Dear Colleagues and Students,
I am writing to update you on the actions we have undertaken as we hold ourselves accountable as an institution, and as a community, in creating a learning environment that fully integrates a just practice framework across our curriculum, field experiences, and community partnerships.
In June, we convened two faculty and staff meetings dedicated to this necessary work. These meetings were extraordinarily well-attended.
The International Education (PIE) Award program honors the contribution of US social work faculty members, social work students, and organizations as partners in advancing education for international social work. The PIE Award is given in recognition of conceptual, curricular, and programmatic innovations in education for international social work.
The members of the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College stand in solidarity with people throughout the United States and around the world in mourning the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Atatiana Jefferson. This senseless loss of life at a time when the official COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. has reached 100,000 defies our understanding.
Social workers must speak out against injustice and at the same time be self-aware to ensure that residuals of systemic racism as well as other ‘isms‘ that live in all of us are identified and addressed.
Joshua P.H. Livingston received his PhD in Social Welfare from the CUNY Graduate Center. Using his experiences as a Licensed Master Barber and the Black American barbershop as an exemplar, Dr. Livingston’s work focuses on how social innovation and ‘placemaking’ can be utilized by young people of color to challenge institutional environments through the use of community forms that hold cultural significance.
Dr. Keith Chan is a new Assistant Professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Dr. Chan is a Health and Aging Policy Fellow, Asian RCMAR scientist, Hartford Doctoral Fellow and alumnus of the Minority Fellowship Program. He received his B.A. from Brown University and his MSW and Ph.D. from Boston College.
