School of Social Work News

Professor Emerita Edith Lewis has been named the 2022 Alexis J. Walker Lifetime Achievement awardee. The award recognizes her decades of contributions to feminist scholarship, teaching and service and is sponsored by the Feminism and Family Science Section of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). Lewis will give a plenary address at the 2023 NCFR conference.

Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor’s review of 50 years of research on corporal punishment was cited in a Chicago Tribune article about the return of corporal punishment to a Missouri school district. The review was also cited in an editorial in the Washington Post.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline received the 2022 Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award. “I'm humbled to receive this award from doctoral students —an acknowledgement of my contributions,” said Friedline. “It is a tremendous honor to play a small role in supporting the next generations of social work and social sciences scholars.”

Associate Professor Robert Ortega’s profile of Professor Emerita Charles Garvin is featured in the latest issue of Social Work with Groups. PhD students Ronke Olawale and Andrea Shanon Mora are co-authors. The profile showcases Garvin’s lifelong contribution to social justice and social work with groups.

Assistant Professor Ashley Cureton and Field Faculty Rosalva Osorio have received funding for their project, The Implementation of Forum Theatre to Engage in Difficult Conversations within the U-M Social Work Community. The project uses Forum Theatre to provide social work students with concrete strategies on how to successfully engage in difficult conversations and challenging dialogues. The project was chosen by the U-M Arts Initiative, which supports the connection between teaching and the arts at U-M.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline shares her thoughts on President Biden’s student debt relief program in Fast Company.  She says that while the relief package will make a real difference, she is concerned that it ignores the role structural racism and sexism play in educational debt.  "The Biden administration will have to do more if it aims to adequately address these and the many other remaining structural problems with debt and education," she writes. The story originated in the Conversation and has been included in numerous publications including:

• The Conversation
• the Atlantic Journal-Constitution
• HeraldNet

On August 27, 2022, Detroit Bass Day celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Motown hit "Papa was a Rollin' Stone." A number one hit by The Temptations in 1972, the song features an immortal and driving bass line, which 50 bassists played on the Motown Museum Plaza. The song's powerful narrative about family responsibility has inspired the Papa WAS project, which invited participants to share their perspectives, personal narratives and spoken word poetry about fatherhood. The project continues to collect and post stories about fathers; the story collection is archived on the ENGAGE website. "The Bass Day celebration demonstrated the power of music to build community. The spoken word poetry was epic - weaving history, memory and emotion into a tribute for the contribution fathers make to their families. It was a joy and a privilege to have been a part of this amazing cultural event," said Professor Richard Tolman.

The Papa WAS project is spearheaded by Professor Rich Tolman and sponsored by the School of Social Work.

In a work of fiction for Current Affairs, Associate Professor Terri Friedline imagines “The Day Wells Fargo Closed” — the day when a bank once deemed “too big to fail” is shut down for the benefit of the public.