplinary boundaries. The CASD series aims to build intellectual bridges through discussion among scholars in social work and the social sciences. IGPI is a group of graduate students across all disciplines and fields who are interested in poverty and inequality. Dinner is served at 5 pm.
Perspectives on Substance Use Across the Lifespan
Thursday, 12/6/2007, 4:00 - 6:00, B006 East Hall
Perspectives on Substance Use Across the Lifespan Please join us for an interdisciplinary CASD workshop with Robert Zucker, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, and Beth Glover Reed, Associate Professor of Social work and Women's Studies, who will be talking about different perspectives on substance use across the lifespan. Please also join us for an informal dinner discussion immediately following the talks.
The shape of good health: Implications of the social construction of obesity
Tuesday, 10/30/2007, 4:00 - 6:00, 4154 LSA
Please join us for an interdisciplinary CASD workshop with Edie Kieffer, Associate Professor of social work, and Anna Kirkland, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Womens Studies, who will be talking about the implications of the social construction of obesity. Please also join us for an informal dinner discussion immediately following the talks. Dinner will be provided by CASD.
The Dizzying Transformation of Poverty, Politics and Policy
Friday, 10/12/2007, 9:00 - 10:30, 1840 SSWB (Educational Conference Center)
Please join us for the 2007 CASD keynote lecture and keynote event for 50th Anniversary of Joint Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program by Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Sociology & Political Science at City University of New York. Professor Fox Piven is past Vice-President of the American Political Science Association, has served as program co-chair of the annual political science meetings, and is a past president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She is currently President of the American Sociological Association. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the President's Award of the American Public Health Association, and the American Sociological Association's Career Award for the Practice of Sociology, as well as their award for the Public Understanding of Sociology. Her books deal with the development of the welfare state, political movements, urban political, and electoral politics. Among them are Regulating The Poor (winner of the C. Wright Mills Award in 1972); Poor People's Movements (1977); The New Class War (1982); Why Americans Don't Vote (1988); The Mean Season (1987); Labor Parties In Postindustrial Societies (1992); The Breaking of The American Social Compact (1997); Why Americans Still Don't Vote (2000); The War at Home (2004); and Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006). Discussants: Michael Reisch, Professor of Social Work and David Tucker, Professor of Social Work.