Helen Weingarten

Helen Weingarten joined the faculty in 1981 as assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1987. In 2000 she was named associate professor emerita of social work.

She is interested in the factors and processes that promote positive change in adulthood. While much of her early work focused on change initiated by such crises as divorce or remarriage, her attention has been more recently directed at articulating how deep-rooted values and needs give impetus and direction to personal improvement, growth, and development.

Associate Professor Weingarten has studied interpersonal conflict as one process leading to change in personal, family, organizational, and community contexts. She has paid particular attention to the role of gender as it influences both behavior and outcome. She also examined the interaction of culture and conflict in close interpersonal contexts. Her research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Her publications included work on the divorce among the elderly and interpersonal models of conflict resolution.

In the 1988-89 academic year, Associate Professor Weingarten was a visiting professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. From 1989 to 1991 she directed the Interdisciplinary Program in Conflict Management Alternatives through the Center of Research on Social Organization in the College of Language, Science, and the Arts. She was a founding member of Fairteach (Faculty and Staff Against Racism). She served as a faculty mentor with athletes associated with the Michigan Athletic Department.