Guest Editor: Leah Munroe (She/Her)

Yellow background with yellow envelope, silver scissors, 2 pencils and a notepad.

In this issue, we explore topics related to social work ethics in different areas of academia and more.

We include topics that cover information regarding ethics in Academia, R Codes, Reflections of the PhD Journey, Ethics in research, and shifting from secondary to primary investigator in research.

This newsletter includes

Editorial: Ethics in Academia by Leah Munroe (She/Her)
Resources for Using R in Research by Hannah Boyke (They/Them)
Shifting from Secondary to Primary Researcher as a Graduate Student- Charles Labarre (He/Him)
Navigating Ethical Waters: Responsibilities of Social Work doctoral Students in Policy Research by Julisa Tindall (She/Her)
Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of Motivation: Reflections of My Journye Thus Far- Saira Afzal (She/Her)
“Who’s That”? A Personal Journey with the History of Social Work - Shawn Mcnally (He/Him)

Message from Outgoing Chair

It has been my absolute pleasure to serve on the SSWR board as your Student-Director-at-Large and Chair of the SSWR Doctoral Student Committee over the last two years. During this time, I have been proud of continuing the groundwork laid by those before me and continuing to push for the needs of Doctoral students around the country. My tenure comes with many highlights but most notable Is the continued dedication that the DSC sub-committees continue to do—from the newsletters you all read every few months put together by the communications sub-committee which share an abundance of resources; the continued drive to develop and enhance student programing at SSWR led by the conference and mentoring sub-committees; and finally the launch of the new DSC Student-engagement sub-committee just this very year. I was excited to see support from the board in increasing the number of travel grants offered to students each year since I have been a member, as well as support for DSC sub-committee leaders and members making the SSWR conference a little more affordable for them to be in attendance.

Though my tenure is up I believe and trust this committee and whomever succeeds me in my role will continue to develop more ideas and initiatives that will benefit all students around the Country. I am thankful for the many relationships and collaborations that have manifested from my time on the Board from those in relation to students and the plethora of faculty members and SSWR staff I had the pleasure to engage with on the Board. I appreciate you all for voting for me, those who wrote nomination letters and those who believed I was the right person for the job. My tenure in this role is officially coming to an end but I am far from done in my quest to continue to see a more equitable and just profession and contribute to the advancement of critical social work science.

We have two amazing candidates on the ballot this year and I look forward to passing the torch and being a support, for whoever fills the role. I know they will be capable, and we can expect great things to come. To the DSC leadership, you guys have led with grace and true passion, and I humbly have watched you in awe and appreciate all you do for us as students. And to the DSC members, none of this is possible without you all. You donate and dedicate your time that I’m sure could be well spent elsewhere but you all have a true affinity in spirit for giving back and for that I am grateful. I look forward to seeing those who will attend SSWR in Washington D.C. and please look out for the many student sessions we will be having.

Information About First Student Engagement Committee Session

I also want to note that the first Student Engagement session will be happening the week before SSWR.

This session taking place on Wednesday January 3rd from 7-8pm central time will give an overview of the many things happening this year at the Society for Social Work and Research Conference next month in Washington D.C., as well as an overview of what to expect and how to navigate the conference from the student perspective.

The session is hosted by the SSWR Student Engagement Doctoral Sub-Committee. Zoom information will be sent out the day before the session. To register please use this link or click on the image to the right.

In Solidarity,

Durrell M. Washington Sr.

Picture of a person holding a lightbulb — ***Editorial: Ethics in Academia***

Leah Munroe (She/Her)

In our exploration of ethics, we discuss rules and authority and how we relate to one another.

In our Master’s programs, we spend (hopefully) a lot of time reviewing our code of ethics to become ethical clinicians. While the moral quandaries of counseling are intense and emotionally heavy, the ethical dilemmas we face in academia are often less obvious and more convoluted. Unfortunately, the ethical conversations seem to stop at plagiarism for many doctoral students. Even after last year’s events at CSWE, there was minimal formal discussion about behavioral standards for academic faculty. Despite the “moral highground” that social workers often appeal to, CSWE did not uphold its own competency standards. Unfortunately, harassment of female participants at conferences is not an isolated incident. Approximately 45% of women in a national study reported sexual harassment or unwanted advances at a professional event. If we cannot expect even the most basic human decency from leading researchers at professional events, how can we expect them to uphold rigorous research standards?

As we engage in research, we aim to disseminate information and influence practice and policy. Any mistakes we make are open to causing systemic damage. Our scope becomes much larger, and our discussions of ethics should be, too. If we, as researchers, are not facing our own biases, we are subject to letting those biases into our research. Examples of research bias range from making inaccurate assumptions about participants based on race, gender, sexuality, etc., to not including specific populations in the study sample at all. While this seems farfetched, in 1977, the FDA recommended that women of “childbearing potential” should be excluded from phase I and II drug studies. Despite the intention to prevent child malformities, a noble cause for sure, the execution led to the exclusion of all premenopausal women from medical research. Therefore, during that age of drug production, there is very little data on how these drugs affect women. The consequences of the FDA’s actions still reverberate today. While it became a legal requirement to include women in medical research in 1994, there are still too few women being recruited and retained in medical research. This is just one example of one group that has been excluded due to the assumptions of those in charge.

In a qualitative study of unethical behavior, two themes of misconduct emerged: academic dishonesty and inappropriate behavior toward staff and students. Appropriately, plagiarism has been discussed in some form in every single one of my classes, with a specific focus on self-plagiarism. While proper citations are important, just ask Harvard President, Dr. Claudine Gay; the conversation of ethics must go further. How we treat each other is a tenant in moral philosophy. The idea that quantitative research is impervious to personal influence is outdated. Who we are and what biases we hold always have the opportunity to impact how we interpret our results.

In this issue, we will explore the various ways doctoral social work students encounter ethical boundaries as researchers, counselors, and political activists.

Resources for Using R in Research: In this article, you will find various resources for data analysis, including introductory stats with R and data visualization guides. These resources can assist you in future research, especially if you’re looking to avoid the hefty prices often accompanying analysis software. Additional resources discuss making reproudicible documents as an aspect of ethics.
Shifting from secondary to primary researcher as a graduate student: This article highlights the pathway from graduate assistant to lead researcher. Resources are provided to aid new researchers in finding grants and how to look out for predatory journals.
Navigating Ethical Waters: Responsibilities of Implications of Social Work Doctoral Students in Policy Research: This piece outlines the grander scale of social work research and how we, as doctoral students, can improve society. Social work has many facets; this article reminds the reader of how we can enact change through collaboration, advocacy, and engagement.
Navigating the Peaks and Vallets of Motivation: Reflections of my Journey Thus Far: This article is a reminder to the reader that you are not alone. We all experience the highs and lows of motivation. Recommendations are provided for how to re-engage with your work regardless of motivation. Hint: you may need a break.
Who’s that? My Personal Journey with the History of Social Work: Are you looking for a quick dive into the history of social work? Look no further--here it is. This piece takes a look at a few of the many pioneers of our profession. From Georg Simmel to Mary Ellen Richmond, many of the names get lost or swept aside during our education; take a moment to remember them.

3 people around a table with sticky notes, papers with diverse writing, and a computer — ***Resources for Using R in Research***

Hannah Boyke (They/Them)

Software is expensive. I’m not sure which schools offer students free software packages, but mine doesn’t.

SPSS costs about $100, SAS costs around $120, and STATA costs about $250 per academic year. With every other expense I have to think about, I really find it difficult to justify using these programs. Free data analysis software, such as R, is rarely used in courses—meaning that students don’t necessarily get a low-stakes introduction to coding and running analyses. I think that this lack of access to courses that use R can make learning the software even more intimidating in the future—when we’re using our own data or working without access to instructors and mentors who can review all of our code.

Luckily, I first learned R in my MSW program in 2018, and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s been rocky at times, and I’ve definitely had moments where I wished I could be using an “easier” software. However, as I’ve pushed through, I’ve become more competent and an even bigger proponent of using it.

This newsletter piece mainly serves to offer resources for students who hope to use R in their research. Although it can be intimidating at first, it does get easier, and there’s a plethora of online resources that can help.

The list of resources below might be updated in the future, or I might make it into a repository of sorts. Before going into the list, though, I do want to say that another resource for identifying code is Chat GPT, which has been invaluable to me as of late. Rather than having to spend 45 minutes troubleshooting and trying to identify the code I need through Ggoogling, I’ve been able to just type my question into Chat GPT and receive an answer with applicable code. Here’s an example of using Chat GPT for identifying code.

Resources:

Learning Basics of R Coding:

Merging data and introduction to R, Hannah Boyke 2023: This links to a Google Drive folder that contains a video, some sample data, and a document that goes over the process for merging data sets. I made this document for a Lunch and Learn for my PhD program that shows how to merge data and troubleshoot the process. At the end, I include some preliminary information and code for running a variety of analyses and basic introductory information.

UCLA Advanced Research Computing Statistical Methods and Data Analytics: This page links to UCLA’s data analysis examples that contain easy to follow code for a variety of analyses—such as multivariate linear regression, binary and categorical models, count models like negative binomial regression, and even mixed effects logistic regression.

Dr. Miles Chen of UCLA has a YouTube playlist for an introductory stats class that uses R. This playlist can be really helpful for learning the basics of using R. UCLA’s YouTube channel in general has a lot of helpful information.

Dr. Steph van Buren, the co-creator of the mice package for multiple imputation in R, has a plethora of resources regarding missing data, including publications and code available for free on his website. Also, van Buren has his book on multiple imputation Flexible imputation of missing data available as a free eBook here.

Data Visualization:

Urban Institute has amazing information about data visualization! Here’s a link to their GitHub, which has R code for visualization with the ggplot package. Here’s a link to their page about making maps in R, and here’s a link for their introduction to R, which focuses on data visualization.

The R graph gallery also provides a lot of great guidance for making graphs and other types of visualization.

Visualizing Models:

This Vignette by Daniel Lüdecke introduces how to make marginal effects plots using the packages of sjPlot and ggeffects.

This vignette, again by Daniel Lüdecke, introduces plotting interaction effects of regression models—specifically, the vignette reviews one-way, two-way, and three-way interactions.

Making reproducible documents in R

In addition to being free, R offers a variety of ways to develop research reports that support the reproducibility of research. We live in a time where neoliberalism has pervaded academic cultures, inundating researchers with a hyper-competitive culture that privileges publishing over all else. When our access to grant funding and career prospects are tied to the number of publications we have received, it’s not surprising that there have been so many recent scandals related to research misconduct (including with professors at Harvard and Stanford). As demonstrated by the blog of Nick Brown, PhD, making data public and placing it in a repository does little to prevent misconduct and fraud.

Developing reproducible research documents is one way to promote transparency, ethical research, and inter-researcher collaboration. The most basic way to begin doing this is to use R Notebooks and RMarkdown to create research reports that are used as the basis for articles. When doing this, it’s important to consider a couple of things:

Write sufficient notes to provide enough information to understand each step of the analysis to someone who is completely removed from the project.
If the data is in a file other than an .RData file, use the `head()`--or `names()` if it’s necessary for protecting privacy–and `dim()` functions to provide insight to the structure of the data set throughout the cleaning and analysis processes. It’s also necessary to indicate any changes that were made to the data set outside of R in the documentation.

Similarly, make sure that there are extensive notes describing the variables before any analysis happens, as well as descriptions before and after any transformations.

Although it might be “unattractive” and could potentially create a 100 page document, always have at least one version of the document that shows the code used to run everything that is done.

Making sure that random sampling, bootstrapping, or multiple imputation are reproducible requires more than just setting the seed. There can be differences that emerge from a variety of things, including the version of the package or whether the variables have been changed at all (for example, did the original author have one variable as a factor but it is a character variable for another).

If using an aforementioned technique, make sure that there are ways to check their fidelity beyond just the model results. For example, if drawing a random sample of states, make sure you indicate which states end up in that random draw.

Here are some other resources for learning how to make reproducible documents:

There are many more considerations that can be addressed, but this should hopefully offer a baseline for future research!

Person holding an orange pen and writing in a journal — ***Shifting from Secondary to Primary Researcher as a Graduate Student***

Charles Labarre (He/Him)

As Ph.D. students, we have done many things right in our studies thus far.

We excelled at our coursework, which has allowed us to maintain good grades and impress our professors. We have also mastered the art of testing and writing admissions essays. Our persistence has served us well. However, our journey continues.

We are now at the stage of generating and dispersing novel information to the scientific world. Therefore, as researchers in training, we must view ourselves as developing experts in our chosen fields. This paradigm shift is integral to our advancement toward becoming lead researchers, particularly among those who hope to attain coveted research-intensive positions post-graduation. Shifting from a secondary to a lead researcher entails recognizing how we can smoothen this identity transformation while we are still graduate students.

Navigating new expectations: Embracing change

You will gradually become more independent as you progress in your doctoral studies. Your advisors/collaborators will also expect this independence to be reflected in your work. For your benefit, there will come a time when they must allow you to flourish independently. While your advisor or supervisor may have taken the reins on projects or papers early in your program, they will eventually want to see that you can start projects independently and be proactive in cultivating your research agenda. This means you should begin to show initiative and proactively address any anticipated problems/barriers relating to your research. It is essential to anticipate and embrace these changes in expectations rather than avoid them. Know that your discomfort is temporary and will subside as you continue your career.

“Owning” your ideas: Forging ahead

When heading toward your program's final phases, you will also notice that your mentors will give you more space and freedom to develop your ideas. At first, this may feel foreign; suddenly, long gone are the days when your work solely revolves around their projects! You are now in charge of establishing your personal research agenda. When leading a research project or manuscript, you must conceptualize and defend your research ideas to others, including your peers and grant or manuscript reviewers. You will also make choices that determine the direction/scope of your work.

While initially uncomfortable, taking risks and owning your ideas will be critical to your growth in your program. Sometimes, ideas need further thought and improvement, or they do not pan out, and that is okay and part of the process. The sooner you “dig in” toward embarking on this creative process, the sooner you can sift through your ideas and find ones that resonate with yourself and the research community. Be sure to read broadly within (and outside) your area and identify potential gaps that could be addressed through new research. Doing so consistently will serve you well as you begin taking on primary researcher roles.

Creating your path: Identifying new opportunities

When you develop your independent research agenda, you become your own best source for identifying opportunities to fund and publish your research. Ultimately, it becomes up to you to keep abreast of funding opportunities at the local or national levels and maintain awareness of which journals or outlets are suited best to your work. Be sure to monitor what types of research are being funded or published in your area. I recommend utilizing Google Scholar alerts that send updates directly to your email. You can choose to follow specific researchers or topics. I also recommend signing up for email listservs of organizations that fund your area of research. For instance, I follow updates from the National Institutes of Health to remain aware of what topics are being funded relating to my area. Also available is the SSWR listserv that will keep you up to date on social work-specific research resources–here is a link to sign up: https://www.bu.edu/swrnet/

In applying for funding, as students, we are afforded the luxury of starting small—such as applying for smaller grants to support our research or conference funding opportunities. These experiences, successful or not, will provide important learning opportunities. On a professional level, it may also become imperative to find new organizations to join or conferences to attend as a student based on the specifics of your research. Many such organizations (such as SSWR) have student discounts–so it may be fruitful to apply for them as soon as possible. These are great ways to build confidence in your skills and prepare you for life as a lead researcher.

Big picture: Identifying and planning for long-term goals

Identifying and focusing on your long-term goals and thinking strategically to create a path to achieve them is important. Depending on whether you want to have a career in industry, academia, or government, there are specific skills you will need to cultivate to follow each path. For instance, seeking a postdoctoral research position is often recommended if your ultimate goal is to become a principal investigator or work at a research-intensive institution. If this is your preferred path, consider prioritizing research, publishing, and presenting your findings at academic conferences. If you want to secure a position at a non-research-intensive institution, you should instead equally prioritize teaching, research, and service. Whatever your goal, ensure you know what skills you need to be the most competitive once you embark on the job market process.

Research ethics: A shift in responsibility

Although you must always abide by best practices in research, as a lead researcher and investigator, it becomes your primary responsibility to ensure ethical guidelines are met in your work. As one example, in the manuscripts you lead, you will be at the helm when considering ethical factors such as author order/contributions, potential conflicts of interest, and plagiarism. You will also need to consider issues such as ensuring your methods are reproducible and straightforward enough to be understood by other researchers; this helps support the proliferation of knowledge in your area. If uncertainty with research ethics remains, familiarize yourself with ethical regulations and regulatory compliance issues related to conducting research. Here is a link that will direct you to an article about ethics with case studies at the end that can help you apply concepts: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm

As a lead researcher, you will be tasked with identifying what is called “predatory” journals. These are journals that tend to be exploitative. Submitting your work to such journals will likely waste your time, effort, and resources. When scouting new journals, do your research to determine which journals are legitimate vs. predatory. Some red flags to look for are journals requiring you to pay to publish your work (note: legitimate journals need you to pay if you want to publish work that is open access; this is not the same thing), journal websites with deceptive or misleading language, and a promise to publish your work “rapidly” (unfortunately, the peer review and publishing process is uniformly a slow and time-consuming process). Here is a good resource that may help you build your proficiency in identifying predatory journals: https://libguides.library.arizona.edu/c.php?g=945334&p=6815520

Asking for help: Recognizing your role as a student

Above all, it is important to remember that we are students. We will all have instances where we don’t know something (rather frequently), and in those cases, we should know it is okay to ask questions. Personally, I still remember my first year or so in the program asking questions like: What is an impact factor? How do I know what journals to consider? etc.… It is all part of the process. Asking these questions will help us ensure that our research practices are appropriate for our stage of training and will also equip us with the knowledge that will help us to gradually acclimate toward a stage of independence.

Taking care of yourself: Self-care comes first

Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. It may be hard to believe, considering how hard we have worked until this point, but as Ph.D. students, we are at the very beginning of our careers. Therefore, we must now learn to balance planning our futures and enjoying the here and now of our lives. Even in chaotic times, make time for what is truly important in life—relationships, family, and your health and wellness. The most important lesson I learned in my experience as a Ph.D. student is that all you can do is your best with the resources you have, and the rest will work itself out. It is not worth the stress of over-worrying or working to the detriment of your well-being. Even if you do not meet your goals, new and exciting opportunities are always around the corner.

Believe in yourself, try your best, and all will be well!

Sign says "Difficult roads lead to a beautiful destination" with an unsprouted plant next to it. — ***Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of Motivation:***
***Reflections of My Journey Thus Far***

Saira Afzal (She/Her)

There are so many peaks and valleys throughout the journey of working toward a Ph.D.

When I think back to the first few weeks of my own program, I remember feeling joyful and excited about the journey ahead. I was a clinical social worker for several years between receiving my MSW and entering a PHD program, and working as a pediatric hospital throughout the pandemic was exhausting. It felt like a breath of fresh air to have the time and space to read, think, and reflect on issues that I cared deeply about. Part of me thought this would last, at least to some degree, throughout my program. I’ve always loved learning and being in a school environment.

Today, as I write this, I am in a different phase of my journey. I am done with coursework, passed my comprehensive exams, and I was recently awarded candidacy. While I feel positive about these things, I feel like a different student than I was two and a half years ago when I entered the program. While I started as an enthusiastic and motivated student, in the time since, I have had periods of waxing and waning motivation. There are times when I feel excited and engaged, able to easily focus on the tasks at hand. And then there are other times when I feel tired and as if I am in quicksand, unable to move quickly even though I know I have things to do. These ebbs and flows in motivation are due to many things: stress related to coursework or instructors, changes in my personal life, and changes in my support system.

At times, I have felt guilty or questioned why my motivation seems lower than it has in the past–in the month or two after finishing my comprehensive exams, I did very little work related to my program. I didn’t realize it fully at the time,but I had just gone through a stressful chapter in preparing for the exams and I needed a break. Upon reflection, it seems more obvious to me–our sense of purpose and motivation can change and evolve, and that is okay and normal.

Below are four ideas that have helped me stay motivated, or re-engage after a period of low motivation.

Remembering my why: why did I enroll in the program, why did I decide to return to school, why am I doing all of this? Zooming out and looking at the big picture has been a helpful tactic in moments when I am questioning what I’m doing in my day to day. This tool is something that worked well in my clinical experiences as well; remembering why I became a social worker, and how my own world view and values/ethics connected to my work was always incredibly helpful in difficult moments and when I felt burned out.

Talking to mentors, peers, or colleagues in the field: talking to a mentor who knows me well, or to a peer I am close with in the program, has been helpful in grounding me and reminding me that the bumps in the road are to be expected. It’s also helped normalize that we can’t be at 100% motivation and productivity at all times.
Taking a real break: sometimes I find when I try to push myself to be productive, it just doesn’t work if I am feeling really disconnected and unmotivated. Taking a real break–unplugging from emails and projects–even for just two days, has been helpful.
Acknowledging all of the responsibilities on my plate: I have found it useful at times to sit down with my partner or a friend and spend a few minutes discussing the various hats I am wearing, so to speak. Listing out my various responsibilities as a student (classes, research projects, writing, publishing), along with the rest of my life responsibilities has helped me put into perspective all that I’m trying to do at once, and has helped validate that I can’t be giving the same effort to every task at once.
Be aware of when you may need more support: feeling burnt out for an extended time, or feeling more down and having changes in appetite or sleep may mean it would be beneficial to seek more serious support perhaps through an advisor or therapist. Here’s a helpful link on the differences between burnout and depression, and seeking support for both: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/signs-of-burnout

***Navigating Ethical Waters:***
***Responsibilities of Social Work Doctoral Students in Policy Research***

Julisa Tindall (She/Her)

In the dynamic field of social work and research, doctoral students have the opportunity to stand at the forefront of influencing policy decisions and advocating for social justice.

As scholars dedicated to advancing the principles of fairness, equality, and the well-being of individuals and communities, it is essential that we explore the profound ethical implications inherent in policy research.

Grounded in transparency, cultural competence, and community engagement, this article delves into a deeper understanding of the ethical responsibilities guiding doctoral students and researchers in pursuing impactful and socially just policy work. Here are some of these key responsibilities:

Research and Evidence-Based Practice:

Conduct rigorous research to generate evidence on social issues, interventions, and their outcomes.
Translate research findings into actionable recommendations for policymakers grounded in evidence-based practice.

Policy Analysis and Development:

Analyze existing policies to identify gaps, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement, recognizing the role of intersectional oppression (Intersectionality, explained) and the adverse and/or unintended consequences of policies that may facially appear supportive and just. In doing this, social workers can challenge hegemonic norms that underpin and justify the current policy landscape as it reinforces inequities and perpetuates oppression.
Contribute to developing new policies that align with social justice principles and address systemic inequalities. For example, social work researchers may engage in policy advocacy that challenges state-centered narratives that normalize and justify the ever-increasing reach of the criminal punishment system. Another example can be found in challenging state-level policies that aim to criminalize and/or marginalize trans and gender-diverse people for their gender identity or expression, denying them access to needed services.

Advocacy for Vulnerable Populations:

Advocate for the rights and well-being of vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Use research findings to highlight the needs of these populations and inform policy discussions.
Embrace the challenge of addressing and transforming societal norms and practices that contribute to the marginalization and vulnerability of these groups. This involves not only providing support but also actively questioning and working to change the structures and beliefs that perpetuate inequality and injustice.

Community Engagement:

Foster collaboration and engage with communities affected by social issues.
Ensure that community perspectives and voices are considered in the policymaking process.

Dissemination of Knowledge:

Share research findings through academic publications, conferences, and other platforms (e.g., sharing in industry platforms and newsletters, blogs, and social media). Conferences and research journals support the dissemination of knowledge within academic circles, but these are largely inaccessible to most people. Conference attendance is expensive and typically requires more than just a registration fee, and academic journals require costly subscription fees (unless we can get funding for open-access publishing, which is also very expensive). This ultimately diminishes the accessibility of research. Further, ensuring that research findings and publications are brought back to communities is one aspect of ethical and reciprocal research.
Communicate research in accessible formats for policymakers, practitioners, and the general public.

For example, Wikipedia is one platform where social work researchers can support public understanding of complex social issues. If there are Wikipedia pages for policies or topics that you are passionate about, reviewing and editing those pages for accuracy and updating them to reflect any changes in law or research can support the dissemination of knowledge to broader audiences. In addition, using social media or blogs to disseminate knowledge to broader audiences can promote the translation of research. Breaking down the barriers typically enacted through the ivory tower and knowledge gatekeeping of academia is integral for advocacy.

Collaboration with Stakeholders:

Collaborate with policymakers, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders to bridge the gap between research and policy. This can happen by ensuring that research respects and showcases the voices and perspectives of marginalized groups and by providing community members with leadership and decision-making roles in the research and policy advocacy process. Further, collaboration with stakeholders can be reinforced by developing interdisciplinary and diverse research teams. Doing so can challenge the power structures that typically silence, devalue, and ignore marginalized community members.
Act as intermediaries, translating research findings into actionable strategies that can be implemented at various levels.

Ethical Considerations:

Uphold ethical standards in research and policy work, ensuring that the rights and dignity of individuals and communities are respected.
Gaudy (2011) and Radi (2019) challenge extractivist research, which ultimately minimizes and ignores the contributions and knowledge of marginalized groups. Gaudy (2011) focuses on the role of research in silencing Indigenous voices and worldviews, privileging and amplifying colonizing ways of knowing and knowledge. Radi (2019) argues similarly but in the context of research on trans and gender-diverse people. In many ways, “best practices” of research center the legitimacy of research on its intelligibility to other researchers and acceptability to reviewers.
Advocate for policies prioritizing ethical principles, social justice, and human rights.

Teaching and Mentoring:

Prepare the next generation of social work professionals by teaching and mentoring students.
Instill a commitment to social justice and policy advocacy in future social work leaders.

Continuous Learning and Adaptation:

Stay informed about emerging social issues, changing demographics, and evolving policy landscapes.
Adapt research and advocacy approaches to address new challenges and opportunities.

Public Engagement and Education:

Engage in public discourse to raise awareness about social issues and the importance of evidence-based policies (e.g., How Counties Can Use Evidence-Based Policymaking to Achieve Better Outcomes and Community Engagement: An Essential Component of an Effective and Equitable Substance Use Prevention System). Importantly, this also requires that social work researchers recognize the gaps in “evidence-based” and what those gaps mean in historical and socio-political contexts. Further, it may be necessary to interrogate the role of dominant understandings of evidence in implicitly reinforcing oppression.
Educate the public on the implications of policies and advocate for informed decision-making.

Overall, social work doctoral students and researchers play a vital role in the intricate dance between policy decisions and the pursuit of social justice, shaping policies grounded in evidence-based practice, social justice principles, and human rights.

Through these responsibilities, we can contribute to a more just and equitable society, fostering positive change through our dedication to ethical, informed, and impactful policy interventions.

***Who’s that? A personal journal with the history of social work.***

Shawn McNally (He/Him)

Social work education needs to find space for BIPOC social workers or it risks yet another disservice to prospective social workers by ignoring their significant contributions to the intellectual origins of social work.

(With a special thanks to Hannah Boyke who provided extensive feedback and added significant biographical contributions!)

Like all social workers, I took an Introduction to Social Work course. While I cannot recall every little thing I learned about the history of social work, I do specifically remember learning about Jane Addams and Hull House. Certainly, all social workers should learn about her and her efforts (the good and the bad–with the bad being most glaringly her alignment with and advocacy for eugenics), but as I proceeded through my BSSW and MSW programs, and it may have been different for you, it seemed as though Jane Addams was the be-all and end-all of pioneering social workers. It wasn’t until my doctoral program that I found myself constantly asking: how did I not know about this person? I also wish to point out that my personal journey reflects something of a whitewashed history of social work that may be typical of many students whose programs lack substantive information about BIPOC social workers’ and activists’ role in the profession. After all, everyone about to be mentioned is white, with the exception of Jones, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Wilson. Yes, those about to be mentioned were all influential to the profession, but given the time period of social work’s development, surely there were just as many influential BIPOC leaders? For example, often ignored by the dominant white woman narrative of social work and activism is the work of Mary Church Terrell, Thyra J. Edwards, or Ida B. Wells-Barnett as well as Frederick Douglass. Social work education needs to find space for these individuals or it risks yet another disservice to prospective social workers by ignoring BIPOC’s significant contributions to the intellectual origins of social work.

The Chicago School

While the Ph.D. curriculum at the University of South Carolina has changed since I entered the program, we were expected to take Intellectual Foundations of Social Welfare and Social Work, a two-part course. Initially, a bulk of the course focused on expanding knowledge on things of which I had some understanding - particularly religion’s role in assisting the poor/needy, the English Poor Laws, and individuals such as Dorothea Dix. Even being introduced to individuals such as Vives, Count Rumford, and Baron Von Voght. Vives, in particular, as his work/views have been especially influential to the profession of social work. Yes, a person from the 1500s! Certainly, this was all fascinating, but it was just stuff to, well, stuff into my brain. This all changed when introduced to the Chicago school and those somewhat adjacent to it.

The first person I’d like to mention is Georg Simmel, a German sociologist whose world at the time was becoming increasingly urbanized. He wondered how “modern life” psychologically impacted the individual. This consideration significantly influenced a number of sociologists at the University of Chicago. Hence, the name, the Chicago school. Essentially, the Chicago school was a school of thought that combined theory and fieldwork, especially inspired by Chicago’s changing landscape at the time due to migration/immigration. Getting to read the work(s) of George H. Mead and excerpts from The Polish Peasant by Florian Znaniecki and William Thomas, a book influential to many modern methodological approaches, made me realize just how important sociology is to social work. It is probably not surprising that many within the Chicago school were acquainted with Jane Addams. Another sociologist I should mention, who came just a bit later, is William Julius Wilson. Wilson continued the work of many in the Chicago school by also specializing in urban sociology, specifically examining race and class issues. He also mentored one of my professors. Interestingly, a lot of the following people had ties to the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago, and/or the University of Chicago.

Mary Ellen Richmond

Born only one year after Jane Addams, Mary Ellen Richmond (b. 1861), who was born in Illinois, did much to legitimize the profession of social work. Remember PIE - person in environment? This can essentially be traced back to her. Additionally, she sought to formalize social work education by developing methodologies that many social workers use today when interacting with clients. She could arguably be considered both the first practicing social worker and social work researcher. While she is highly revered, her reverence certainly lags behind Jane Addams's. I’m not sure why. I even gifted my mother, a social worker of over 30 years, a unique edition of What is Social Case Work? While I was going for a deeply sentimental gift, which it has since become, my mother had no idea who she was. Of course, I have since learned that there is some evidence that Richmond may have subscribed to beliefs similar to those of Addams, which was heartbreaking. In many ways, the history that is taught to many of us spotlights the contributions of white social workers, sanitizing their work and their past for the sake of a narrative that furthers the “socially just” image of social work. Reckoning with this history and acknowledging the oppressive ideas espoused by white social workers like Mary Ellen Richmond and Jane Addams (as well as white academia as a whole) is necessary for fully understanding the history of social work and the ways in which contemporary social work may inadvertently or implicitly uphold systems of oppression.

Other Pioneers

There are so many others to mention, so I’ll keep this relatively brief. Do you know who Edith Abbott was? She was instrumental in establishing the SSA at the University of Chicago (and resided at Hull House). What about Virginia Robinson and Jessie Taft (Taft worked with George Mead and at Hull House)? Admirers of Otto Rank, incorporating several of his ideas into their own, they developed a functional approach to casework. They operated out of UPenn, where they ultimately educated many social workers. Ever wonder who or what influenced Carl Rogers’s client-centered approach? These two - especially Jessie Taft - and their students had a major hand in influencing one of psychology’s most important movements. Charlotte Towle? She not only aided in the development/formalization of social work education, but also pushed for public programs. Interestingly, critics called her a socialist due to this push. What about Helen Harris Perlman? Have you read Relationship: The Heart of Helping People? If you haven’t, I really encourage you to do so. I know that many students in our doctoral program have been deeply impacted by it. To me, it encapsulates social work. You may also be familiar with her problem-solving approach. Fascinatingly, one of my professors shared with me that attending an event in which she spoke provided something of a realization regarding her dissertation.

Finally, what about W.E.B. Du Bois (b. 1868)? While most of you probably know about Du Bois as a sociologist, but have you learned about his pioneering social activism? Du Bois, the first Black person to earn a doctorate at Harvard and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, engaged in continuous organizing efforts that challenged structural racism, the dominance of eugenics in academic work, and racialized respectability politics. Du Bois’ work, such as The Souls of Black Folks (1903), advances pan-Africanism and recognition of black peoples’ lived experiences within an anti-black society.

In Closing

I’ll admit, I had to constrain myself somewhat as I could have easily written pages more. I guess, the point of me doing this was to just share that I missed out on learning about so many influential people - many still missing, I’m sure. In some ways, I understand why. Bachelor’s and master’s programs are, first and foremost, practice degrees, and there simply isn’t time to talk about everyone. I’d argue that that’s a disservice, though. Where would we be without all these great thinkers - and many more not discussed here, such as Eugene Kinckle Jones? After all, theory is the foundation of practice, and understanding that can help us adapt. It’s somewhat hilarious that I’ve probably reflected more upon my clinical work as a doctoral student than I ever did as an actual clinician. That’s not to say I didn’t, but considering I have almost no interest in returning to that work…Well, that gives you some idea how impactful this journey has been.

I consider myself lucky to be in a program that emphasizes theory (Kurt Lewin, anyone?). It’s interesting how just a collection of concepts and ideas can alter how we view and understand the world, even if it’s not by much. Since subscribing to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), my dissertation and beyond is a bit easier to envision. Honestly, it’s hard to fully describe just how personally enlightening it has been to examine the intellectual origins of SDT and social work. I know such a journey might not interest everybody, but if you haven’t done it, I would happily encourage it. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll have a similar experience. Perhaps the most beneficial component of this journey (including writing this), however, has been to reflect on the people we are told are important, and how much beyond certain ideas can be intentionally (or even unintentionally) ignored. Finally, I’d like to close with the following quote from Mary Ellen Richmond which I think captures the essence of social work (perhaps she should have considered her own words?), and has just become deeply meaningful: “In the long run, personality must be measured by the social qualities, by loyalty to one’s fellows, by courage for and interest in a game of life which is no mere game of self-seeking.” - What is Social Casework? (1922; p. 122)

A brief resource list that contains further reading about Black Social Workers and Black activism as well as anti-blackness in social work

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***DSC Call for Nominations: Doctoral Student Achievements***

Celebrate doctoral students’ accomplishments in research, practice, and/or degree milestones!

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The nomination form asks for your name, pronouns, program, a description of the accomplishment(s), information about your research, and brief bio information. If you want, you can also upload a photo of the nominee for us to share and tell us your social media handles to mention in the posts. Student achievements will be posted to social media and the SSWR DSC website as they are received. Achievements will also be featured on the SSWR DSC Newsletter.

View past students showcased for their achievements here.

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Doctoral Student Spotlights

Doctoral Student Publications

Brendon Holloway (He/They; University of Denver) and Jax Kynn (They/Them; Michigan State university):

Holloway, B.T., Hostetter,R.C., Morris, K., Kynn, J. & Kilby, M. (2023) "We're All We Have": Envisioning the Future of Mutual Aid from Queer and Trans Perspectives. The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 50 (1), Article No. 9. https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.4693

Julisa Tindall (She/Her; University of South Carolina)

Wilson, B. L., Tindall, J., Walker, D., & Smith, A. M. “Ain’t I a woman?”: A historical and contemporary analysis of state-sanctioned violence against Black women in the United States. Journal of Gender Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2023.2236953

Hannah Boyke (They/Them; Michigan State University)

Boyke, H., Horner, P.S. (2023). A Critical Framework for Analyzing the Impacts of Sub-Federal Immigration Policy in Post 9/11 United States. Journal of Policy Practice & Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42972-023-00094-5

Graduating Doctoral Students

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Job Opportunities and Information

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Call for Papers

Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work

Deadline: Ongoing

Building for the Future: The Many Facets of Forensic Social Work

Deadline: February 14, 2024

Call for Submissions

The database spreadsheet BIPOC-Authored Social Work Papers

Deadline: Ongoing

Additional Resources

RESOURCES FOR NEWER CONFERENCE PRESENTERS AND ATTTENDEES

How to Give a Scientific Talk: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07780-5

Video on How to Confidently Present your Research at Conferences: https://asiaedit.com/webinar/how-to-confidently-present-your-research-at-conferences-in-person-and-online

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AdditionaL INFORMATION

Disclaimer: This newsletter is created as free service by SSWR Doctoral Student Committee Communications Subcommittee members:

Julisa Tindall (She/Her)
Charles Labarre (He/Him)
Hannah Boyke (They/Them)
Katie Maureen McCoog (She/Her)
Shani Saxon (She/Her)
Alauna Reckley (She/Her)
Shawn McNally (He/Him)
Saira Afzal (She/Her)
Leah Munroe (She/Her)
Isaac Akapnitis (They/Them)

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are the opinions of the individuals listed above alone and do not claim to represent the opinions of SSWR or the SSWR Doctoral Student Committee

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