Monthly Monitor: On the Screen-SSWR 2021
On the Screen:
SSWR 2021
With Special Content on Decolonizing Social Work
In this Issue:
In lieu of doing both a November and December Issue, we decided to do an early December issue focused on Preparing for SSWR with special content focused on honoring Native American Heritage Month and reflecting on how to decolonize social work. We really hope you enjoy this special issue.
Special Content: Decolonizing Our Minds: Honoring Native American Heritage Month and Shifting from Ally to Accomplice
Special Content: Salary Commensurate with Lived Experience?
What is the SSWR DSC?
SSWR DSC Programs at a Glance: Coffee with a Scholar
SSWR DSC Programs at a Glance: New Attendee Program
How to Get the Most Out of SSWR: Get Your Network On!
How to Get the Most Out of SSWR: While on the Job Market
Striking the Balance Between Productivity and Self-Care During Conference Season: How to Create Your Winter Break To-do List
Social Work Snippets
Special Content:
Decolonizing Our Minds
Honoring Native American Heritage Month and Shifting from Ally to Accomplice
By Alberto Cifuentes, Jr.
I am writing this purposely on the day before Thanksgiving. When people usually think of Thanksgiving, many envision pilgrims and Native Americans joyfully sitting at a large table together with a plethora of food. Thanksgiving is a chance to eat and be together in solidarity despite ideological and political differences and, most importantly, share the common experience of being human.
Nevertheless, if anyone is familiar with our troubled history, pilgrims and other settlers did not arrive peacefully onto what we now call the United States and, instead, forced many Native Americans or Indigenous people from their lands. Thanksgiving is also known as the National Day of Mourning in protest by Native Americans. Settlers brought illness, famine, and violence onto the sacred land of Indigenous people and led to not only a cultural but physical genocide. Fast forward to the present and many Native Americans still live on reservations and are silenced and invisible from modern society. Is this truly the legacy we want Americans to have on Indigenous people?
The U.S. has attempted in several ways to reverse the negative effects of colonialism on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) with little success. In many ways, we’re still continuing the tradition of colonialism by not hiring BIPOC to leadership roles and other positions of power; our government also often refuses to consider reparations as well as repatriations for the losses of indigenous people throughout history.
But what exactly is “decolonization”? I have struggled to define this term with my students and other colleagues. Decolonization is the process through which we resist the effects of colonialism on both a micro and macro level and co-construct a new narrative of liberation for the BIPOC community. Decolonization is arduous and challenging work that does not take place overnight because it involves constantly challenging traditions and stereotypes that many of us were raised to believe were true and inviolable.
What does it mean to “decolonize” the discipline and profession of social work? Social work is enwrapped in a history and tradition of social control, systemic racism, and false narratives of “social work as savior.” I’ve learned that if we want to decolonize social work, we have to start by decolonizing ourselves. In a sense, we are all colonized; most of us are influenced by cultures and communities that may have viewed BIPOC as “second class” or not worthy of equitable treatment by society.
As a millennial, I know much of the harm caused by colonialism is not my fault, and I shouldn’t let my guilt paralyze me from affecting change. However, decolonizing and serving as an active accomplice rather than a passive ally who is still complicit in colonialist practice is my responsibility. Understanding the impact of historical trauma, both physical and emotional, on multiple generations of BIPOC is crucial to challenging colonialism and taking accountability for centuries of oppression and violence.
It is all of our responsibility to not only become more aware of colonialism as social workers but to, as our Code of Ethics states, aim to achieve social justice and equity for all people through our research, education, and practice. This is not simply an ideal but a mandate of our profession. It is up to all of us to decolonize our minds and our field.
By the time you read this, Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of Native Americans, and Thanksgiving will have passed. Yet the impact of colonialism will still linger. I urge you to get more educated on the history of Native American people, to make a land acknowledgment statement at every meeting you have, and to delve deeply into resources that encourage you to explore decolonization and how it can actively exist in your practice, research, and education. Here are just a few resources to get you started:
∙ To learn more about the Indigenous territories and people that may still exist where you live, download the Native Land app onto your smartphone (there may be other apps that serve the same function).
∙ There are many great TEDTalks on decolonization, but I suggested starting with “Decolonization is for Everyone” by Nikki Sanchez here. Her TEDTalk inspired this editorial!
∙ For films celebrating Native American Heritage Month and Indigenous voices, check out PBS’s website here.
∙ For tips on becoming an accomplice rather than an ally to the BIPOC community (and knowing the difference between an ally and accomplice), please visit here.
∙ To see the efforts of decolonization movements in the U.S., check out this video about the Decolonization Commission’s efforts to decolonize the Brooklyn Museum.
∙ For insights on how to reimagine research with decolonization in mind, consider reading Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith.
Special Content: Salary Commensurate with Lived Experience?
Disclaimer: This article is written by a person of color on behalf of a subcommittee comprised of white people and people of color. Without a doubt, there are shortcomings due to limited perspectives. Writing this piece has left this author looking to increase the representation of the DCS.
Decolonization is “incommensurable” (p. 1) with other critical and anti-racist frameworks because it requires “repatriation of land and life” (p. 1) to Indigenous people (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Pay gaps are in direct opposition of the stated goal of decolonization values and practice – values and practices to which many social work institutions ascribe. Economic justice is only one potential avenue to land and life, but it is one to which Indigenous social work doctoral candidates should have access.
The decolonization framework reminds scholars and practitioners that settlers can be white* and people of color* who are in the U.S. via other colonial mechanisms (e.g., enslavement, displacement, military) (Tuck & Yang, 2012). This may feel uncomfortable, but this dis-ease is well placed considering the effects of colonization on the representation of Indigenous people within social work. Indigenous people make up less than 1% of faculty and less than 1% of MSW graduates entering the workforce (CSWE, 2016, 2017). Indigenous skills, knowledge, and experience are not commonplace in social work, making them invaluable in clinical, community, policy, and research settings.
While social work institutions may claim to practice decolonization, few have implementation plans, partially explaining the underrepresentation of Indigenous social workers and scholars (Appleton, 2019; Smith & Smith, 2019). These settings may have intentions to diversify recruitment, but retention requires creating safe spaces, opportunities to critically engage as a member of the community, and compensation for additional labor that is required of people of color in the workplace. Indigenous social workers are expected to mentor other BIPOC, help develop curriculum, hold trainings, be the Indigenous person. This work may be an “honorable responsibility” (Smith & Smith, 2019, p. 1075), but should they not be compensated for this work?
One of the main arguments for differences in pay are differences in “experience.” At the core of these experiences is social capital that is afforded inequitably to white men. Opportunities are available for white men in ways that are not available for Indigenous scholars, and when these opportunities do become available, they may not be accessible (e.g., unpaid internships). Indigenous scholars may not have experience that is privileged in academia, but if indigenous knowledge and lived experience are given the weight they deserve, Indigenous practitioners and academics may be on more even footing in salary negotiations.
Initial salary negotiations are vital for newly minted PhD and DSW grads because future raises and negotiations will be based on the starting salary of the first position. See Table 1 for a simple example of the difference in pay for a white male and Indigenous woman over five years if the only change in pay is a cost-of-living-adjustment of 1.6% each year (an average based on the past five years). This, of course, is an example, but demonstrates the impact of an inequitable starting salary.
Note: $67,500 based on the average salary of an assistant professor according to Zip Recruiter. $37,125 based on the 45% pay gap for Indigenous women with doctorates and white men reported by National Indian Council on Aging, Inc.
Will social work institutions be accountable to incommensurability, or the “acknowledgement that decolonization will require a change in the order of the world” (Fanon, 1963, p. 31 in Tuck & Yang, 2012)? Indigenous social work practitioners and researchers must be compensated at the same rate as white male counterparts; further, they should be compensated for additional emotional and intellectual labor as a means of economic justice. Social work institutions have an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to decolonizing practices and values - will they take it? As for Indigenous doctoral candidates, a tip for negotiations: parlay lived experience into discussions related to that pesky phrase, salary commensurate with experience.
Resources and Information for Indigenous Doctoral Students
National Indian Council on Aging, Inc. – Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day
American Association of University Women’s salary negotiation workshops
Travois Empowering Native American Women and Closing the Pay Gap
What Individuals Can Do to Close the Wage Gap (Iowa Department of Human Rights)
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association – Opportunities (Employment, Fellowships, etc.)
*In the tradition of Crenshaw (1991), white and people of color are not capitalized because they are not specific cultural groups.
References
Appleton, N. S. (2019, February 4). Do not ‘decolonize’. . . If you are not decolonizing: Progressive language and planning beyond a hollow academic rebranding. Critical Ethnic Studies published by University of Minnesota Press. http://www.criticalethnicstudiesjournal.org/blog/2019/1/21/do-not-decolonize-if-you-are-not-decolonizing-alternate-language-to-navigate-desires-for-progressive-academia-6y5sg
Council on Social Work Education [CSWE]. (2017). 2016 Statistics on social work education in the United States: Summary of the CSWE annual survey of social work programs (Annual Survey of Social Work Programs, pp. 1–18). CSWE. https://www.cswe.org/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=44f2c1de-65bc-41fb-be38-f05a5abae96d
Council on Social Work Education [CSWE]. (2016). Annual statistics on social work education in the United States: 2015 (pp. 5–33). Alexandria, VA.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Ellingson, W., Manning, S. S., & Doughty, J. (2020). Native peoples as authors of social work curriculum. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 17(1), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2019.1636331
Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press.
Smith, G. H., & Smith, L. T. (2019). Doing indigenous work: Decolonizing and transforming the academy. In L. T. Smith (Ed.), Handbook of Indigenous Education (pp. 1075–1101). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3899-0_69
What is the SSWR Doctoral Student Committee?
By SSWR DSC Chair Alicia Mendez
The SSWR Doctoral Student Committee (DSC) began as a task force in 2014. In 2018, it became an official committee of SSWR. It is chaired by a Doctoral Student Member at Large. This means that the DSC Chair is also a member the SSWR Board of Directors. Every year SSWR holds an election. Board members can be nominated or self-nominate and must be members of SSWR. The Doctoral Student Member at Large has a tenure of two years. All other Board members serve the SSWR Board for three years. More details about the SSWR Board and its Bylaws can be found here: https://secure.sswr.org/about-sswr/bylaws/.
The DSC was created to ensure that doctoral students’ needs, interests, and priorities are accurately reflected in SSWR doctoral student programming. It is currently comprised of 23 members. You can find out more about our members here: http://www.sswrdoc.com/committee-members. Said plainly, the DSC functions as a national doctoral student association (DSA) or graduate student committee, akin to those embedded in your schools of social worker and/or graduate programs. While the DSC’s function is rooted within complementing SSWR conference activities, each year the DSC has focused on doing more, year-round, for doctoral students.
Currently the DSC includes three subcommittees: Mentoring, Conference, and Communications. Each subcommittee has its own Chair and those Chairs along with the Doctoral Student at Large (DSC Chair) make up the DSC Leadership Committee. The Mentoring Subcommittee annually creates the Coffee with a Scholar Program. The Conference Subcommittee is responsible for running the Doctoral Student Panel (normally also a luncheon) and the New Attendee Program. The Communications Subcommittee works on the monthly newsletter and also runs all our social media and website.
As the programs run by the have become more institutionalized the DSC has also set its sights on creating more content and opportunities outside of the conference to meet students’ needs and interests with an emphasis on creating more community. For example, the DSC recently hosted the Post-Election Detox, a meeting designed to create community among doctoral students as we decompress from the election and begin refocusing on our ongoing political engagement. The DSC is also going to start hosting monthly writing retreats. The first will be the first week of January 2021 and its theme is Preparation for SSWR. All social work doctoral students are encouraged to join and we will be focusing on SSWR prep, though any work can be done during the retreat. Mark your calendars: we will also host a Virtual Happy Hour January 19th, 2021 SSWR, more details to come.
On behalf of the DSC, we wholeheartedly mean it when we request and encourage feedback so please reach out to us via our website or our Facebook page SSWR Doctoral Student Members. Each member on the DSC is dedicated to creating meaningful ways for you to engage with us, the SSWR conference, and one another. We hope that as we add new opportunities to build community, you will join and learn with us.
SSWR DSC Programs at a Glance
Coffee with a Scholar
Signing up for Coffee with a Scholar gives doctoral students the opportunity to connect with a scholar who is willing to share their insight and perspective into the field. To get the most out of this connection, it is important that doctoral students come to the meeting prepared with questions and specific topics that they would like advice on. This can include how to navigate the academy, prepare for the job market, get published, and obtain advice on any current research projects they are working on. Last year was the first year that students and scholars were matched based on identity. This year, the program is working to match based on the student’s preference of either research interest or identity. Two years ago, one of our SSWR committee members was matched based on research interest. She asked him what the most important considerations hiring committees made when recruiting prospective candidates. He informed her that publishing was one of his school’s top priorities. When he found out that she wasn’t getting publishing opportunities with faculty members at her university, he connected her with another academic in their field who worked with a team that published often. Since this meeting, she has been welcomed onto the team and published several articles with them, leading several of the projects.
SSWR DSC Programs at a Glance
New Attendee Program
The new attendee program at SSWR gives new conference attendees the ability to connect with other graduate students who have prior experience attending the SSWR conference. Although networking and connecting with faculty in one’s areas of interest or expertise is important during graduate school, the wisdom of peers is an incredibly valuable and underappreciated resource. Connecting with peers during flagship conferences can help cultivate a sense of community within the field, allow new graduate students to tap into the Hidden Curriculum of academia and graduate school norms and expectations, and facilitate lasting bonds in the form of both research collaborations and friendships.
Here are a few tips for the mentors and mentees attending the SSWR 2021 conference and participating in the new attendee program.
Tips to Mentors:
• Brainstorm the questions you had from your early conference attendances to be ready to field questions from mentees.
• Prepare to discuss your research interests or other interests.
• Carve out time to check in with your mentee throughout the conference, especially during breaks or meals.
• Listen first, then ask and advise.
• Be honest about your experiences.
• If you have a good match, keep in touch!
Tips to Mentees:
• Come prepared with a list of questions and/or areas regarding the conference or the field in general.
• Be prepared to discuss your research interests or other interests with your mentor.
• Make sure to schedule time for 1:1 conversations during conference down time.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
• Ask for specific feedback and be receptive to input.
• If you have a good match, keep in touch!
If you are interested in serving as a mentor or mentee for the program, the process is simple. Just sign up here by December 18th and we will notify you of your match as we get closer to the conference. After that, schedule a virtual meeting to connect during the conference. Space is limited and we will match on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will do our best to match as many mentors/mentees as possible.
How to Get the Most Out of SSWR
Get Your Network On!
After every session you attend, go up to your favorite presenters and ask for their card or contact info. If the meeting is virtual, make sure you jot down their e-mail address at the end. After the meeting, e-mail them and let them know you’re interested in their research or findings. Are you interested in collaborating with them? Learning more about a particular study they’re doing? Building upon or expanding their research findings? The primary objective is to develop a relationship with a researcher or scholar you admire or want to learn more about. Many presenters want to develop these relationships after the conference too. It’s a win-win situation!
How to get the Most out SSWR
While on the Job Market
As someone currently on the job market, I have been thinking a lot about how to get the most out of virtual conferences this year. In a non-virtual conference setting, it is often encouraged for those on the job market to use SSWR as an opportunity to connect with schools where you may want to land, especially any that you know are currently hiring. So far, I have used the virtual conferences to network in two ways: 1) I am signing up for Coffee with a Scholar , which I did last year and highly recommend; and 2) I connected with someone on Twitter by mentioning that I will be “at” an upcoming conference as a way to suggest to meet.
First, Coffee with a Scholar, which I think everyone should do, matches students with a faculty member based on eligibility criteria that the student can select. This matching, even if it does not lead to a mentor who is at a school that is hiring, can open up the possibility of introductions from your mentor to key people in their networks. All you need is an introduction from someone to improve your chances of a response instead of having to send a cold email! I recommend Coffee with a Scholar to all doctoral students attending SSWR, not just those on the job market.
Second, if you were to ever send a cold email, now is the time! If you can use their presentation at SSWR as a launching point, then you can include SSWR in the subject line and improve your chances of connecting! Although certainly these two options will not substitute entirely for the networking opportunities that exist at an in-person SSWR conference, I think there are definitely ways to use this virtual SSWR setting to network, connect with schools, and maybe even land a job!
Striking the Balance Between Productivity and Self-Care During Conference Season
How to Create Your Winter Break To-do List
We, as social work students, often look forward to breaks as an opportunity to play catch-up, work on projects that have slid onto the backburner, apply for grants and fellowships, further develop ourselves through literature or professional development and prepare for the annual SSWR conference of course. We, as social work students, try to do it all. At the beginning of the Fall, I told myself I just had to get through the semester or quarter, and then I would find time for true rest over the winter break. As time keeps passing by I find myself saying, “I will work on that one project over break” or “it’ll be nice to submit this paper when I can solely focus on writing” and “I should maximize this downtime as an opportunity to prepare grant materials.”
Before we know it the break is suddenly not a break at all. School breaks are important to spend some time to rest our minds from the deep work and emotional investment we have in our jobs. Yes, the work that we are doing is very important, but it cannot be done if we are constantly exhausted, burned out, or spread too thin. As we enter into this winter break, I encourage you to create TWO to-do lists: one that is inclusive of the work that does need to get done, and the second being a list of activities, things, or times where you can do the things that bring you joy, peace, or relief.
We, as the Doctoral Student Committee at SSWR, truly encourage you to set your boundaries and take some time off this holiday break. As the world continues to be in crisis, your self-preservation will help you protect your own mental and physical health. Thus, you will better be able to accomplish your goals as the new year begins and can dive back into the flow of being a social work doctoral student.
Social Work Snippets
Registration for SSWR 2021 Virtual Annual Conference is Open!
Virtual participant registration fees include:
full access to all live-streamed, plenaries, invited symposia and talks, fellows and awards presentations, membership business meeting; concurrent abstract-based “lightning” presentation sessions, roundtables, and related materials, and poster presentations;
all live-streamed presentations, concurrent abstract-based “lightning” presentation sessions will be recorded; all recordings and poster presentations will be available on-demand for 12 months;
unlimited access to all post-conference virtual events, e.g., abstract-based workshops, special interest group (SIG) meetings, and poster forums. Stay tuned for the schedule and details on the post-conference virtual events. Registration for post-conference events will be open through February 5, 2021.
Register here for the 2021 virtual conference and receive a 10% discount on your 2022 conference registration!
Time to Reflect
We are in research-intensive environments, but we are also social workers with feelings, ideas, and connections that are intellectual and conceptual but not always research-based. Did you all know about the Reflections journal? It’s their 20th anniversary and is a peer-reviewed journal for academic voices and pieces that are about transforming social work. It seems perfect for the type of community-engaged writing that is rising at the moment. Check it out.
https://reflectionsjournal.net/
Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals Application Open
HRSA grants to develop and expand experiential training opportunities, such as field placements and internships, to improve the distribution and supply of the behavioral health workforce. The program emphasizes relationships with community-based partners to increase access to quality behavioral health services across the lifespan in high need and high demand areas. Special focus is placed on demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the specific concerns for children, adolescents, and transitional-aged youth who are at risk for behavioral health disorders.
Details available here.
The deadline is January 31, 2021.
Research on Biopsychosocial Factors of Social Connectedness and Isolation on Health, Well Being, Illness, and Recovery Grant Application Open
This program provides grants for research projects that examine how social isolation and social connectedness affect outcomes in health, illness, recovery, and overall well being.
Areas of focus include:
Effects of social connectedness, connection, and isolation across the lifespan
Mechanisms of connectedness, connection, and isolation, including neurobiological, behavioral, and environmental factors
Knowledge representation and behavioral development
The deadline is March 17, 2021.
Details available here.
Call for Papers: Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life and Palliative Care Special Issue: Social Work Practice during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic
The Coronavirus Pandemic has created changes and challenges in how social work practice is being conducted in all areas of the health care system due to guidelines and restrictions put in place in response to the pandemic. Thus, hospice, palliative, and other social workers are being tasked with supporting individuals, families, and co-workers in new, unforeseen, and creative ways. In this special issue, social workers are encouraged to share reflections about the situations, challenges, and changes they are experiencing as well as the processes of new ways to connect with those in most in need of intervention. In addition, it is important that social workers’ practice self-care and so papers on approaches to doing so during this stressful time are welcome. Authors are strongly encouraged to contact the Journal Editor-in-Chief, Ellen Csikai (ecsikai@sw.ua.edu), with a brief paragraph or outline of their proposed submission. The editor will provide feedback to authors about the appropriateness and/or give suggestions about how to enhance their potential contribution.
The deadline is December 31, 2020.
Details available here.
Need Help Putting Pen to Paper
As the semester ends, we all have final papers and then the couple of weeks of open time for writing projects that faded to the background of this semester's chaos. Here are is a writing blogs to support and encourage your writing- The Thesis Whisperer. This blog also reviews and summarizes tips from a number of resources pointing you to your specific writing needs.https://thesiswhisperer.com/.../5-ways-to-declutter-your.../
Call for Abstracts Fourth Annual Conference on Migration and Health
Call for abstracts Fourth Annual Conference on Migration and Health held by University of Texas Medical Branch due by January 29th!
https://www.utmb.edu/migrants/call-for-abstracts
Creating Change Conference Registration is Open
Registration is open for the annual Creating Change Conference, Jan. 28-31, 2021 (completely virtual)! Hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force, Creating Change is the foremost political, leadership, and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ social justice movement. Join adrienne maree brown, Big Freedia, Pose’s Dominique Jackson, and thousands of LGBTQ+ activists for this exciting and empowering conference! For more info or to register, click on the image below.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is created as free service by SSWR Doctoral Student Committee Communications Subcommittee members:
Stefani Nicole Baca-Atlas
Alberto Cifuentes, Jr.
Erica Linn Eliason
Latoya Hogg
Anika Langaigne
Dominique Mikell Montgomery
Pari Shah
Veronica Timbers
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.