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Social Policy

The Ph.D. Program in Social Policy is a collaboration between the government and sociology departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the social policy faculty at Harvard Kennedy School leading to a Ph.D. in government and social policy or a Ph.D. in sociology and social policy. The program is designed for students whose research interests engage questions of economic inequality, neighborhoods and spatial segregation, poverty, changing family structures, race and ethnicity, immigration, educational access and quality, political inequalities and participation, and comparative and institutional studies of social policy, particularly in the US and Western Europe.

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Phd in social policy.

The PhD programs in Social Policy award either a PhD in Government and Social Policy or a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy. This is a joint PhD program for students who wish to combine the full disciplinary depth of a doctoral degree in political science or sociology with multidisciplinary study of issues of Social Policy.

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Social Science

The Division of Social Science  seeks to innovate and excel in creating and passing on social science knowledge, with the goal of enriching our understanding of human society and relationships and improving people’s lives. FAS Social Science engages and powerfully responds to the challenges and opportunities of our times, including social injustice, inequality, threats to democratic institutions, global warming, and more. To learn more about academics in the Division of Social Science, including  undergraduate and graduate programs and research initiatives , visit the  Division of Social Science website .

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Students and faculty in Social Psychology seek to understand human experiences and behaviors in social settings. Our research and teaching span levels of analysis--from the neural and physiological underpinnings of social cognition, through individual and group behavior, to the social and cultural contexts within which people think, feel, and act.  Much of our work is done at intersections--with other areas of psychology, such as cognitive neuroscience and developmental psychology; with other departments, such as Economics and Sociology; and with Harvard professional schools, such as the Law School, the Business School, the Medical School, and the Kennedy School of Government.

Overall, we seek to develop new understanding about how people perceive themselves and others, how people relate to one another, and how social psychological knowledge can be used to make constructive differences in people's lives.

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Social Anthropology

The graduate program in Social Anthropology focuses on issues of globalism, ethnic politics, gender studies, “new” nationalisms, diaspora formation, transnationalism and local experience, medical anthropology, linguistic and semiotic anthropology, and media. Our mission is to develop new methodologies for an anthropology that tracks cultural developments in a global economy increasingly defined by the Internet and related technologies. Our graduate students (drawn from over 30 countries) expect to work in the worlds of academe, government, NGOs, law, medicine, and business.  

Knowing that material culture is a key element in the study of globalism and the new world economy, we work closely with staff from Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, who share our interests in redefining the study of popular culture, art, and the origins of industrial society. Research at the museum also makes it possible for us to maintain close ties to our departmental colleagues in the archaeology program.  

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Approximately 80% of Harvard College students eventually go on to earn a graduate or professional degree, including masters and PhDs in arts and sciences, MDs, JDs, and MBAs, and fields including creative writing, acting, visual arts (MFA), clinical psychology (PsyD), urban planning (MCP/MUP), and many other options.

Steps when considering graduate study include the following:

• Clarify  why  you want to pursue a graduate degree, understand your goals for study and research, and the realities of your intended career path.
• Visit our career pathways pages for more information about graduate programs and schools offering degrees in various fields.
• Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), including  creative writing ,  film, acting, visual arts, and more .
• Master’s of Education  (M.Ed./Ed.M.)
• Master’s of Social Work  (M.S.W.)
• Doctor of Psychology  (Psy.D.) or  Ph.D . in Clinical Psychology
• Master of Public Policy  (M.P.P.) or Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)
• Global & Public Health  degrees: Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.), Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
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• Master’s (M.Eng./M.Sc.Eng.) or  Ph.D . in  Engineering  or  Technology
• Come to our office and meet with an advisor to discuss your graduate school questions about graduate school including the application process and the decision to attend immediately after graduation or in a few years. Advisors can also assist with job/fellowship opportunities if you decide to “take a gap year(s).”

DOCTORATE IN CLINICAL SOCIAL WORK

Become an advanced social work practitioner and educator without interrupting your career.

The Doctorate in Clinical Social Work (DSW) Program allows ambitious, MSW-prepared social workers to advance their education in just three years—without putting their careers on hold. Become a clinical expert, inspired educator, and real-world scholar through a convenient blend of online evening classes and on-campus immersion experiences.

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Director’s Welcome

Thank you for your interest in the Doctorate in Social Work program at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn DSW curriculum offers working professionals an Ivy League experience wherever they are. Our graduates are sought after social work doctors—highly trained and respected experts, educators, researchers, and leaders who engage in fulfilling, rewarding work and make important contributions to the profession. Many of our DSW graduates are combining social work practice and teaching with some taking full-time teaching positions.

Courses in the DSW program are taught through a combination of synchronous (real-time) online interactive video instruction and periodic on-campus immersion. Classes are taught by Penn faculty and renowned visiting faculty and clinician experts from across the country. Students are in class with the same cohort for the first two years of the program; in the third year, students participate in a Dissertation Seminar Series that provides support and structure as they complete the last stages of the dissertation. The dissertation provides an opportunity to gain deep knowledge and become a content expert in a particular area, as well as contribute to the social work knowledge base.

I have been an MSW for 30 years and a licensed clinician and social work scholar for over 25 years. After having written 18 books and over a hundred articles and book chapters and mentoring and teaching MSW and doctoral students, I am excited to assist DSW students in deepening their understanding of the field, improving their practice, and furthering the field through leadership positions. Now, more than ever, social worker leaders are needed in the movement towards social justice.

Jacqueline Corcoran, PhD Director, Doctorate in Clinical Social Work Program

“ The dissertation provides an opportunity to gain deep knowledge and become a content expert in a particular area, as well as contribute to the social work knowledge base.”

The SP2 Difference

The nation’s first social work doctorate focused exclusively on practice

A hybrid format designed for busy working professionals

Renowned faculty from around the world leading cutting-edge courses on clinical practice, research, and teaching

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The opportunity to conduct dissertation research on a pressing clinical social work issue under guidance from world-class faculty

A diverse global alumni network

Flexible Hybrid Format

The Penn DSW curriculum offers working professionals an Ivy League experience wherever they are. Courses are taught through a combination of synchronous (real-time) online interactive video instruction and periodic on-campus immersion. The DSW degree can be earned in as little as two years but typically takes three years to complete.

The Campus Experience

Students begin the program with a five-day immersion experience on Penn’s Philadelphia campus at the start of their first semester (late August/early September). During this residency period, students attend their first classes and participate in a variety of activities that immerse them in the Penn experience and prepare them for what’s to come. During the fall of year two, students return to campus for an additional four-day residency. Students able to visit campus more frequently are invited to use our library, meet with faculty, and take advantage of Penn’s other campus resources and activities.

The Classroom Experience

Classes meet online two evenings per week for two hours. Students and faculty log in on their personal computers or devices from wherever they are. Real-time video conferencing allows everyone to be seen and heard at all times, closely approximating a physical classroom experience. Students are in class for the first two years of the program; in the third year, students participate in a Dissertation Seminar Series that provides support and structure as they complete the last stages of the dissertation.

The DSW curriculum bridges theory, practice, and research, and prepares students to teach. Students actively engage in learning about and critiquing the recent developments, discoveries, and best practices in evidence-based social work practice and teaching. Classes are taught by Penn faculty and renowned visiting faculty and clinician experts from across the country. The dissertation provides an opportunity to gain deep knowledge and become a content expert in a particular area, as well as contribute to the social work knowledge base.

World-Class Faculty

DSW program faculty are here to help you shape your specific area of expertise, drawing on their own decades of scholarship, teaching, and experience in areas as diverse as mental health, health care services in vulnerable populations , trauma and abuse, and child well-being .

The Penn DSW curriculum is designed to engage students in high-level learning that challenges them to think methodically, critically, and creatively about social work theory, practice, pedagogy, and research.

Students are required to complete 12 course units, a first-year on-campus immersion, a second-year on-campus immersion, a dissertation, and a dissertation defense.

DSW Academic Calendar >

The program begins with a two-semester foundation that spans clinical theory and research and ends with a core course on trauma-informed interventions. Concurrent with their coursework, students complete a dissertation workshop that guides them through the first stages of their dissertation. Near the end of the year, students are matched with a dissertation chair who shepherds them through the remainder of the dissertation process.

Fall Semester

• SWRK 8040: Methods of Inquiry: Quantitative Research Methods (1CU)
• SWRK 8120: Clinical Theory I (1CU)
• SWRK 8150: Dissertation Seminar I (1CU)

Spring Semester

• SWRK 8050: Methods of Inquiry: Qualitative Research Methods (1CU)
• SWRK 8130: Clinical Theory II (1CU)
• Supervision (1CU)

Second Year

Year 2 curriculum continues with specialized, applied courses that cover clinical content and teaching preparation. This second and final year of coursework culminates in two electives selected by the student cohort completed as a group. Students also continue their dissertation work under the direction of their dissertation committee.

• SWRK 8140: Applied Statistics (1CU)
• SWRK 9040: Teaching (1CU)
• SWRK 9020: Trauma (1CU)
• Family Based Interventions (1CU)
• SWRK 9060: Race, Culture and Identity (0.5CU)
• Leadership (0.5CU)
• SWRK 9110: Social Construction and Social Work Practice: Transforming Dialogues (0.5CU)
• XXX Topic 1 (0.25CU)
• XXX Topic 2 (0.25CU)

During the third and final year of the program, students complete, defend, and deposit their dissertation. There is no formal coursework during this year, but students participate in a dissertation seminar that provides structure and support and keeps them moving steadily toward their defense. Note that some students are able to complete the dissertation in as little as two years.

FEATURED ALUMNI

Mery diaz, dsw ’11.

“When I consider the reasons for attending SP2, I think back to the School’s mission — a long-standing commitment to social justice and educating students committed to taking an active role in fighting oppression. The School’s mission resonated with me then and continues to do so now. In our national, and global context, it is a mission constantly being put to the test. I do not take lightly that graduating from SP2 was instrumental in opening doors, but also in shaping the critical scholar, teacher, and mentor I am and strive to be every day with this mission in mind.”

Dissertation

The Process

In collaboration with dissertation mentors and later, with the dissertation committee, students begin developing a dissertation topic during their first semester of the program. Through close mentoring and a tightly structured process, students complete an original work of scholarship that contributes to the clinical social work literature and knowledge base. The dissertation engages students in deep study and positions them as knowledge experts in their content area.

Students have a variety of options for deciding how to answer their research question. These include systematic/scoping reviews, quantitative designs (including intervention studies and surveys), qualitative studies, and data-driven development of treatment manuals. Please see the DSW Handbook for additional detail.

The Finished Product

The final product may be in the form of a traditional chapter-style dissertation or two publishable articles. All DSW dissertations are published on Scholarly Commons , the University of Pennsylvania’s open-access repository for scholarly work. This ensures that knowledge produced by our students is readily available and accessible for front-line social work practitioners and others who are seeking information on a particular topic.

The Doctorate in Clinical Social Work (DSW) Program is offered by the University of Pennsylvania, an institution of higher education authorized to confer degrees and certificates conferring academic credit under applicable laws of the United States. Students who are interested in participating in the program from countries other than the United States are advised that each jurisdiction may have its own laws and regulations governing online educational programs, and some jurisdictions may not recognize course credit or an online degree awarded by the University as satisfying local requirements for professional licensure, employment qualification, or other purposes. Before enrolling in this program, prospective students should investigate their jurisdiction’s treatment of foreign online programs to ensure that participation in this program will meet their objectives.

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Student Life

SP2 and National Education Equity Lab launch high school course in social work and social policy

This spring, underserved high school students engaged in the National Education Equity Lab will have the opportunity to learn about career paths in social work and social policy from experts at SP2.

Jeff Johnson-Curry

Administrative Coordinator, DSW Program 

215 573 7133

dswcoord@sp2.upenn.edu

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From Community College to LGBTQ+ Community

Devon Rojas, PhD student  

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Devon Rojas is an incoming PhD sociology student at Harvard Griffin GSAS where he plans on researching LGBTQ+ inequality in organizations. He discusses the personal experiences that have informed his work, his path from community college to graduate school at Harvard, and how he looks forward to connecting with the School’s LGBTQ+ community.  

Hurdles of Inequality 

I’m from Fallbrook, a small town in California. I didn’t come out until I graduated from high school. When I did, I longed to be part of a larger LGBTQ+ community. I wondered how I could find those spaces. What did they even look like? And what did it mean for me to be LGBTQ+?  

After high school, I went to San Diego Mesa Community College (SDMCC). There was an LGBTQ+ organization there, but it wasn’t very big at the time, and I wasn’t very involved.  

After I finished at SDMCC, I transferred to the University of California San Diego (UCSD). There, I joined an organization called oSTEM—out in STEM—an LGBTQ+ club for students in the sciences, technology, engineering, and math. I became one of the organization’s student leaders.  

oSTEM was a pocket of acceptance for LGBTQ+ people at UCSD, but the larger organization had a lot of decision-making power and held the resource strings. As one of the group’s leaders, I often acted as a liaison between our students and the university. That gave me a greater awareness of the resources necessary for student success. Importantly, it helped me distinguish the unique and diverse needs that our LGBTQ+ students sought. We were tied to the engineering school and often worked with the administration, which relied on us to think about ways it could be more inclusive. So we would give them a list of things to do. They agreed to some but didn’t want to do the others and suggested alternatives instead.  

Navigating that process made me interested in how groups and individuals negotiate their sometimes-differing interests within organizations. It got me thinking about how an institution’s leaders and policymakers have their own ideas of what the place should be—ones that may differ from folks in the LGBTQ+ community and perpetuate inequality. It’s those dynamics that I hope to explore in my research at Harvard Griffin GSAS. 

From STEM to Sociology 

My undergraduate degree is in physics so studying sociology at Harvard is a big shift for me. I’ve studied STEM my whole life and it just seemed like a natural trajectory for me. Once I got involved with oSTEM, though, it made me reconsider my plans for graduate school.  

I applied for a pre-doctoral fellowship at Stanford and conducted research with their organizational behavior faculty. It was a great way to move from physics to sociology because it gave me a broad understanding of sociology, organizational theory, and the research process. It allowed me to situate myself in a new field. 

The Stanford fellowship also helped me with the graduate school application process. Faculty encouraged us to apply to top PhD programs—the fellowship was marketed as a pathway to them. Faculty mentors gave us lots of advice and direction for applying and letters of recommendation. We also leaned on past cohorts who had gone through the process and could provide helpful advice on how best to write a statement of purpose, interview with prospective programs, and more. 

That was crucial. A lot of the places on my application list were top 10 schools. I didn’t think I’d be accepted because I went to community college and had a different academic trajectory than many people in my fellowship program. I had absolutely no expectations of getting into Harvard Griffin GSAS—I told myself I’d be fine even if I didn’t.  

When I got the acceptance letter from Harvard, I honestly did a double take. I thought I had maybe read the note too quickly and imagined those magic words telling me I had been accepted. But sure enough, it was real! I immediately called my partner and family and we celebrated over the phone. 

Research Focus 

I am looking forward to being part of the academic community and finally getting to focus on my research at Harvard Griffin GSAS. I have been thinking about LGBTQ+ inequality in organizations since I was an undergraduate. I have done some reading and written a little bit about it but, ironically, the process of applying to graduate school requires so much time and energy that it doesn’t really leave you much time to focus on your research! 

Being in a new place is very exciting. I have lived in California my whole life. I love it and I’m a little scared of winter on the East Coast. But I’m really looking forward to being in a new environment—I can’t wait to be in a more walkable city with better public transport. I’m also looking forward to exploring the geography of the Northeast. I'm excited about seeing seasons change. Most of all, I can’t wait to connect with the Harvard Griffin GSAS LGBTQ+ community! 

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Social Work as a Human Rights Profession: An Action Framework

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Didier Reynaert, Siebren Nachtergaele, Nadine De Stercke, Hildegard Gobeyn, Rudi Roose, Social Work as a Human Rights Profession: An Action Framework, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 52, Issue 2, March 2022, Pages 928–945, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab083

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Human rights are foundational to social work, as recognised in the global definition, leading many to consider social work a human rights profession. Although human rights has become an important compass for social work, comprehensive frameworks for understanding the ‘practice’ of human rights in social work are still limited. Only recently attempts have been made to fill this gap. This article seeks to continue these efforts and contribute to a better understanding of how social work constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs ideas of human rights in daily practice. We investigated the following research question: ‘How do social workers “act” when using human rights as a framework for practice?’ We used a qualitative research design consisting of ethnographic research and focus groups, with both social workers and service-users participating. Based on our research, we developed five building blocks for an action framework for human rights in social work: (i) systemworld-oriented action; (ii) lifeworld-oriented action; (iii) participatory action; (iv) joined-up action and (v) politicised action. These building blocks give a comprehensive account for the discursive practice of human rights in social work.

Human rights are foundational to social work, as recognised in the global definition, leading many to consider social work a human rights profession ( Healy, 2008 ; Staub-Bernasconi, 2016 ; Mapp et al. , 2019 ). Staub-Bernasconi (2016) , together with Gatenio Gabel (2015) , among others, acknowledges the historical connection of social work with human rights. In recent years, the recognition of social work as a human rights profession gained renewed attention in social work scholarship. In his book ‘ Practicing rights. Human rights-based approaches to social work practice ’, Androff (2016) makes a comprehensive account of the state of human rights in social work. He shows how (inter)national social work organisations adopted human rights in their codes of ethics, how social work scholars increasingly published books and articles on human rights or how social work education developed a range of training materials and educational programmes on human rights. Based on his analysis, Androff concludes that ‘The growth of scholarship and education focused on human rights suggests that the field is turning towards human rights, rediscovering its rights-based roots. It is now undeniable that there is a consensus that human rights are important and relevant to social work.’ ( Androff, 2016 , p. 10). These observations are in line with conclusions of Cubillos-Vega (2017) , who conducted a study on the scientific output on human rights in social work based on articles published in international indexed journals between 2000 and 2015. She notes that in recent years, the academic output on social work and human rights gradually increased. However, Cubillos-Vega’s (2017) study also reveals that published articles were primarily of theoretical nature. From the fifty-seven articles analysed, hardly one-third (sixteen) were of an empirical type. This trend is striking, Cubillos-Vega argues, because of the nature of the discipline of social work, taking a position between theory and practice. Already in 2012, Ife came to a similar conclusion: ‘Much of the academic debate about human rights remains at the theoretical level; less has been written about the practice of human rights. … There is little articulation of what it means in practice for professionals to claim that their work is based on human rights, and so human rights remain a “nice idea” rather than a solid foundation for the development of practice theories and methodologies.’ ( Ife, 2012 , pp. 10–11). Despite the ground-breaking work of several pioneers in the domain of social work and human rights (e.g. Reichert, 2003 ; Wronka, 2008 ; Ife, 2009 , 2012 ; Lundy, 2011 ), the practice of human right still remains a black box. To date, social work scholarship insufficiently succeed to gain practical knowledge showing how social workers ‘act’ when using the framework of human rights. Together with Ife, we acknowledge the presumption that human rights in social work have a discursive character, as they need to be permanently constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed throughout social work practice. ‘Social workers need to see themselves as active participants in this discursive process, and indeed social work practice itself can be seen as part of the ongoing process of the reconstruction of human rights. It is partly through social work practice that human rights are operationalised, and hence defined.’ ( Ife, 2012 , p. 133). Social work should recognise its actorship or agency in constructing human rights and social work scholarship should conscientiously scrutinise this construction process of human rights through social work practice.

Recent launches in social work scholarship rose to this challenge. In 2015, the SpringerBriefs in Rights-Based Approaches to Social Work were launched. The series aims to develop a social work practice grounded in human rights by presenting and reflecting on new methods ( Gatenio Gabel, 2015 ). The Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, established in 2016, has similar aims. In the inaugural issue, the editors-in-chief state that the journal ‘offers the opportunity for educators, practitioners, administrators, and students in this and related disciplines to have a voice and to expand their knowledge base on issues within human rights practice, knowledge of human rights tools, and to develop skills practicing from a human rights perspective’ ( Gatenio Gabel and Mapp, 2016 , p. 1). Additionally, several social work scholars have been developing practice approaches for human rights in social work. Androff (2016 , 2018 ), for instance, seeks to integrate the five-principles framework of human rights (human dignity, non-discrimination, participation, transparency and accountability) into the social work arena. According to Androff, this framework can offer an integrative account across a wide range of social work practices (see also Mapp et al. , 2019 ). One step further is the proposal of McPherson ( McPherson, 2015a ; Mapp et al. , 2019 ; McPherson and Abell, 2020 ), which contains a comprehensive framework for human rights practice in social work (HRPSW). It comprises three pillars of practice: a human rights lens, human rights methods and human rights goals. McPherson (2015a ) explains that the HRPSW model can be useful for both social work practice and social work education. What these practice models demonstrate is the increased academic interest in practice approaches of human rights in social work ( McPherson, 2015b ).

In this article, we build upon these efforts and present an action framework for human rights in social work. Our action framework expands the above mentioned models in an important way. It provides an understanding of human rights in social work in the context of a different welfare regime. Both the studies of Androff and McPherson are USA based, thereby confirming Cubillos-Vega’s (2017) observation of an Anglo-Saxon hegemony in social work scholarship on human rights. However, different social welfare regimes show different traditions of social work ( Lorenz, 2001 , 2008 ), associated with different understandings of human rights ( Alseth, 2020 ). Our study was conducted in Belgium, which is generally conceived as a conservative welfare state, distinct from the liberal welfare regime of the USA. Conservative welfare regimes have a certain tradition with social rights in particular. Additionally, conservative welfare regimes are characterised by a welfare state architecture of corporatism, balancing civil society’s interest and state power ( Esping-Andersen 1990 ; Lorenz, 2001 ; Dean, 2002 ). It is within this corporatist structure that human rights take shape with social workers developing a human right-based practice.

Because of the open character of our research question (‘How does social workers act when using human rights as a framework for practice?’), we chose a qualitative research design ( Shaw and Holland, 2014 ; Carey, 2012 ), developed in two parts. The first part consists of ethnographic research; the second, of focus groups.

Ethnographic research

Ethnographic research allows one to understand complex practices in their ‘natural setting’ ( D’Cruz and Jones, 2004 ) by being ‘ involved in the ongoing, daily world of the people being studied’ ( Fielding, 2008 , p. 269). Being part of and participating in human-rights-based practices in social work allows the ethnographer to get to know the logic, dynamics and meanings behind these practices. For this study, collaboration was set up with one of the eight regional institutions for community development in Flanders, Belgium. These institutions are recognised and subsidised by the Flemish government through the 1991 Act on Community Development. The overall mission of the institutions for community development is to contribute to realising the right to a decent life for people living in vulnerable life conditions. The institutions for community development explicitly use human rights as a framework to realise their mission. In particular, they focus on social rights as they are recognised in the Belgian Constitution: the right to decent housing, the right to education, the right to social security, the right to health care, the right to work, the right to a healthy living environment and the right to cultural and social development. The participatory approach is typical for the work of the institutions for community development. They are not working just ‘for’, but above all ‘with’ people living in vulnerable life conditions. Therefore, the institutions for community development are an interesting case for investigating the meaning of social work as a human rights profession. Our research took place in the institution for community development in East Flanders, one of the five Flemish provinces in Belgium. In collaboration with the institution, we decided to select two human rights domains to study: housing and education. These domains could be considered as exemplary to study social work as a human rights profession.

Research methods used in ethnographic research can be very diverse. For this study, we used a documentary review, participant observation and conversation-style interviews with key informants ( D’Cruz and Jones, 2004 ). For the documentary review, we used documents produced by social workers who are active in the institution for community development. These documents gave us an insight into the work of the institution regarding the role of social work in ‘doing’ human rights. Policy notes, minutes of meetings, annual reports, etc. were all considered. Because in ethnographic research, it is important to understand the particular historical and socio-cultural context of the practices being researched ( Bryman, 2012 ), additional documents produced outside the institution for community development were selected. They were used to develop an environmental analysis in order to ‘capture’ the work of the institution in relation to the broader policy context (demographic data, a ‘map’ of the available welfare organisations, the history of particular neighbourhoods, etc.).

For the participant observation, the relevant activities to understand the work of the institution for community development were selected in mutual consultation with a ‘gatekeeper’ ( Fielding, 2008 ) of the institution. Gradually, the researcher also spontaneously took part in a variety of activities. Participation by the researcher was always overt (see Bryman, 2012 ). Field notes were kept during or directly after the participant observation. These field notes took the form of detailed descriptions of particular events and of people’s actions in these events, as well as the researcher’s initial reflections on these events. In total, participant observations took four months and more than 400 h. Time was divided equally between the domains of education and housing.

The third method we used was conversation-style interviews with key informants. In order to guarantee the validity of the observations, provisional ideas on the findings, striking observations or remaining questions were ‘shared with the member’s world’ ( Fielding, 2008 ) and checked. These ‘ethnographic interviews’ often took the form of ‘interviews on the spot’ and gave a deeper understanding of the practice being studied. For both education and housing, 26 people participated in an interview (total n  = 52). In the case of education, the group consisted of eight community development workers, twelve social workers from partner organisations (civil servants from the city, school social workers, school directors, social workers from the public centre for social welfare [PCSW], social workers from poverty-related organisations, etc.) and six service-users from the institution for community development. The service-users all had a background of living in poverty, and were selected as members of a parent group from a local school for primary education.

In the case of housing, the participants were six community development workers, eleven social workers from partner organisations (civil servants from the city, social workers from the social housing company, social workers from the PCSW, social workers from poverty-related organisations, etc.) and nine service-users. The service-users were selected based on their participation in the working group on housing that is organised by the institution for community development. This working group consists of people who all face problems with regard to housing. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. The researchers had no personal connection whatsoever with the institution for community development. The only professional link that the researchers had with the research context was expertise in the domain of community development and encounters with representatives of the institution in the context of education-related activities (e.g. internships).

Focus groups

In the second part of the study, focus groups were set up. While the general aim of a focus group is to discuss a specific topic ( Bryman, 2012 ), we had an additional 2-fold goal. First, we wanted to flesh out several issues that were not clear after the ethnographic research (deepening). Second, we wanted to explore whether the findings of our ethnographic research that took place in the context of community development were applicable in other domains of social work (broadening). We chose focus groups because they allow for creating rich data, enabling in-depth analysis. We selected people with a more expert profile in social work and human rights. The selection criteria used for participants were (i) being familiar with human rights in a social work context and (ii) having a generalist view on social work practice or policy. Participants from the focus group were senior staff members of various social work organisations, as well as lecturers and professors who teach social work at universities and universities of applied sciences in Flanders. Four focus groups of four to six people were organised (total n  = 18). In addition, seven in-depth interviews were organised with experts who, because of practical considerations, were not able to attend the focus groups. All the focus groups were led by two people: the researcher who conducted the ethnographic research and whose role it was to bring up the content for discussion and a supervisor who was the moderator of the focus group. Each focus group lasted approximately an hour and a half, and each was organised around three statements: (i) Participatory action, as a foundation of a human rights-based approach in social work, can also exclude people; (ii) a human rights-based approach in social work contributes to individualisation and responsibilisation and (iii) a human rights-based approach that starts from rules and laws (a top-down perspective) obstructs an approach that starts from the needs of people (a bottom-up perspective). The discussion in the focus groups was organised based on the five-stage model proposed by Cronin (2008) : (1) introduction; (2) opening; (3) introductory statement; (4) key questions and (5) ending questions. Both the focus group discussions and interviews were audiotaped and transcribed.

Ethics statement

The study was approved and funded by the Research Council of the HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts. It was carried out in collaboration with Ghent University in compliance with the ethical standards of both the institutions. Informed consent was obtained from all of the participants after an extensive explanation of the research project.

Data analysis

For the data analysis, an inductive approach was chosen ( Hodkinsons, 2008 ). More specifically, a thematic analysis was done on the materials obtained from the ethnographic research. The analysis was executed in two steps by the two first authors. In the first step, both authors separately analysed the same six interviews (two community development workers, two social workers form partner organisations and two service-users) for each domain (education and housing). The analysis was based on the six-step model developed by Braun and Clarke (2006 ; see also Teater, 2017 ). Initial codes were assigned to the materials and afterwards they were grouped around several themes or ‘building blocks’. To answer the question of how social work acts when using human rights, we were looking for themes or building blocks that constitute a comprehensive action-framework for human rights in social work. We were particularly looking for different or even conflicting interpretations or constructions of human rights by social work, as these different interpretations could clearly demonstrate the action component of our framework. After individual analysis by the two authors, the results were pooled and discussed. This working method increases the inter-rater reliability among the researchers ( Oluwatayo, 2012 ). The result of this first step was a first draft of an action framework for human rights in social work. In the second step, the second author continued the analysis of the remaining interviews and also analysed the documentary review and the participant observations.

Although the analysis was primarily data-driven, we, as researchers with an interest in social work and human rights, could not disengage from our pre-existing knowledge. As Braun and Clarke explain, ‘data are not coded in an epistemological vacuum’ (2006 , p. 14). So the research context of community development coloured our data to a certain extent. As explained earlier, the community development organisations explicitly use human rights as a framework for their practice. In recent years, they acquired a great deal of expertise in the field of human rights, which has been reflected in numerous reports, memoranda and suchlike. Furthermore, as social work is a practice characterised by interconnectedness with local communities, working with vulnerable people, both at the micro-level of individual support and at the macro-level of structural change, it is no coincidence that related themes emerged from the data. Altogether, the first phase analysis yielded five themes or building blocks for an action framework for human rights in social work: (i) systemworld-oriented action, (ii) lifeworld-oriented action, (iii) participatory action, (iv) joined-up action and (v) politicised action. In the next step, these findings were presented to all the authors and discussed. This did not result in any adjustments at the level of themes, but it did result in some changes to the topics included under each building block. The remaining points of discussion and things that were unclear were taken to the focus groups. After the focus groups were held, the same procedure was followed: the four transcribed focus groups and seven additional interviews were analysed by the two first authors, and then discussed with all the authors, until consensus was reached. Again, this did not result in any adjustments at the level of the building blocks.

Based on our data, an action framework for human rights in social work was developed, consisting of five building blocks. In the next part of this article, we present these five building blocks.

Systemworld-oriented action

The right to social support would be meaningless without social services; the right to education would be meaningless without schools; the right to decent housing would be meaningless without houses and the right to health care would be meaningless without hospitals. All these systems—social services, schools, houses, health care, social security, etc.—are considered parts of the systemworld . The systemworld can be defined as all the institutionalised societal resources necessary for the realisation of human rights. Access to these systems is often difficult for people living in vulnerable life conditions. They frequently experience high thresholds.

The problem is that you have to be well informed and to know the right person.  … How many people know about the income guarantee for elderly people? A lot of people probably know about the premium for housing, but how many of them are actually applying for it? Definitely not that many, because it requires a lot of jargon that keeps people from applying . (a service-user)

It is a recurring complaint that social systems are inaccessible, because people who need care and support must deal with bureaucracy. The problem is not just the large number of forms that need to be filled in. Social workers also send people from pillar to post, so that ultimately people give up and do not apply for the support they are entitled to. In the end, social rights are often not realised.

We do not understand just how high the thresholds are for people who are already in a vulnerable position, who are living in difficult circumstances, and who are then confronted with a multitude of services that are not working in an integrated way, have cultural thresholds, etc. We have no idea what it means to live in poverty, how hard that is … so that support by social services and an emancipatory approach don’t mean anything. (a social worker, institution for community development)

An important topic related to creating accessible social institutions concerns the distinction between ‘universal’ and ‘selective’ social systems. Based on a human rights perspective, social workers often argue for universal social systems. However, some social workers point out the risks of this approach.

Human rights are of course for everyone. But I think that certain groups are more easily deprived of them. These are certainly socially vulnerable groups.  … Other groups have more power to make their voices heard. In any case, they also have easier access to certain rights. Education, for example, is more in line with middle-class culture. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Another social worker puts it even more bluntly:

That is actually a waste of time and resources if we focus on all citizens.  … In such an inclusive organisation, time and energy are not focused on the most vulnerable people. (a social worker, institution for community development)

To resolve the tension between a universal and a selective approach, some social workers argue for so-called progressive universalism. According to this line of thinking, social support should in principle be universal in orientation, and therefore should be addressed to everyone. However, these universal social systems should simultaneously develop ways of supporting people living in vulnerable life conditions who may fall through the cracks, by supplementing them with selective measures ‘within’ these universal systems. So a community centre can be open to everyone, but for people living in poverty, extra support should be provided ‘within’ this community centre to guarantee their participation.

We shouldn’t become the home of the poor either. We have to keep it a bit open without opening it up again to everyone, because then you know that the weakest people will fall out again. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Lifeworld-oriented action

Systemworld-oriented action has its counterpart in lifeworld-oriented action. Lifeworld-oriented action is about social workers making connections with the experiences from people’s everyday lifeworld. The focus is not so much on institutionalised resources, but rather on the practices that people themselves develop to cope with daily experiences of injustice and with violations of human rights.

Actually, being in the field, close to the people, makes you better able to understand the underlying causes … you can more easily contextualise situations. People don’t always say what they want to say or what they think. If you know the context, you can understand that people formulate things in a certain way but mean it differently. (a social worker, institution for community development)

People living in vulnerable life conditions often find that their living environments are insufficiently understood by social workers as well as others. At the same time, they experience difficulties in explaining their own situation to social work organisations.

A lifeworld orientation also requires that social workers facilitate the opportunities to connect different lifeworlds. Connecting lifeworlds can contribute to sharing diverse experiences and to creating connectedness.

One time there was a ‘week of empathisation’. This is good for involving citizens so they can also experience it that way. They cannot imagine what it is like.  … It is good to involve them, so they get a very different view of our problems, because those people don’t normally have to deal with these problems. They should do this a lot more, through a campaign set up by the working group on housing, so these people are motivated to join our conversations and to experience what is going on. (a service-user)

Social workers also point out several risks that might be associated with a lifeworld approach. Specifically, they warn against a narrowing view on social problems where not only are social problems observed in the lifeworlds of people, but also solutions for these social problems are sought within the same lifeworlds. However, problems that manifest in the lifeworlds of people often originate from external causes, such as the labour market, the housing market or the school system. Therefore, social workers should always try to link issues raised in the lifeworld with the way social systems are organised.

That double movement has to be part of our work. That is why we say that you should not see our work merely as directed downwards. You have to work from the bottom up, but that movement must also go upwards.  … You have to link the work with a broader movement of social organisations. They help to raise the issues of social inequality, and they can move society in the direction of redistribution.  … It is even more necessary to set up broader alliances, so that all those little things that happen can become part of a broader context and become part of a wider environment. (a social worker, institution for community development)

The final crucial aspect of social work with lifeworld-oriented action is social duty in public deliberation.

The articulation of different needs of different groups is the core of democracy; that is a social issue. Which needs do we as a society recognise, and which not? Which needs can be defined as rights, how are they recognised, and can we organise ourselves accordingly? These are public debates. These are collective discussions, because not having your needs recognised, and, consequently, not being seen or heard in society, is usually a collective and structural problem. (a lecturer on social work)

Participatory action

Participation is a loose concept, but nevertheless a key notion when talking about an action framework for human rights in social work. After all, shaping human rights requires dialogue between social workers and citizens about how to construct human rights and for what purpose. Social workers point to two complementary features of participation. First, participatory action entails involvement, connection and reciprocity between social workers and citizens. Here, social workers focus on the ‘relational’ characteristic of the practice of participation.

Participative work cannot be one-sided. You cannot expect your client to participate in everything that comes out of your sleeve. I think the art is to participate with them, and to play it by ear: ‘What is going on here?’ If you as a social worker participate with them , you are going to exclude far fewer people than you would if you expect them to come and participate with you. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Social workers also recognise that participation is not simply a relational issue, but that it entails a ‘structural’ approach as well.

If I say that we have to be more individual, this doesn’t mean that we have to find an individual solution. What I mean is that we have to approach people individually and then hear from there what problems those people or those groups are experiencing. It is also important that policy acknowledges the stories of those people. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Participatory action comes with many pitfalls. One is the social exclusion caused by participatory practices. For social work, it is important to be aware of these processes of exclusion and to identify possible barriers and difficulties. In general, social workers indicate that ‘stronger’ people are the ones who participate in available activities, as these practices require a certain assertiveness or particular social or cultural skills.

Participation usually starts from a certain framework and not everyone fits into that framework. It also requires certain skills from clients—skills they don’t always have. So participatory practices exclude people, but at the same time, this makes us aware that we need to find a different way to involve those excluded. (social worker, institution for community development)

Another pitfall has to do with participation in social policy. One of the working methods of the institution for community development is to coach people who live in vulnerable life conditions to speak with policymakers. This involves a risk of instrumentalisation, not only by policymakers, but also by social workers, as these people adapt themselves to the preferences of social workers.

In everything we do, of course, it is important that we let people make their own choices. But to what extent we, as community workers, steer those choices … I’m not sure.  … We wouldn’t say it like that, but we do come up with the solutions.  … We start a project and then we involve people in it. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Joined-up action

Social work exists in many fields of practice. This can lead to physical or metaphorical borders between these fields. The over-organised professional field of social work often results in fragmentation or compartmentalisation. Social work from a human rights perspective should question these borders and even try to break through them. This is what is meant by joined-up action. Joined-up action aims to counteract structures and logic that withhold the realisation of human rights in social work.

A trend in the social field is to divide everything into separate human rights or compartments. That is how social policy is organised. A human-rights-based perspective implies an integrated or joined-up approach. This requires breaking through this administrative compartmentalisation of human rights. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Besides the limitations caused by the organisation of social work in different fields, social work is often restricted by the proliferation of rules, procedures, protocols, etc. From a human rights perspective, this requires social workers to push boundaries.

It is about pushing and crossing boundaries, looking outside the range of tasks, thinking outside the box. Laws are not violated, but rules are; these are agreements, and they can be interpreted more broadly or reinterpreted … . (a social worker, community health centre)

Social workers call for questioning rules and procedures. Joined-up action here means that social workers should use their professional discretion in order to be guided by their ethical duty instead of following fixed rules and arrangements.

Having sufficient professional discretion is very important, especially if you work with the most vulnerable groups. You need to take the side of these people instead of working with a double agenda. In any case, they will feel this immediately. But secondly, the more professional discretion social workers use in a system, the more they can defend the rights of vulnerable groups in society.  … It is important that they make full use of their professional discretion in order to develop a social reflex as much as possible. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Politicising action

Politicisation concerns questioning and contesting power. Power is mostly conceived of as something that belongs to societal structures, like politics or the judiciary system. Exercising power may result in injustice and in inhuman living conditions. The role of social work is thought to be to collectivise individual experiences of human rights violations and to bring these to the public debate. Politicised social work should use political advocacy to denounce structures and systems of power that cause violations of human rights.

You can try to help the person on an individual level to realise his or her rights, but you will always come across structural issues. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Power is also something that is situated in speaking about particular social issues. These discourses of power have a significant impact on people. The role of social work is to question these dominant orders of society. A social worker from a poverty-related organisation working with young people explains:

Many of the young people who arrive at our organisation are caught up in the ‘it’s your own fault’ discourse … . These young people are caught in a system and therefore they often blame themselves: ‘I think it’s me’ … . For example, education is an often recurring subject: 90% have attended special education. How is that possible? Is it only because of the context of poverty that they are being referred to this type of education, largely determining their future? In our organisation, they learn that this is happening not only to them, but this is something systemic. We explain that it is caused by our educational system failing to give everyone equal opportunities. By doing this, we are ‘de-blaming’ them: there is an individual responsibility, but there is also a social responsibility. For them, this is a process of awareness-raising about how society works and about who decides what. In the beginning, this often alienates these young people, these issues of politics, policy, human rights. (a social worker, poverty organisation).

However, because of the often extensive subsidisation of social work organisations by the government, the politicising role of social work is frequently at odds with the autonomy and independence of the organisation.

You are actually in a sort of a split, which keeps you from going fully for human rights. We cannot just be a protest movement. We can never go full 100 per cent. We can do that, but only with the blessing of a minister. (a social worker, institution for community development)

Therefore, social workers should be aware of depoliticising tendencies that increasingly emphasise the controlling side of social work over its emancipatory character.

The pressure is increasing for social workers to exercise control. I think it is important that social workers be very conscious of this: what is my task? … You see that organisations that are not complying are experiencing consequences. … We owe it to ourselves to say why we stand for. If we don’t do that, we do not take our clients seriously. We must unite as social workers to make it clear to policymakers: this is social work and this is not social work. … We must be able to define our role as social workers: what do we serve? We cannot be used for everything. (a social worker, organisation supporting people with a migration background)

Social workers indicate that they should be much more concerned with their self-critical role. Their own actions as social workers should also be scrutinised in some form of ‘self-politicisation’.

Our qualitative research on how social work acts when aiming to realise human rights reveals five building blocks. They flesh out what it can mean for social work to be a human rights profession. It is important to consider these five building blocks in connection to one another as an action framework for human rights in social work. The key point of this framework is the recognition that human rights in social work are collectively constructed and that social workers play a crucial role in this construction process. To state that human rights are collectively constructed is to acknowledge the discursive, contested and complex nature of human rights in social work ( Cemlyn, 2008 ; Ife, 2012 ). There is no single way to construct human rights. On the contrary, trying to realise human rights is a process characterised by a plurality of potential constructions, based on the plurality of interests of the communities and community members involved. Part of our data also show opposing constructions of human rights ‘within’ building blocks. The discussion on systemworld-oriented action, for instance, demonstrates that some social workers are in favour of selective social services, while others defend universal ones. The same goes for participatory action: being recognised as an agent and being acknowledged as a partner in dialogue can conflict with instrumentalising tendencies. It is remarkable that the conflicting perspectives each underpin their opposite positions from the same framework of human rights. Another part of our data show opposing views on human rights ‘between’ building blocks. This is probably most obvious in the building blocks of lifeworld-oriented action and systemworld-oriented action, which can be considered opposites. The approach of starting from the needs experienced by communities seems to be difficult to reconcile with the bureaucratic procedures of institutions within a system, although both rely on human rights.

Our action framework has an ambiguous relationship with previous action models. It resonates only partially with Androff’s five-principles framework ( Androff, 2016 ), particularly regarding the principle of participation. The principle of accountability in Androff’s model is closely linked to the building block of politicised action. For the other principles, the two frameworks can be considered complementary. The same goes for McPhersons’s HRPSW framework (2015; see also McPherson and Abell, 2020 ). Some of the human rights methods in her model share similarities with our action framework: participation is a shared concern; accountability and activism correspond to politicised action; community and interdisciplinary collaboration are related to lifeworld-oriented action and micro/macro integration and capacity building resonate with systemworld-oriented action. On the other hand, the human rights lens and human rights goals are absent from our action framework. As for earlier research in the Flemish context, our action framework agrees with some aspects of it but not others. Vandekinderen et al. (2020) conducted a research project to explore the common ground of social work in Flanders. They identified five building blocks that are considered the DNA of social work in Flanders. Of these, politicising work is the only building block that both frameworks have in common. It is no surprise that this building block also shows up in our results, as politicising work is a main concern in the work of community development organisations in Flanders.

The observed divergences between our own action framework and the practice approaches of Androff and McPherson can be explained in different ways. In part, this is probably due to the different research contexts in which the projects took place. In our project, collaboration was set up with organisations in the field of community development. Although we included focus group discussions to see whether our findings were transferable, additional research in other social work domains could reveal different emphases or even different building blocks. Furthermore, comparative studies between countries could provide more insight into the international transferability of our action framework. As explained in the ‘Introduction’ section, the nature of social work is closely linked to the welfare regime of a country, which in turn ‘set the scene’ for understanding human rights. How different welfare regimes affect the translation of human rights in social work practice remains a blind spot in social work scholarship. However, this is of particular relevance as welfare regimes all over the world are facing far-reaching transformation that have a significant impact on how human rights in social work are understood. Further research might reveal the link between the nature of different welfare regimes and the way social workers use human rights in their practice. Finally, although we included the voices of service-users in our research project, they often remain left out of rights-based practice literature. Further research on human rights in social work should pay much more attention to the perspective of service-users and to the way that a human rights framework affects their situations and life conditions. These issues require an empirical shift in order to fully understand social work as a human rights profession. Understanding these issues could lend more nuance to the discussions on the relationship between social work and human rights, and would move this debate beyond empty slogans and catchphrases.

Alseth A. K. ( 2020 ) ‘ Human rights as an opportunity and challenge for social work in a changing Norwegian welfare state’, European Journal of Social Work , 23 ( 6 ), pp. 920 – 13 .

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Program on Central Asia

The Program on Central Asia promotes research and teaching at Harvard on the history and current affairs of five Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Song-Kol Lake, Kyrgyzstan

We support the study of the Central Asian region using tools and insights from various fields of social sciences and humanities. Our activities include research projects, seminar series, curriculum development and course offerings, creation of digital resources for the study of the region, facilitation of research by students and visiting scholars, and cultural events. 

While the program aims at generating and disseminating knowledge and resources on Central Asia spanning different periods of its history, our main focus is on the independence period and current developments. We approach Central Asia as a region that opened up as a result of the dissolution of the USSR. The states, economies, and people of Central Asia are now an integral part of the globalized world, and developments in the region cannot be properly understood without tracing and analyzing different forms of connectivity, influence, and interdependence.

Our Projects

Renewable Energy Transition in Central Asia

RETCA addresses energy security challenges and environmental problems in Central Asia by studying the governance and politics of the region’s green energy transition. 

Caspiana: A Digital Toolbox for Students and Scholars of Central Asia and the South Caucasus is a resource to facilitate research on the regions east and west of the Caspian Sea. 

Regions and China's Belt and Road Initiative

This seminar seeks to foster vibrant, comprehensive, and fruitful discussion on the ongoing transformations in geopolitics and governance triggered by the BRI. 

Central Asia and Caucasus Seminar

A series of public seminars on topics in the history, culture, and politics of the Central Asia region.

American Diplomats in Central Asia

The accounts of American diplomats who worked in the 1990s and first decade of 2000s shed light on this dramatic period of global history and reveal behind-the-scenes workings of international politics.

Related Insights

Building a Community of Central Asia Scholars

The Davis Center’s Graduate Student Conference on Central Asia showcases vibrant scholars eager to share and collaborate with others who study the region.

Terror Attack in Russia Shines Spotlight on ISIS-K Recruiting Among Central Asians

Davis Center associate Vera Mironova, who has spent years studying militants from the ex-USSR, says that Russia’s war mobilization may have turned the concert hall outside Moscow into a relatively easy target.

Can Fossil Fuel-Dependent Central Asia Reach Climate Goals?

Davis Center visiting scholar Rahat Sabyrbekov explores the region’s climate change challenges, spotlighting original work on decarbonization efforts in the region.

Related Events

Moscow’s Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR

In his new book "Moscow’s Heavy Shadow" Isaac McKean Scarborough explores Tajikistan's descent into bloody civil war in the early 1990s and argues that armed conflict has accompanied the extended Soviet collapse since the beginning and until today.

Behind the Lens and Censorship

Join us for an evening with acclaimed Kazakhstani filmmaker Olzhas Bayalbayev and a screening of his captivating short film "GOK," depicting the dramatic takeover of a mining and ore-processing plant in northern Kazakhstan. 

Muslim Emigration From Late Tsarist and Early Soviet Central Asia

This talk will explore developments that led to mass displacement, including the Central Asian revolt of 1916, civil war in 1917–23, Soviet reforms in the 1920s, and the Kazakh famine of 1930–33, paying particular attention to settler colonial violence and the loss of Muslim sovereignties in Central Asia.

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Announcing the Spring 2024 Graduate Research Travel Grant Recipients

The Harvard Center for African Studies is pleased to announce the recipients of the Spring 2024 Graduate Research Travel Grant. Awardees received between $1,000 - $5,000 to conduct fieldwork in Africa during the summer or fall semester. This year, 14 graduate students were awarded funding, totaling $54,000.  Reasearch was conducted in 12 different countries including: Angola, Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, and Tanzania. 

Graduate students interested in applying for the Center’s Graduate Research Travel Grants have two opportunities to apply:  

• Apply by October 15 for funding for travel during winter break, January term, and the spring semester
• Apply by February 15 for funding for travel during the summer or fall semester 

To learn more about our graduate research travel grants, click here . Applications open September 1.  

Salma Abouelhossein | GSAS  Project: Sweet Dispossession: Nubian Displacement and the Sugar Geographies of the Nile Valley  Location: Egypt  

Katherine Angier | GSAS  Project: Transcriptomic Underpinnings of Thermal Tolerance in Savanna-Adapted Termites   Location: Democratic Republic of Congo

Peter Corti | GSAS  Project: A Study of Wolof Literature and Language - Predissertation Research  Location: Senegal 

Sabrina Ebengho Bawula | HSPH  Project: Evaluating the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Universal Health Coverage Initiative  Location: Democratic Republic of Congo 

Lexi Farina | HSPH  Project: Role of Food Vendors in School Food Environments: Exploratory Qualitative Study in Tanzania   Location: Tanzania 

Evan Hockridge | GSAS  Project: Do Animals Create the Islands of Canopy Gaps Throughout the Congo Rainforest?  Location: Congo 

Gorata Bontle Kgafela | GSD  Project: Imagined Futures of Housing Policy in Botswana  Location: Botswana  

Eduarda Lira de Araujo | GSAS  Project: African and Afro-Brazilian Healers, Diviners, and the Ecology of the Sacred in Brazil  Location: Angola 

Lisa Matay | HSPH  Project: Optimizing Health Services Delivery in Ethiopia  Location: Ethiopia 

Grace Ngugi | GSAS  Project: Logics of (Un)freedom: Intimate Mobilities & Imperial Entanglements in 19th and 20th C Swahili Coast  Location: Zanzibar 

Ifeosa Nkem-Onyekpe | GSAS  Project: Research on Wealth and Poverty in West Niger Igbo Area, 1840-1979  Location: Nigeria 

Shae O. Omonijo | GSAS  Project: The Life and Conditions of Ashanti Exiles in Seychelles  Location: Seychelles and Ghana 

Catherine Ressijac | GSAS  Project: Role of Food Vendors in School Food Environments: Exploratory Qualitative Study in Tanzania   Location: Tanzania 

Michael Voysey | GSAS  Project: Nutrient Transport Between Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems by Hippos in an African Savanna   Location: South Africa

Upcoming Events

Cas @ the harvard gsas student resource fair, cas @ the harvard gsd student resource fair, cas @ the harvard undergraduate international opportunities fair.

Harvard, graduate students settle lawsuit over sexual harassment claims against professor

The professor was not named as a defendant, and his lawyers said at the time that he 'categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student'

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Harvard University and three graduate students have settled a federal lawsuit accusing the Ivy League school of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment by a renowned professor and allowing him to intimidate students by threatening to hinder their careers.

The suit filed in Boston in 2022 was dismissed without court costs and with prejudice, according to an order by federal Magistrate Judge Judith Dein dated Thursday, meaning the students can’t re-litigate the claims.

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Terms of the settlement were not made public.

The students’ lawyers praised their clients’ courage “in coming forward, speaking up about their experiences and shedding light on important issues.”

“We are glad that our clients will now be able to move on with their lives and careers,” the statement from Sanford Heisler Sharp said.

The lawsuit alleged that one of the students was subjected to repeated forcible kissing and groping as early as 2017 by John Comaroff, a professor of anthropology and African and African American studies. And when the student met with him to discuss her plans to study in an African country, Comaroff repeatedly said she could be subjected to violence in Africa because she was in a same-sex relationship, the lawsuit said.

The other two plaintiffs said Comaroff threatened to derail their careers after they reported his behavior to university administrators. One accused him of giving her unwanted sexual attention when she was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago.

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

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Comaroff, 79, was not named as a defendant, and his lawyers said at the time that he “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.” He “consistently made every effort to assist these students and to advance their careers,” their statement said.

As for the discussion about the dangers of possible violence in the African country, he said his advice was appropriate, motivated by concern for her safety if she traveled with a same-sex partner — a warning similar to what’s published by the U.S. State Department.

Comaroff said in a July statement announcing his retirement from Harvard that the lawsuit “repeated all of the allegations already found to lack merit” during a Harvard investigation, but “in more lurid, hyperbolic terms” to make him a scapegoat in their fight against the university.

“All this extraordinary attention, all the furor, all the nastiness, arose out of two brief office-hour discussions, both academic in intent and content,” Comaroff wrote. “An ugly, ferocious campaign had been waged against me at Harvard by a small group of activists, people who have no knowledge of me, of my pedagogy, or of the facts of the case as established by Harvard’s thorough, largely exonerating investigation.”

At the time the lawsuit was filed in 2022, a Harvard spokesperson shared a letter saying Comaroff was put on administrative leave for the rest of that spring semester after university investigators found his verbal conduct violated the school’s sexual, gender-based and professional conduct policies.

Before the lawsuit went to mediation in November, lawyers for Harvard had argued for a dismissal, saying the statute of limitations had expired for some claims and that others lacked merit.

Emails seeking comment on the settlement from attorneys representing Comaroff and the university were not immediately returned Friday.

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• Investigates
• Houston Life
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WEATHER ALERT

31 advisories in effect for 23 regions in the area

What work has centerpoint energy completed since launching its resiliency initiative.

Daji Aswad , Meteorologist / Reporter

Ahmed Humble , Digital Content Producer

Re'Chelle Turner , Reporter , Houston

HOUSTON – As we continue to ensure CenterPoint Energy keeps its promise to put its words into action through its initiative to improve resiliency , KPRC 2 is looking at just how far they’ve come in meeting their set deadlines.

• PREVIOUS: ‘We are taking action now’: CenterPoint Energy launches new initiative to bring about immediate resiliency

As part of its August 15 deadline, CenterPoint took to social media, touting its success and saying it installed 640 stronger, more storm-resilient poles and trimmed/removed higher-risk vegetation from more than 900 power line miles.

“We remain laser-focused on completing the remaining key resiliency actions that are part of an accelerated phase of our Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, ” CenterPoint said in its post.

Our dedicated crews and contractors have successfully installed 640 stronger and more storm-resilient poles and trimmed or removed higher-risk vegetation from more than 940 power line miles. We remain laser-focused on completing the remaining key resiliency actions that are part… pic.twitter.com/N0Pv0t1PjP — CenterPoint Energy (@CenterPoint) August 15, 2024

As part of the company’s initiative, which was first announced in early August, CenterPoint is expected to be halfway through the second phase of its goals.

Its next deadline will be August 31, when the energy giant claims 100% of that vegetation from the 2,000 incremental distribution lines will be removed.

This move comes after CenterPoint has been facing a plethora of scrutiny from Texas residents and lawmakers alike, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently throwing his hat into the ring in examining what went wrong during Hurricane Beryl .

On top of that, CenterPoint has had people raising their eyebrows in the company’s efforts to raise its rates for customers. State law requires a rate review by the Public Utility Commission of Texas every four years, and CenterPoint’s last review was back in 2019.

• WEIGH IN: Got an opinion on CenterPoint’s response to Hurricane Beryl? Take this survey and tell them

In Wednesday’s filing, CenterPoint asked for the review to be revisited at the end of June 2025.

Last week, dozens of cities in CenterPoint’s area —including Houston—reached out, asking the same judge not to grant the company’s exemption from the review. The cities claim that the company is overcharging its customers by more than $100 million every year.

They want the judge to have the hearing so they could present evidence and argue for a rate decrease. Consumer advocates say this extension means that customers could have higher rates until 2025, and refunds aren’t an option after the customer has paid.

• MORE: CenterPoint is fighting efforts by Houston and other cities for mandatory rate review

On Thursday, CenterPoint responded to our request. As noted on CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction , all items with an August 15 due date have been completed.

To learn more about the plan, please visit CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction .

Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

About the Authors

I am grateful for the opportunity to share the captivating tales of weather, climate, and science within a community that has undergone the same transformative moments that have shaped my own life.

Ahmed Humble

Historian, educator, writer, expert on "The Simpsons," amateur photographer, essayist, film & tv reviewer and race/religious identity scholar. Joined KPRC 2 in Spring 2024 but has been featured in various online newspapers and in the Journal of South Texas' Fall 2019 issue.

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University of Michigan School of Social Work

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The goals of the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s PhD in Social Work and Social Welfare are to:

• Prepare the future social work professoriate with a specific focus in the solution of social problems through rigorous scientific methodological and integrative, transdisciplinary social science inquiry.
• To prepare leaders of the social work profession with expertise in social policy and social intervention that is based in rigorous scientific methods and theoretical and empirical inquiry.

The PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare is focused on developing scholars who are transdisciplinary experts (i.e., masters of a broad array of applicable methods not in a specific to a social science but drawing from an array of disciplines) with the education and training to understand, develop, and evaluate social interventions, including service systems and policies.  The PhD Program in Social Work and Social Welfare applies appropriate transdisciplinary perspectives to focus specifically on problems at the heart of social work: to promote human adaptation, social change, and social justice. The distinctive elements of the PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare are its transdisciplinary perspective and its greater emphasis on the science of multi-level individual and social change and social justice in a diverse and pluralistic societal context.

The PhD program in Social work and Social Welfare trains students to be able to create and evaluate interventions designed to solve societal problems. As social work is an applied profession, the PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare prepares students to discover new methods for helping people and society overcome the problems they face. Coursework aligns with this focus and the preliminary examination required for candidacy asks students to synthesize research on practice interventions in their area of research, critique it, identify gaps, and make suggestions on addressing these gaps. 

Beginning in Fall 2024, the program will admit five (5) Social Work and Social Welfare PhD students to start in the Fall of 2025. 

Please note that applicants can apply to both the doctoral program in Social Work and Social Welfare and the SSW Joint Doctoral program in Social Work and Social Science but must complete specific applications for each program. Students are encouraged to thoroughly review materials about both PhD program options to ensure alignment between the program(s) and their research interests and scholarly goals.

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The Strongest U.S. Healthcare Organizations Invest in Social Capital

• Thomas H. Lee
• Nell Buhlman

The value created when teams work well together is a self-sustaining resource built on mutual respect.

Social capital —the value gained when people work well together — is just as, if not more, important than human or financial capital. At a time, when financial and human capital are in short supply, it is critical that healthcare leaders focus on building social capital to improve performance and gain competitive advantage. This article explains what it takes to build social capital and how to measure it.

Being in the business of providing care means spending a lot of time thinking about the human element of the work. After all, people are at the heart of everything that matters most in healthcare — both those receiving care and those working to provide it. That’s human capital.

• Thomas H. Lee , MD, is the chief medical officer of PG Forsta, a leading provider of experience measurement, data analytics, and insights that help companies in complex industries better understand and better serve their stakeholders. He is a practicing internist and a professor (part time) of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
• Nell Buhlman is the chief administrative officer and head of strategy at PG Forsta, a leading provider of experience measurement, data analytics, and insights that help companies in complex industries better understand and better serve their stakeholders. She is also a member of Lifepoint Health’s board of directors.

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Celebrating Commencement 2024

• Author SSW Communications
• August 05, 2024
• Category School

Smith College School for Social Work will confer 120 master’s degrees and 10 doctoral degrees in clinical social work on Friday, August 16, 2024. The graduating students are the first class to have spent three full summers on campus since the start of the pandemic and they come from 25 states across the U.S. 

Multimodal artist, writer, performer, and internationally-recognized public speaker Jezz Chung will give the 2024 Commencement Address. Devin Duprey will speak on behalf of the M.S.W. graduates and Phuongloan (Loan) Vo will deliver the Ph.D. address. 

Said Dean Marianne Yoshioka about the graduates, “This group of students has helped us build new community practices and traditions. They are exceptionally well-prepared to deliver clinical social work services in a variety of settings, both virtual and in-person.  I know they will do amazing things as they begin their careers. I am so thrilled to welcome them as colleagues to the world of clinical social work.” 

Celebratory receptions for students, family and friends are planned for the week of Commencement.

This year’s celebration includes:

Wednesday, August 14  

• President's Reception, 5 p.m., Paradise Room and Terrace, Smith College Conference Center

Friday, August 19

• SSW Ph.D. Graduate Brunch, 10:30 a.m., Mary Maples Dunn Conference Room, Pierce Hall
• Commencement, 4:30 p.m., John M. Greene Hall. The ceremony will also be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube
• Commencement Reception, immediately following Commencement, Julia McWilliams Child '34 Campus Center. Please limit to four (4) guests per graduate

More in News

Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) area of study, also known as the Health and Social Behavior (HSB) field of study in the MPH Program, is focused heavily on research to illuminate and to act upon basic social and behavioral determinants of health. SBS can be completed with four different degree paths, providing students with the skills they need to understand social determinants of health, develop and evaluate policies and programs to reduce health inequities and disseminate population health interventions.  

Department overview

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences trains scholars and practitioners to understand and intervene on social determinants of health and health equity identified through research.  

Degree programs

The Master of Science (42.5 credit) degree prepares students to make an impact in the practice or policy arenas.  

• Abbreviation: SM-42.5
• Degree format: On campus  
• Time commitment: Full-time or part-time  
• Average program length: One year full-time, two years part-time  

The Master of Public Health (45) degree provides established professionals with specialized knowledge and skills to advance their career in public health.  

• Abbreviation: MPH-HSB 45, MPH-45  

The Master of Public Health (65) degree provides professionals with the breadth of knowledge and subject-specific expertise needed to forge a successful career in public health.  

• Abbreviation: MPH-HSB 65, MPH-65  
• Average program length: 1.5 years full-time, three years part-time  

The Doctor of Philosophy is designed for students seeking specialized methodological and conceptual expertise to propel an academic or research career.  

• Abbreviation: PhD PHS-SBS  
• Time commitment: Full-time  
• Average program length: Four-year program (typically two years of classes and two years of research)  

Student interests

Students who choose Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS) are passionate about social justice and committed to improving population health. They are focused on research and quantitative methods as a means to create social change within public health.  

Depending on prior experience and education, students incorporate the social and behavioral sciences into their degree programs in different ways. Students in the SM-42.5 or PhD programs are dedicated to public health research , while MPH students are focused on public health practice .  

Career outcomes 

SBS-focused practitioners graduate with the skills required to evaluate, research, design, and implement health-enhancing interventions.  

Among multiple career choices, graduates of the Master of Public Health (MPH) programs have found employment as:  

• Research analysts at consulting firms and government agencies  
• Project directors at city, state, and federal health commissions  
• Leadership positions at non-profit organizations  

For individuals in the MPH-65 HSB, the summer practicum experience often opens up career opportunities with a range of organizations.  

Among multiple career choices, graduates of the PhD program have found employment in:  

• Postdoctoral positions  
• Tenure-track faculty positions  
• Management/research positions at government agencies   

3D-printed blood vessels bring artificial organs closer to reality

New printing method creates branching vessels in heart tissue that replicate the structure of human vasculature in vitro.

Co-SWIFT vessels are embedded with living smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells to replicate the structure of human blood vessels in vitro. (Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Growing functional human organs outside the body is a long-sought “holy grail” of organ transplantation medicine that remains elusive. New research from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering brings that quest one big step closer to completion.

A team of scientists created a new method to 3D print vascular networks that consist of interconnected blood vessels possessing a distinct “shell” of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells surrounding a hollow “core” through which fluid can flow, embedded inside a human cardiac tissue. This vascular architecture closely mimics that of naturally occurring blood vessels and represents significant progress toward being able to manufacture implantable human organs. The achievement is published in Advanced Materials .

“In prior work, we developed a new 3D bioprinting method, known as ‘sacrificial writing in functional tissue’ ( SWIFT ), for patterning hollow channels within a living cellular matrix. Here, building on this method, we introduce coaxial SWIFT (co-SWIFT) that recapitulates the multilayer architecture found in native blood vessels, making it easier to form an interconnected endothelium and more robust to withstand the internal pressure of blood flow,” said first author Paul Stankey, a bioengineering Ph.D. student at SEAS in the lab of co-senior author Jennifer Lewis, Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at SEAS Wyss Core Faculty member.

The key innovation developed by the team was a unique core-shell nozzle with two independently controllable fluid channels for the “inks” that make up the printed vessels: a collagen-based shell ink and a gelatin-based core ink. The interior core chamber of the nozzle extends slightly beyond the shell chamber so that the nozzle can fully puncture a previously printed vessel to create interconnected branching networks for sufficient oxygenation of human tissues and organs via perfusion. The size of the vessels can be varied during printing by changing either the printing speed or the ink flow rates.

To confirm the new co-SWIFT method worked, the team first printed their multilayer vessels into a transparent granular hydrogel matrix. Next, they printed vessels into a recently created matrix called uPOROS composed of a porous collagen-based material that replicates the dense, fibrous structure of living muscle tissue. They were able to successfully print branching vascular networks in both of these cell-free matrices. After these biomimetic vessels were printed, the matrix was heated, which caused collagen in the matrix and shell ink to crosslink, and the sacrificial gelatin core ink to melt, enabling its easy removal and resulting in an open, perfusable vasculature.

Moving into even more biologically relevant materials, the team repeated the printing process using a shell ink that was infused with smooth muscle cells (SMCs), which comprise the outer layer of human blood vessels. After melting out the gelatin core ink, they then perfused endothelial cells (ECs), which form the inner layer of human blood vessels, into their vasculature. After seven days of perfusion, both the SMCs and the ECs were alive and functioning as vessel walls - there was a three-fold decrease in the permeability of the vessels compared to those without ECs.

The original SWIFT method (left) printed hollow channels through living OBBs (green), but had no structure to contain fluid as it flowed through. Co-SWIFT (right) creates a cell-laden vessel (red) surrounding the channel, which isolates blood flow from the tissue and improves their viability. (Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Finally, they were ready to test their method inside living human tissue. They constructed hundreds of thousands of cardiac organ building blocks (OBBs) – tiny spheres of beating human heart cells, which are compressed into a dense cellular matrix. Next, using co-SWIFT, they printed a biomimetic vessel network into the cardiac tissue. Finally, they removed the sacrificial core ink and seeded the inner surface of their SMC-laden vessels with ECs via perfusion and evaluated their performance.

Not only did these printed biomimetic vessels display the characteristic double-layer structure of human blood vessels, but after five days of perfusion with a blood-mimicking fluid, the cardiac OBBs started to beat synchronously – indicative of healthy and functional heart tissue. The tissues also responded to common cardiac drugs - isoproterenol caused them to beat faster, and blebbistatin stopped them from beating. The team even 3D-printed a model of the branching vasculature of a real patient’s left coronary artery into OBBs, demonstrating its potential for personalized medicine.

“We were able to successfully 3D-print a model of the vasculature of the left coronary artery based on data from a real patient, which demonstrates the potential utility of co-SWIFT for creating patient-specific, vascularized human organs,” said Lewis.

In future work, Lewis’ team plans to generate self-assembled networks of capillaries and integrate them with their 3D-printed blood vessel networks to more fully replicate the structure of human blood vessels on the microscale and enhance the function of lab-grown tissues.

Additional authors of the paper include Katharina Kroll, Alexander Ainscough, Daniel Reynolds, Alexander Elamine, Ben Fichtenkort, and Sebastien Uzel. This work was supported by the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship Program sponsored by the Basic Research Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering through the Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-21-1-2958 and the National Science Foundation through CELL-MET ERC (#EEC-1647837). 

Topics: Bioengineering

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• Current Students

In This Section

• PhD Student Life
• Degree Requirements
• What We Look For

Our PhD in Social Policy (SPOL) doctoral students are registered at the  Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) and delve into a range of research areas during their time at Harvard.

Our current SPOL students are listed below.

Brian Highsmith

Fiscal federalism, state/local tax and budget policy, public goods, residential segregation, criminal punishment, political economy, antitrust and corporate power, and law and legal institutions.

Andrew byrne Keefe

Crime, criminal law, and criminal justice; economic inequality; empire; mass incarceration; network analysis; policing; political economy; political sociology; and race and racism.

Evan MacKay

Inequality and social policy; crime, deviance, restoration, and punishment; social stratification; race and ethnicity; gender; discrimination; geography; poverty; and quantitative methods.

Alexandra Mitukiewicz

Work, inequality, social policy, demography, aging, retirement.  

Nefara Riesch

Race and ethnicity, poverty and inequality, criminal legal system, labor markets, policing, quantitative methods, and social policy.

Cierra Robson

Racial inequality, technological advancement, surveillance, criminal justice, policing, social policy, and AI ethics.

Lauren Taylor

Stratification and inequality, demography, labor markets, and the welfare state.

Elizabeth Thom

American politics, social policy, political economy, and geography. 

Michael Zanger-Tishler

Criminology, sociology of punishment, race, ethnicity and migration, quantitative methods, comparative sociology, social theory, inequality and social policy, antisemitism, Middle Eastern studies, and law and society.

University of South Florida

College of Behavioral and Community Sciences

Main navigation, school of social work director celebrates retirement.

Riaan van Zyl speaks to attendees of his retirement celebration.

• August 16, 2024
• College News , School of Social Work

CBCS faculty, staff, and students gathered in the MHC Atrium to celebrate Riaan van Zyl, PhD , who will retire this month. The event included a panel, wherein van Zyl was joined by Jim Clark, PhD, MSW, Florida State University (FSU) provost and former dean of the FSU College of Social Work, and Bruce Thyer, PhD, LCSW, BCBA-D, FSU Distinguished Research Professor. The three speakers, who have been friends and colleagues for over 30 years, provided commentary on the state of social work research and practice, and other contemporary developments in professional social work education.

Van Zyl served as professor and director of the USF School of Social Work since August 2017. Prior to that, he was associate dean for research at the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. Van Zyl was the head of the Department of Social Work at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa for nine years and senior lecturer for five years. He also served as chair of the Joint University Council on Social Work in South Africa, where he was responsible for developing new accreditation standards.

School of Social Work faculty and staff thanked van Zyl for his leadership and announced the establishment of the Dr. Riaan van Zyl Improving Childhoods Lectureship Fund in his honor. The fund will provide an annual lecture series on work being done to make childhoods better. Photos of the retirement celebration can be viewed here .

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About College of Behavioral & Community Sciences News

The Mission of the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences (CBCS) is to advance knowledge through interdisciplinary teaching, research, and service that improves the capacity of individuals, families, and diverse communities to promote productive, satisfying, healthy, and safe lives across the lifespan. CBCS envisions the college as a globally recognized leader that creates innovative solutions to complex conditions that affect the behavior and well-being of individuals, families, and diverse communities.