School of Social Work News

Professor Joseph Ryan will receive the President’s Award for Public Impact. The award honors individuals who have offered their academic research and expertise in tangible service of a major public-sector challenge.

The University of Michigan School of Social Work will present a commissioned solo performance work by artist, writer, performer and DJ Juliana Huxtable on Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 5 PM (doors open at 4:30 PM) at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater, which is located within the Michigan League at 911 North University Avenue (theater entrance on Fletcher Street; parking at Palmer Drive Parking Structure and Thayer Street Structure).

Ms. Huxtable’s performance is presented with additional support from the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA); the U-M Institute for Research on Women and Gender; and the U-M Spectrum Center, which helps enhance campus life for LGBTQ+ students, staff and faculty. This event is part of the university’s 2019 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium and offered free of charge.

Juliana Huxtable is an American artist, writer, performer and musician. Exploring the intersections of race, gender, queerness, technology and identity, Huxtable uses a diverse set of means to engage these issues, including self-portraiture, text-based prints, performance, nightlife, music, writing and social media. Huxtable references her own body and history as a transgender African American woman as she challenges the socio-political and cultural forces that inform normative conceptions of gender and sexuality. She lives and works in New York, where she is the founder and DJ for Shock Value, and part of House of Ladosha, a nightlife collective run by artists, DJs, writers and fashion icons.

Huxtable’s art and performance work has been featured at Roskilde Festival, Denmark (2018); Rewire Festival, Netherlands (2018); Park Avenue Armory, New York (2018); Reena Spaulings, New York (2017); Project Native Informant, London (2017); MoMA PS1, New York (2014); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2014); Frieze Projects, London (2014) and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2015), among other venues. 

Huxtable's work is featured in Art in the Age of the Internet: 1989 to Today, on view at UMMA through April 7, 2019. She will stage a performance presented by the U-M School of Social Work on Wednesday, February 6 at 5 PM in the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater.

The presentation of Ms. Huxtable’s work is part of the School of Social Work’s initiative to build its collection of contemporary fine art with social themes. The existing collection includes work by Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, Diane Arbus, Frank Stella and William Kentridge and many others.

Related event:

• Thursday, February 7: Penny W. Stamps Speaker Series presents Juliana Huxtable at the Michigan Theater 5:10 PM

More Information:

• U-M School of Social Work
• U-M Stamps School of Art & Design

Professor Brad Zebrack has been named a 2019 Association of Oncology Social Work Fellow. The fellowship recognizes and honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the science and practice of psychosocial oncology.

U-M researchers from a wide variety of disciplines are working to address the global HIV epidemic by developing interventions and searching for cures. The U-M Interprofessional Collaboration Implementation Group is working on both behavioral and structural interventions. Read about their work in the January issue of Michigan Research.

Associate Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor's meta-analysis of 50 years of research on corporal punishment was key in the recent American Academy of Pediatrics policy update on corporal punishment. The Academy - the largest professional organization for US pediatricians - is taking a strict stance against parents, caregivers and other adults using spanking, hitting or slapping to discipline children. The updated policy statement is the first major revise since 1998.

The Michigan Road Scholars have selected Assistant Professors Shanna Kattari and Ashley Lacombe-Duncan and Field Educator Rachel Naasko to participate in the 2019 program. This 5-day educational tour exposes participants to the state’s economy, government and politics, culture, educational systems, health and social issues, history and geography.

Designed to increase mutual knowledge and understanding between the university and the people and communities of the state, the tour introduces participants to locations the majority of U-M students call home. It also encourages university service to the public and suggests ways faculty can address state issues through research, scholarship and creative activity.

Associate Professor Robert Ortega has been selected as a National Child Welfare Workforce Institute Advisory Board member. The institute’s mission is to increase the equity and effectiveness of child welfare practice.

Associate Professor Trina Shanks has been elected to serve as a member of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Executive Committee. Shanks will contribute perspectives and energy to one of the most important social agendas in the history of the social work profession.  She will be joining a group of highly respected and influential colleagues who are committed to achieving social change around some of the deepest and most persistent problems of our age.