Faculty Directory
Cal Halvorsen
Assistant Professor
Cal Halvorsen
Ph.D.
Contact
McGuinn Hall 321
Telephone: 617-552-1366
Email: cal.halvorsen@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., University of Iowa
- M.S.W., Washington University in St. Louis
- Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Research Interests
Productive engagement in later life, with emphasis on work, self-employment, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and encore careers; returning to school past midlife; charitable giving and nonprofit sustainability.
Expertise
- Aging
- Innovations in Research Methods
- Social and Economic Inclusion
- Social Innovation
- Macro
Profile
Cal J. Halvorsen, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor at the Boston College School of Social Work. His research interests include the antecedents, experiences, and outcomes of longer working lives, with emphasis on later-life self-employment and entrepreneurship, encore careers, and older adults as social innovators. Cal was selected as an inaugural member of the 2018-2019 Encore Public Voices Fellowship and has taught courses related to aging societies, social work practice, and research methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Cal worked for six years at Encore.org, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to engaging people in midlife and beyond in paid and unpaid work that improves the world, later serving as the organization’s director of research and evaluation. During this time, Cal was invited to present at the University of Oxford in the U.K., as well as the Körber Foundation and EBS Universität in Germany. He is a graduate of both the MSW (2008) and PhD (2018) programs at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, and earned his BA from the University of Iowa in his hometown of Iowa City.
Selected Publications
Halvorsen, C., & Chen, Y. C. (2019). The diversity of interest in later-life entrepreneurship: Results from a nationally representative survey of Americans aged 50 to 70. PLoS ONE, 14(6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217971
Matz-Costa, C., Berzin, S., Pitt-Catsouphes, M., & Halvorsen, C. (2019). Perceptions of the meaningfulness of work among older social purpose workers: An ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 38(8), 1121-1146. doi: 10.1177/0733464817727109
Halvorsen, C. (2017). Bridging social innovation and social work: Balancing science, values, and speed. Research on Social Work Practice, 27(2), 129-130. doi:10.1177/1049731516658353
Halvorsen, C. & Morrow-Howell, N. (2017). A conceptual framework on self-employment in later life: Toward a research agenda. Work, Aging and Retirement, 3(4), 313-324. doi:10.1093/workar/waw031
Morrow-Howell, N., Halvorsen, C., Hovmand, P., Lee, C., & Ballard, E. (2017). Conceptualizing productive engagement in a system dynamics framework. Innovation in Aging, 1(1). doi:10.1093/geroni/igx018
Pitt-Catsouphes, M., McNamara, T., James, J., & Halvorsen, C. (2017). Innovative pathways to meaningful work: Older adults as volunteers and self-employed entrepreneurs. In J. McCarthy & E. Parry (Eds.), Age diversity and work (pp. 195-224). London: Palgrave-Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-46781-2_9
Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Berzin, S., McNamara, T., Halvorsen, C., & Emerman, J. (2016). The impact of The Purpose Prize: Exploring a method to stimulate social entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 24(2), 133-167. doi:10.1142/S0218495816500060
Halvorsen, C. & Emerman, J. (2014, Winter). The encore movement: Baby boomers and older adults building community. Generations, 37(4), 33-39. Online.
Halvorsen, C., Bank, D., & Emerman, J. (2011). Encore entrepreneurs: Creating jobs, meeting needs. San Francisco: Civic Ventures.