social justice

Social Work Faculty Rome Publishes New Textbook about Promoting Voting Rights

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 20:01:39 +0000

Social Work Faculty Rome Publishes New Textbook about Promoting Voting Rights Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/18/2022 - 15:01

Promote the Vote: Positioning Social Workers for Action asserts that supporting political participation is integral to social work practice.

The publication of a new book by Sunny Harris Rome, a professor in the Department of Social Work, comes at a critical time when voting rights are at risk in Virginia and around the nation. Her book details why social workers should be invested in promoting voter participation in the United States and how to support civic participation, particularly among low-turnout groups.

Promote the Vote: Positioning Social Workers for Action is the first social work textbook with a sole focus on voting. It asserts that empowering underrepresented communities to participate in the American political process is integral to social work practice.

Sunny Harris Rome, MSW, JD

“Engaging in voter education and mobilization is a great way for us as social workers to translate into action our commitment to social and economic justice,” says Rome, emphasizing the importance of her book’s timely publication. “We [as social workers] have an ethical mandate to be involved in social and political action and to involve others.”

The book lays out many of the current social and economic realities that define the United States in 2022. These include gun violence, hate crimes, and racial injustice, in addition to voter suppression and intimidation.

Furthermore, Promote the Vote, provides a brief history of voting right in the U.S. This section discusses key policies that expanded voting rights as well as setbacks that kept populations such as African Americans and women from the polls.

Connecting history to the present, Rome dedicates another section to current voting patterns and trends in the U.S. This chapter reveals that despite increased voter turnout in recent elections, huge disparities remain. Rome explores different theories to explain what motivates people to vote and how various characteristics such as political party affiliation, race, income, geography, and more influence the way an individual votes.

Additionally, Rome’s book offers research findings, practical information, and case examples from her own students on expanding civic participation. For example, a Master of Social Work student created informational flyers in English and Spanish on voting for an agency serving people in poverty. The flyers were included in about 6,000 food baskets distributed to low-income households throughout Washington, D.C.

Another one of Rome’s students, who worked at an adult detention center in Virginia, developed a workshop about voting rights for people who are incarcerated. Through this, many of the men at the detention center became aware of their eligibility.

The many real-world examples in the book illustrate the countless ways one can support equal participation in the voting process. Furthermore, Rome notes that another important strategy is to advocate for more voter-friendly policies.

“I believe we are in a moment of crisis. We are at a historical crossroads,” Rome says. “And the only way forward is to push back against voter suppression. Now more than ever, it’s really important that we all get involved.”

Rome notes there’s a long list of marginalized groups that remain underrepresented at the polls including people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, those experiencing homelessness, LGBTQ+ people—particularly those who are transgender—and survivors of domestic violence. Since members of these groups are often social work clients, her book devotes a section to understanding their unique challenges as voters and suggests actionable solutions.

“Research shows that people who vote have better health and mental health outcomes,” says Rome about the positive impact of civic participation. “Communities are more cohesive. They experience less crime. Voter participation strengthens both individuals and communities.”

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Panel: Women and Minorities in the Workforce and the Way Ahead

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 15:12:34 +0000

Panel: Women and Minorities in the Workforce and the Way Ahead Andrew J Schappert Wed, 09/22/2021 - 11:12

The Schar School of Policy and Government’s Gender and Policy (GAP) Center and LMI, a Tysons, Va.-based consultancy, will host “Today’s Workforce and the Way Ahead,” a panel discussion exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and minorities in the workforce. The panel will cover policy and personal well-being perspectives, as well as examine the future of a hybrid workforce.

The discussion begin Tuesday, September 28 at noon. Registration is not required. Those interested should simply follow this link on the date and time aforementioned.

The panelists include:

Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center. Prior to joining NWLC, Martin served as deputy director of the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Maryam Ovissi, a trauma-informed yoga and wellbeing specialist and collective care educator at Beloved Yoga’s Yoga Therapy program. Ovissi serves on the board of the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art and the Southgate Community Center and is on the advisory board of the Gender and Policy Center.
Ahkesha Murray, principal for change management, culture, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI&A) at LMI. Murray oversees all aspects of LMI’s DEI&A strategy and programs and acts as the organization’s recognized change management and culture authority.

The panel will be moderated by Schar School associate professor and associate dean of student and academic affairs Bonnie Stabile. She also serves as the director of the Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) program and is founder and director of the Gender and Policy (GAP) Center at the Schar School.

The panel is sponsored by LMI’s Minorities & Ethnicities (ME) Affinity Group, LMI Women’s Forum Affinity Group, and LMI Research Institute’s Academic Programs in collaboration with the Gender and Policy Center at the Schar School.

Topics

Schar School News September 2021

Social Work Student Mengqi Li Is a Fierce Advocate for the APIDA Community On-Campus and Beyond

mthomp7 — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:17:47 +0000

Social Work Student Mengqi Li Is a Fierce Advocate for the APIDA Community On-Campus and Beyond mthomp7 Thu, 08/26/2021 - 10:17

In This Story

Evelyn Tomaszewski, MSW, ACSW

Emily Ihara, PhD, MSW, FGSA

Li shares her passion for social justice and the opportunities the MSW program has offered her so far.

Mengqi Li is a Master of Social Work student with a passion for social justice and advocating for the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community. She was recently accepted into the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Minority Fellowship Program, with a mission to reduce health disparities for racially and ethnically diverse populations through cultural competency training. Additionally, Li accepted a new position at Mason’s Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment (CCEE) as a graduate assistant within the Student Engagement for Racial Justice team.

Li started the MSW program as a major career transition a few years after graduating with an undergraduate degree in business. “I just knew it really wasn’t where my heart was,” she says about working in business. She decided to pursue social work due to her interest in clinical mental health and the field’s emphasis on social justice values.

“The program at Mason has the most diverse faculty, and as a BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and person of color] student that was really important to me,” Li says about why the MSW program stood out to her.

She’s found many ways that the curriculum has intersected with her activism and advocacy. Last spring, she took SOCW 659 Organizing and Advocating for Change, a course on community organizing, during which Li and her classmates brainstormed ways to organize around issues on campus.

Li’s engagement as a student goes beyond the classroom too. She is the founding president of the Asian Graduate Student Association. So far, the organization has recruited nearly 100 APIDA graduate students. “I’m very excited for the potential of this RSO [registered student organization] to build community at Mason,” she says.

Faculty and staff have had a tremendous impact on Li’s life as a student, and MSW Program Director Evelyn Tomaszewski, MSW, ACSW, has been a great ally to her in and out of the classroom. Social Work Department Chair Emily Ihara helped connect Li to CCEE for her graduate assistant position and to other opportunities as well, including the CSWE Minority Fellowship Program.

“Having APIDA faculty and staff [in the department] has been very meaningful,” says Li. She notes that Julie Kim, the director of graduate student life, is an APIDA staff member who has also made a huge impact on her experience at Mason so far.

After she completes her master’s degree, Li plans to continue her advocacy work for the APIDA community, particularly within the field of mental health. She notes that a lack of diverse practitioners may be one reason why Asian Americans do not always seek mental health services, even when they need it. Li is currently in a training program to be a meditation teacher and hopes to integrate mindfulness training into her future clinical work.

When asked about what advice she has for future MSW students, Li says, “Let others know what you care about. I really believe that’s a huge part of what will open the door to opportunities.” She also adds that leaning into your interests and passions “will keep [them] burning and sustain you in whatever form of work that you do.”

Topics

College of Health and Human Services Department of Social Work

College of Health and Human Services

Podcast - EP28: Spencer Crew: At the intersection of museums and social justice

Damian Cristodero — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 14:27:06 +0000

Podcast - EP28: Spencer Crew: At the intersection of museums and social justice Damian Cristodero Wed, 07/14/2021 - 10:27

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Spencer Crew

Spencer Crew, a Robinson Professor of U.S. history at ��AV, and the first African American to head a major Smithsonian museum when he led the National Museum of American History, tells Mason President Gregory Washington about the evolving role museums play in society, and how the Black community and those who work with it are trying to be the conscience of the nation.

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Access to Excellence podcast

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Juneteenth

Gregory Washington

Student request, involvement leads to Mason Core class on racial justice

Colleen Rich — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 15:05:03 +0000

Student request, involvement leads to Mason Core class on racial justice Colleen Rich Fri, 07/09/2021 - 11:05

As part of President Gregory Washington’s establishment of the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) Task Force in July 2020, students called for broader curriculum changes related to racism, diversity and inclusion, building on requests and discussions since the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the increased attention around the murder of George Floyd intensified these efforts, and students and faculty collaborated to create UNIV 381: Foundations for Building a Just Society. The course has been scaled up using recommendations from ARIE. The three-credit class fulfills two Mason Core requirements—global understanding and social/behavioral sciences—and is projected to evolve over time into a required course for all students.

“Once implemented, this course will be part of a greater educational plan that allows Mason to be a national exemplar of inclusive excellence,” said Bethany Usher, associate provost of undergraduate education. “Beyond that, our students will have the skills and knowledge they need to tackle the complicated problems they’ll encounter in the classroom and the world in a just and constructive way.”

UNIV 381 evolved from a 2019 pilot program created by an interdisciplinary team with a framework for a course that would help students engage with these complex issues in a meaningful way.

Sarah Osman, a rising senior studying community health with a concentration in clinical science, was one of the students in the pilot class in Fall 2019. Osman said the course helped her understand how her own implicit biases made a strong impact on how she views others, their situations and their behaviors.

Osman said the course gave her a greater understanding of what implicit biases she carries, why others think the way that they do and what institutions have influenced their viewpoints on race.

“We live in a world where the color of one’s skin determines every opportunity they receive and whether or not they will live to see tomorrow,” Osman said. “[But] diversity goes far beyond the color of one’s skin. Although the issue of racism is something embedded in this country, we have the power to challenge the perpetuation of the social hierarchy that currently defines our nation.

Lauren Cattaneo, associate professor of psychology, helped create UNIV 381 and is one of five faculty members teaching it this fall. She noted that the course has the potential to engage students in critical thinking with a goal of learning not to respond to others judgmentally but instead to understand others’ experiences and what they are trying say about them.

“I hope students emerge with the foundational knowledge, vocabulary and skills to connect across differences and to set their intentions on how to build on those foundations,” said Cattaneo, who co-chaired the Task Force’s Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee. “That mental shift is so important to learn. I want students to learn how in the past people have moved the levers of change to shift the ways society functions, to learn from examples current or historic about how changes happen, and then decide where they want to go with their new understanding.”

The course begins with basic civic questions: What do we mean by a just society? And what gets in the way of its realization? From there, students delve into their own experiences, address their personal identities, and define words such as race and ethnicity. As the course progresses they will explore how these concepts are related, how people perceive others on the basis of race or ethnicity, and how this impacts their own identities.

Shauna Rigaud, a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies Program and the course’s curriculum supporter and instructor, said UNIV 381 will help promote campus diversity because it will provide students with a foundation for understanding race, ethnicity, gender, and social class.

“The class will allow students the opportunity to have difficult conversations with each other,” said Rigaud, who also served on the Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee. It’s an opportunity to apply what they understand to parts of our world, society, and then provides them with the bedrock to think critically about that as they go on into their fields of training.”

“With the help of this course, Mason will create a generation that not only appreciates diversity but works hand-in-hand to combat the issue of racism,” Osman said.

Topics

Campus News

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

social justice

innovative classes

Virtual meetings add new layers to experiential learning class

Colleen Rich — Wed, 12 May 2021 14:49:08 +0000

Virtual meetings add new layers to experiential learning class Colleen Rich Wed, 05/12/2021 - 10:49

The School of Integrative Studies experiential learning courses are designed to encourage students to integrate research, theory and practice across experiences.

While online meetings often feel confining, for ��AV students in INTS 304 Social Movements and Community Activism, the virtual environment actually opened doors for them.

“It's always a challenge [to teach online], but I found that, this semester, the students have been unbelievably engaged,” said School of Integrative Studies Professor Shayna Maskell, who taught INTS 304 online this spring, the second time she’s taught the class virtually. “I think in some ways this assignment has been easier because they've been able to connect to organizations and activists that they never would have been in touch with before.”

The assignment Maskell is talking about is the required qualitative research paper on a social movement organization. For this paper, the INTS 304 students were expected to study an organization by conducting both an in-depth interview with an activist from a group or movement and field observations from a group meeting.

As most organizations have moved their meetings and other activities online during the pandemic, Mason students attended meetings virtually across the country. Maskell also said that one of her students is Burmese and very active in what's going on in Myanmar. Another student was taking the course while at home in the Sudan.

Gianna Scanzo-Masiero. Photo provided

Integrative studies major Gianna Scanzo-Masiero attended the class from her hometown in northern New Jersey. The Honors College student chose to focus her paper on comparing two different organizations: NARAL Pro-Choice America and Illinois Right to Life.

“I knew I wanted to compare the ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ movements,” said Scanzo-Masiero, whose degree concentration is in social justice and human rights. “As a pro-choice Christian, I thought it would be very interesting to get insight into each contrasting movement’s motivations.”

Although the meetings were all online, Scanzo-Masiero admits she still felt awkward attending, but found value in the overall experience.

“Not only was this an eye-opening and beneficial experience academically, in terms of conducting fieldwork that I have never really dipped into before, but personally it aided in my perspective, understanding, and tolerance,” said Scanzo-Masiero, who just finished her sophomore year at Mason. “I believe I have developed skills from this experience that will aid me immensely in the future.”

The School of Integrative Studies (SIS) curriculum is designed to encourage students to integrate research, theory and practice across experiences, and Maskell wasn’t surprised at students’ apprehension.

This is the second time Shayna Maskell has taught the Social Movements class online.

“I think it was intimidating for them to kind of go in blind, but I'm impressed with the bevy of organizations whose meetings they've been able to attend and talk to these people,” she said.

It is a popular class, and Maskell, who joined Mason four years ago, does find that Mason students are especially engaged in social issues. She believes living in the Washington, D.C., area encourages some of the social engagement.

“Many of my students have a very personal stake in these issues, whether it's immigration, economic justice, food security, or gender rights,” said Maskell, who also taught INTS 346 Art as Social Action this semester. “They're not intimidated by the idea of political activism and protest. It's all around them.”

She added that what’s going on in the country also drives interest in the course. At the start of each semester, she has an icebreaker activity in which she asks people why they are taking the course.

“A lot of them said with Black Lives Matter movement and the other kinds of activism that has been going on, they felt like they needed to take this class to get a better understanding of why is this happening,” she said. “Students in the class get to bring their own issues to the forefront, which is really exciting and important.”

Topics

Students

School of Integrative Studies

social justice

experiential learning

Transformative Teaching program helps educators develop anti-racist social justice practice

Colleen Rich — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 15:44:26 +0000

Transformative Teaching program helps educators develop anti-racist social justice practice Colleen Rich Mon, 02/08/2021 - 10:44

One of the Transformative Teaching cohorts on a zoom call with U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton. Photo provided

Teachers who want professional development focusing on social justice can find it at ��AV.

The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) offers a master’s degree program for educators who want to reflect on and transform their teaching practice. The Transformative Teaching cohort program has a curriculum dedicated to critical pedagogy, skill development and support for leadership as anti-racist, civically engaged advocates for teaching and for students.

“Our program is designed to help teachers become leaders in their schools when it comes to anti-racist teaching,” said Elizabeth K. DeMulder, a CEHD professor who coordinates the program with Stacia Stribling, an assistant professor at CEHD. “The need for leadership in this area has been made even more obvious by this past summer’s racial reckoning and by inequities further exposed by the pandemic.”

The program, which began in 2014 in a hybrid format, is now completely online and accepting applications for Fall 2021, with introductory courses starting this summer. The cohorts tend to be small, between 10 and 22 per year. Educators who enroll in the program vary in what they teach, and include K-12 teachers, specialists and other types of instructors.

“Educators find it valuable to learn from each other even though they teach different grade levels and content areas,” said Stribling. “They benefit from collaborating and exchanging thoughts and practices.”

Until this year, DeMulder and Stribling collaboratively ran the program with Jenice L. View, now an associate professor emerita. View, DeMulder, Stibling, and doctoral student Laura L. Dallman all recently co-authored “Antiracist Professional Development for In-Service Teachers: Emerging Research and Opportunities,” a book aimed at helping other institutions and school districts create their own anti-racist professional development programs.

The two-year, 30-credit Transformative Teaching program provides educators with courses and opportunities centered on rethinking the routines and assumptions that shape their teaching, Participants in the program learn about ethical leadership and developing a research-based practice, said View.

“The courses feed off of each other,” said View. “They are seamlessly linked.”

Teachers participating in the program say they’ve learned how to advocate for change in education.

“I’ve learned that I have skills I can use to have a voice in the system,” said Shirley Miner, a Fairfax County School District ESOL teacher who graduates from the program in May. “The program empowers us so that we can learn how to empower our students.”

Shana Mortensen, who will also graduate from the program in May, said she feels “charged” from what she’s learned.

“The program has allowed me to reflect on my own identity and my teaching practice, to think about the ways in which I am giving equitable learning opportunities to all my students,” said Mortensen, who teaches math at Westfield High School in Fairfax County. “I’m more conscious about what I’m doing now, more culturally aware and responsive. I want each of my students to feel that they belong.”

Topics

Campus News

College of Education and Human Development

social justice

Mason’s Carter School helps bring Restorative Justice to Arlington County

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Mason’s Carter School helps bring Restorative Justice to Arlington County Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 10/13/2020 - 01:00

There are times when studying peace and conflict resolution is theoretical. But at ��AV’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, students also put their knowledge into action to benefit the local community.

Susan Hirsch. Photo provided

Since January, the school has partnered with Restorative Arlington, a new initiative aimed at incorporating restorative justice practices into Arlington County’s public schools, legal system and community. The partnership was formalized in July when Carter School Dean Alpaslan Özerdem and Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz signed a joint Letter of Intent.

“It really is an opportunity for students to be on the ground floor of how a major community-driven initiative is built,” said Carter School professor Susan Hirsch, who will teach a conflict course next semester where students can directly support the initiative. “It’s the best of experiential learning.”

Restorative justice is an alternative approach to punitive discipline. At its center is community building and repairing not only the harm done, but also relationships.

“The Carter School partnership offers engagement on multiple levels,” said Liane Rozzell, Restorative Arlington’s project coordinator. “We have students who help us grow the initiative while they’re learning themselves; there are faculty who are knowledgeable and excited, who can contribute their expertise to this process.”

Liane Rozzell. Photo provided

The support from Mason is multifaceted, Rozzell said. Some of those ways the school is and will continue to be involved include evaluating how the initiative is going, training teachers and community members on how to facilitate restorative justice practices, developing curriculum, organizing dialogues and conducting research.

“All of this is very needed and it gives us a tremendous boost that we couldn’t do on our own,” Rozzell said.

What would incorporating restorative justice look like in action?

“We would have way fewer, if any, students suspended,” Rozzell said. “We’d have way more connection and folks thriving in schools.”

Kimiko Lighty. Photo provided

“My hope is that a number of different cases that might have gone to the criminal legal system might find their way to be handled outside that system,” Hirsch said. “I would also hope that community members would [develop] a restorative ethic and feel empowered to resolve other conflicts using approaches that are restorative and not punitive.”

Kimiko Lighty, MA Interdisciplinary Studies ’10, is interim co-coordinator for Restorative Arlington. She is one of several Mason alumni contributing to the initiative. Most recently she helped create Restorative Arlington’s strategic plan and facilitated VCircles, virtual groups held over Zoom that focused on community building.

“The first time I heard about restorative justice was in a peace studies class at Mason,” said Lighty, who works as a restorative justice practitioner for Northern Virginia Mediation Services.

“I think we have a disposability crisis in our civilization, where we have so much disposable stuff that it leads us to start thinking about people as disposable,” she said. “Restorative justice honors the fact that we’re all connected—it gives us a way to see people as whole people that we live in relation with, and that does work in preventing harm before it even happens.”

New campus center to focus on racial healing and social justice

John Hollis — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 10:00:00 +0000

New campus center to focus on racial healing and social justice John Hollis Tue, 02/11/2020 - 05:00

��AV is set to open a campus center focused on creating awareness about the effects of racism, as well as preparing the next generation of leaders dedicated to promoting racial and social justice.

In January, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced it had selected Mason to host a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. Mason joins 23 other colleges and universities hosting TRHT campus centers across the United States.

Mason is the only school in Virginia to be selected as a site for a TRHT campus center.

“At Mason, diversity is our strength,” said Interim President Anne Holton. “Being selected to host this center gives us an opportunity to lead the way on the challenging but crucial work of confronting racism and promoting equality.”

In 2017, 10 colleges and universities were selected to establish TRHT centers focused on racial healing. This year, the association announced it had picked 13 more colleges and universities, including Mason, to host TRHT centers. Other schools selected include Adelphi University, Stockton University and the University of Puget Sound.

“We are very excited about the potential here to be a leader in the work of racial healing in Virginia,” said Rose Pascarell, Mason’s vice president for University Life. “As the largest and most diverse public university, we have the responsibility to engage our students to address racism and to ready them to be leaders on these issues in their communities, their workplaces and their families.”

Mason was selected based on its vision for the center, its demonstrated commitment of campus leaders and the community to the goals of a TRHT center and its ability to prove that the community needed a TRHT center.

“AAC&U is proud to partner with ��AV in advancing our shared objective of demonstrating how higher education can lead the way in jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy of human value, “ said AAC&U president Lynn Pasquerella in a statement.

Each center is charged with creating a positive narrative change about race in the community, promoting racial healing on campus and in the community, dismantling the belief in a hierarchy of human value and eradicating structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity.

The TRHT Campus Center project is administered through the AAC&U, in partnership with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation and Papa John’s Foundation. Gail Christopher, a senior scholar at Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, was the architect behind the TRHT Campus Center project when she served as vice president at the Kellogg Foundation.

In June, teams from the 13 newly selected colleges and universities will gather for a training program in Atlanta, Georgia, where Mason’s team will refine its plans for the next two years and practice designing and co-facilitating Rx Racial Healing Circles.

The AAC&U describes Rx Racial Healing Circles as a way to engage participants in building trust and understanding among diverse groups. Using the circles, Mason’s center is expected to involve the community in allowing participants to immerse themselves in the commonalities of a shared human journey, while acknowledging the consequences of exposure to racism and honoring diverse cultures and experiences.

“The intention is to facilitate authentic engagement with people who might be perceived as very different and build community as a result,” said Christopher, who also serves as executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity.

Last summer, Creston Lynch, Wendi N. Manuel-Scott, Angela Jean Hattery, Lauren B. Cattaneo, Nance Lucas and Charles L. Chavis, Jr. participated in the 2019 TRHT Institute.