International Activities of the Faculty, Staff and Students
Hollister and Nguyen study microfinance for women in Vietnam
Professor C. David Hollister and MSW student Hoa Nguyen have been awarded an International Research grant from the College of Education and Human Development. Hoa Nguyen will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, this December to conduct research on “Microfinance for Women in Vietnam: Factors for Success and Failure”.
Velure Roholt and Baizerman offer workshop in Jordan
Assistant Professor Ross Velure Roholt and Professor Mike Baizerman facilitater a 3-day youth forum in the country of Jordan in October. Participants were 45 young people from across the country who discussed current issues and challenges related to their civil and political participation and created recommendations for policy makers. The event was supported by the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Canada, an organization Ross is also working with to increase youth civic action in Morocco.
Lum presents with Chinese faculty
Associate Professor Terry Lum will give two presentations at the upcoming Gerontological Society of America’s 62nd annual scientific meeting in Atlanta, November 18-22.
Paper presentation: Terry Lum, Yuebin Xu, and Xiulan Zhang, Economic Development and Household Economic Well-being of Older People in Urban China. Professors Xu and Zhang are faculty members at the Beijing Normal University in China. Professor Xu is a full professor and Professor Zhang is the Dean and a full professor in the College of Social Development and Public Policy.
Prof. Edleson
Edleson joins international research consortia on violence prevention
Professor Jeffrey Edleson has been invited to participate in two international research consortia. The first is the Centre for Research Development in Gender, Mental Health and Violence Across the Lifespan led by Prof. Harriet MacMillan at McMaster University in Canada and funded by the Canadian government. The second is the Australian Centre for Excellence on Violence Research lead by Prof. Paul Mazerolle at Griffith University.
Assist. Prof. Fisher
Fisher, VeLure-Roholt and Students went to Netherlands and South Africa in May 2009
Assistant Professor Coleen Fisher and Rose VeLure-Roholt traveled with a group of students to the Netherlands and South Africa in May 2009.
Beuch spending year in Japan
MSW Student Ann Beuch was awarded the Minnesota chapter of NASW's Student of the Year Award and the College of Education and Human Development's Student of the Year Award last year. This year she is spending the year in Japan and has applied for an intensive Korean language course next year in Korea. Beuch has an undergraduate degree in International Economics and spent this last summer working for the U.N. in Geneva.
Edleson spoke in four European countries on children exposed to violence
Professor Jeffrey Edleson spoke in four European countries this spring. He was invited by the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands to speak at the Conference on Violence Against the Girl Child in late March in The Hague, The Netherlands. He also spoke in three other European countries in late May 2009. Edleson spoke at an event sponsored by the Violence Against Women Research Group and the Centre for Family Policy and Child Welfare, Bristol University in the UK, then at a forum of the Sociologiska institutionen (Sociological Institute), Uppsala University in Sweden, and concluded as an invited keynote speaker at the first conference of the new Nordic Network on Research on Children Exposed to Domestic Violence in Copenhagen, Denmark. His next international talk will be in Buenos Aires in November 2009.
Assoc. Prof. Lightfoot
Lightfoot completes Africa Fullbright
Associate Professor Elizabeth Lightfoot received a Fullbright International Scholar Award and spent the calendar year of 2008 at the University of Namibia. She studied the intersection of HIV/AIDS and disability in Southern Africa in a number of collaborative projects. She is now back teaching here in Minnesota and sharing her many experiences with us.
Gilgun publishes with South African colleague
Professor Jane Gilgun and Linda Theron, professor at North-West University, Transvaal, South Africa, had a paper accepted for publication. The paper is Theron, Linda C. & Jane F. Gilgun (in press). Strangers, patients, monsters, jailers and children: How South African caregivers view their partners with manganese poisoning. South African Journal of Psychology.
Assoc. Prof. Lum
Lum in China on Disaster Responses and Aging Issues
Associate Professor Terry Lum was in Sichuan, China, in Fall 2008 speaking on social work's response to disasters. His talks included:
(1) A training workshop for local government in the earthquake affected area on the Roles of Government and NGOs in Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction: Lessons from Katrina and other Disasters in the US;
(2) A presentation in an international conference on post-disaster recovery and reconstruction titled The Sichuan Earthquake in China: A Reflection on Role of Social Work Professions in Post-Disaster Intervention; and
(3) Lum was also invited by the Social Work Department of the University of Hong Kong to conduct a training workshop on the long term care for a group of senior managers who are providing aging services in Hong Kong. The training was supported by an endowment at the University of Hong Kong.
Umbreit trains leaders from 15 countries on Peacebuilding
Prof. Umbreit completed in Fall 2008 a new five-day workshop/course for the UMN Humphrey Institute' International Fellows, representing 15 countries, entitled Peacebuilding Through Restorative Dialogue: From Conflict Management to Conflict Transformation. The Humphrey Fellows program, in its 28th year, brings rising stars in NGOs and government from around the world for 10 months of leadership development training in Minnesota.
VeLure Roholt developing youth programs in Morocco
Assist. Prof.
VeLure Roholt
The International Center on Human Rights and Democratic Development, Canada, contracted with Ross VeLure Roholt to design and deliver a training on local democratic leadership in October 2008. The training took place in Kenitra, Morocco and included 25 participants from the local university, national and international NGO's and young people from shanty towns throughout Morocco. The training focused on community mapping and community issue assessment, issue research and action planning. The training is based in part on Dr. VeLure Roholt's research activities on youth civic engagement over the past six years. The training was jointly delivered in Arabic and French with the help of the program officer, Lara Arjan.
Edleson and colleagues working on Hague Convention cases
Prof. Jeffrey Edleson and colleagues at the Universities of Minnesota and Washington are studying international child abduction cases involving domestic violence. The project is funded by the National Institute of Justice and has a website at http://www.haguedv.org/. They presented their project as the December Advocates for Human Rights Lecture Series at the law firm of Briggs & Morgan in downtown Minneapolis.
Prof. Hollister
Hollister is ICSD Associate Secretary General
Prof. David Hollister serves as Associate Secretary General of the International Consortium for Social Development. In October the Board and Executive Council met in Philadelphia to review plans for the ICSD International Symposium to be held July 27-31 in Monterrey, Mexico.
Assist. Prof. Lee
Lee presents at Tokyo Conference on Aging in Place
Assistant Professor Hee Lee attended the Horiba-APRU Research Conference 2008 on Gerontology held in Tokyo, Japan, on September 8-12, 2008. The title of her presentation was Financial Abuse in Elderly Korean Immigrants: Mixed Analysis of the Role of Culture on Perception and Help-Seeking Intention. About 45 junior gerontologists and researchers from the Pacific Rim countries and the United States attended the conference. The conference was hosted at the University of Tokyo, Japan. The conference theme was “Strategies for ‘Aging in Place’： Networking of junior gerontologists in the Pacific Rim countries.” This conference was sponsored by Dr. Masao Horiba, the owner the Horiba Ltd.
Edleson in Hong Kong
Prof. Jeffrey Edleson made a series of presentations and a keynote speech at events the week of October 20, 2008, organized by the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health to help launch a Hong Kong-wide family violence prevention effort sponsored by the Jockey Club of Hong Kong.
Faculty and Students Studied in Chile in May 2008
Profs. David Hollister and Dario Menanteau-Horta led a group of 19 MSW students on a study tour to Chile this past May 17-31. The study focused on social development and social services in Chile.
Prof.
Menanteau-Horta
Menanteau-Horta presentation, editorial board and publications
Prof. Dario Menanteau-Horta has been appointed to the Editorial Board and as an international advisor of the Journal of Social Work ("Revista de Trabajo Social") of the School of Social Work, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
A paper by Menanteau-Horta titled The Demand for Social Change and Resistance to Reform in Chile, was selected for presentation at the North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA), interdisciplinary conference (2008) held at the University of Wisconsin.
Menanteau-Horta and Marcuello-Servos published Una perspectiva sociologica para la accion social: avances de la Sociocibernetica (A Sociological Perspective for Social Action: Sociocybernetics advances), in Revista Austral de Ciencias Sociales, 14, 2008. This is one of the leading social sciences Journals in Latin America.
Lum keynote on Global Elderly Care in Hong Kong
Associate Professor Terry Lum, who was on sabbatical in Hong Kong, was the keynote speaker at the April 30, 2008, Henry Leong Symposium on Elderly Care. He spoke on “The Global Trend in Elderly Care”. The symposium was funded by an Endowment from the Leong family to the University of Hong Kong. Terry was co-principal investigator of two research projects funded by the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong Government: one to study the change in family values and attitudes in Hong Kong; the second to study the antipoverty policy in five developed countries. Terry was also appointed an Honorary Associate Director of the Sau Po Center on Aging at the University of Hong Kong, and was appointed guest editor of a special issue of the Social Development Issue on "Population Aging and Development."
Prof. Umbreit
Umbreit trained on restorative justice in Israel and Palestine
Professor Mark Umbreit was in Israel and Palestine (the occupied territories) May 12-16, 2008 providing restorative justice training and consultation to the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Juvenile Probation Services. He also met with the Parents Circle, an organization of bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost their loved ones in the conflict and have come together to support each other and speak out for ending the conflict and violence. Finally, Dr. Umbreit met with colleagues on the West Bank and working on a sniper shooting case in which an Israeli mother wants to meet the Palestinian prisoner who killed her son who was in the Israeli Defense Force. This case will involve extensive preparation and collaboration with Israeli and Palestinian colleagues who have been trained by Mark in advanced restorative dialogue practice, through the training he offers in Minnesota. Professor Umbreit will also be providing a keynote address at the first Israeli Forum for Restorative Justice Conference at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. The trip was partially funded by the International Office of the UMN.