School of Social Work News

Professor Rogério M. Pinto discussed his denied bid for tenure at Columbia University in 2014, and the physical, emotional and intellectual toll it took, with The Chronicle of Higher Education.  

“Everybody who is involved with you, either as a professional or someone who is doing research with you or the participants in your research, the people who you love — everybody is affected by it one way or another, and they’re affected very deeply. There’s no way to minimize this. Everything that happens after my tenure denial, every single relationship, every single connection has suffered in some way. It has a domino effect, which is never talked about.”

Pinto joined the U-M School of Social Work in 2015 and was granted tenure the following year. He felt inspired to speak out after reading about Lorgia García Peña’s tenure denial at Harvard University.

Professor Rogério M. Pinto was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. The academy is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through high-impact work that advances social good. Fellow status is among the highest professional accolades bestowed to social work scholars. The School of Social Work now has 13 academy members. Pinto is the Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work, a University Diversity Social Transformation Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in Social Work.

Pinto will be formally inducted in an online ceremony on January 14, 7-7:45 PM MST as part of the 2023 Society for Social Work and Research’s Annual Conference.

Professor Rogério M. Pinto has been named a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, and jointly administered by the U-M National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) and the Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI), the Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship is an honor designation for senior faculty who have the highest levels of achievement in demonstrating a commitment to the university’s ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion through their scholarship, teaching or service and engagement. The initial appointment is for five years and also includes special faculty fellow status at NCID.

Pinto’s research focuses on finding academic, sociopolitical and cultural venues for broadcasting voices of oppressed individuals and groups. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, his community-engaged research focuses on the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the delivery of evidence-based services (HIV and drug-use prevention and care) to marginalized racial/ethnic and sexual minorities in the United States and Brazil. Pinto also conducts art-based scholarly research.

"With this professorship, I will advance my federally-funded research on the impact of critical consciousness to abate racism, homophobia, sexism and other forms of oppression. I will specifically investigate performance and visual arts as vehicles for self-healing and social action against oppression of minoritized people," said Pinto.

Pinto is the Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work and the School’s Associate Dean for Research and Innovation.  He is also a Professor of Theatre and Drama at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He was the recipient of the U-M Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award in 2021.

Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Professor of Social Work Rogério Meireles Pinto has been appointed the Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work. Pinto’s community-based participatory research aims to improve access to social work and public health services, particularly those services at the intersection of health and well-being. He examines how transdisciplinary collaboration and practitioners’ involvement in research improves the delivery of evidence-based services. He also studies factors that influence ethnic and sexual minority women’s involvement in research and health care.

Each piece of vintage luggage in the installation performance tells a piece of Rogério Pinto's story. Crafted into sculptures, suitcases and trunks recount a period when he was consumed by the loss of his three-year-old sister Marília and his family's struggles after her death.

Born and raised in Brazil, Pinto, a professor and associate dean for research and innovation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, found a way through the visual and performing arts to confront a painful past, find peace and forgiveness. He created an award-winning play entitled "Marília," readapted now as a new art project called "Realm of the Dead."

This community-based art initiative invites the audience to dive into complex subjects from death and parental molestation to ethnicity, race, gender and other issues. It premieres in October at the U-M School of Social Work, which celebrates its centennial. "Realm of the Dead" is an autobiographical project that uses self-referential theater as a vehicle for self-healing and advocacy. Based on pedagogy and theater of the oppressed, it intends to advance social work research and practice, as tools of critical reflection, personal growth and advocacy.

Professor Rogério Meireles Pinto spoke with Marie Claire Brazil about the importance of the Stonewall riots in terms of current LGBTQIA2+ rights and aspirations. "The relationships between the different groups that comprise LGBTQIA2+ have always been a little uneasy," said Pinto." To the extent that there was a ‘gay movement' in early 1969, that movement wasn't centered in bars like Stonewall. For the most part it was middle class and socially conservative - nicely dressed young men and women marching peacefully, if at all. There were always exceptions, but Stonewall was the first time that any of those represented in what we today call LGBTQIA2+ pushed back against the police and government visibly and forcefully."

Professor Rogério M. Pinto spoke with Fox 17 West Michigan about how demonstrations can change public opinion. In the wake of George Floyd’s death last year, there were over 10,000 protests and demonstration events over the summer, 95% of them were peaceful. “Protests are also effective in the sense of changing people’s hearts, not just their opinions but changing how they feel about groups in the population,” said Pinto.

Professor Rogério M. Pinto is the Council on Social Work Education Diversity Center’s Educator of the Month. The accompanying article discusses his scholarly approach to incorporating arts into his research as well as his work advancing intersectionality and championing diversity. The profile also covers  the online COVID and Racial Inequalities Forum series Pinto hosted last summer, and links to his presentation “Diversity Matters: What About Equity & Inclusion?”