News

Lecturer Laura Sanders’ work with animal-assisted therapy (AAT) at her farm is featured in Crazy Wisdom Journal. “Instead of vegetables, we produce mental health,” she says.

Sanders describes her approach to AAT and how she uses it to teach relationship-building with social work students.

Professor Matt Smith’s research was cited in the MIT Technology Review on the potential of using virtual reality as a therapeutic tool, specifically for incarcerated individuals. Smith originally developed Molly, a virtual-reality tool for job interview training, for underserved groups. Molly was...

Associate Professor Shanna Kattari is quoted in USA Today on the recent negative attention and laws in the U.S. targeting transgender people. "All of this anti-trans rhetoric is absolutely about power and control, though some people may also hate trans people," says Kattari, "We are seeing the...

Professor Emeritus John Tropman’s new book, “Fixing Broken Meetings: A Manual on Meeting Rotten-osity, Deleterious Decisions, and Ineffective Implementation,” examines the myriad ways in which meetings regularly fail and how individuals and organizations can produce efficient meetings that lead to...

Professor Luke Shaefer spoke with Marketplace about the recent report showing that only 25 percent of those who were out of work in 2022 applied for unemployment benefits.  “There is undoubtedly a set of people who actually are eligible for benefits and should be getting them,” said Shaefer, who...

Assistant Professor Rebeccah Sokol has been named a 2023 Public Engagement Faculty Fellow. The university launched its Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship program in 2020 to help faculty bolster their knowledge and skills, and also reflect on how public engagement aligns with their scholarly...

Associate Professor Terri Friedline spoke with “Marketplace” about the benefits of public banking, especially given the recent turmoil in the banking sector. Not only would public banking provide a full range of services to underserved communities, but they also generally offer more safety than...

Professor Luke Shaefer spoke with the Michigan Advance about the “dark times” Michigan is facing given the recent cuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. “I want to stress how incredibly successful the expansion of the safety net was during the COVID crisis — the expansion...

Associate Research Scientist Roland Zullo discussed Michigan’s right-to-work law with WEMU. “Repealing right-to-work certainly helps the labor movement on a couple of levels. But the main one,” said Zullo “is that it shows that labor has regained a little bit of political power in this state.”

Associate Professor Camille Quinn will receive the 2023 Milestone Achievement Award from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. The Milestone Achievement Award honors Crown Family School alumni for their exemplary social work values, exceptional...