BCSSW Professor Emerita Elaine Pinderhughes
April 13 marked BCSSW’s 10th annual Pinderhughes Diversity + Justice Lecture, and appropriately, the milestone event featured the most recent work of the eponymous emerita professor Elaine Pinderhughes.
Out this fall, Understanding Power: 21st Century Human Services Imperative from the National Association of Social Workers Press “expands the perspective on the operation of power in the work of all human services providers.” Chapters address topics including:
- The multilevel, bidirectional, recursive operation of power
- Effects of privilege on power
- Enhancing and transforming how people function as it relates to issues of power
The book’s co-editors, Vanessa Jackson and Patricia Romney, were both in attendance to discuss the book alongside Pinderhughes. Boston College history professor Martin Summers, the director of BC’s African and African Diaspora Studies Program, provided a response to their conversation.
While this year’s event was devoted to the release of this important book, it also provided an opportunity to celebrate the history of this lecture series and the prominent individuals who have taken part since its inception in 2007.
From left: Jackson, Pinderhughes, Romney, and NASW CEO and BCSSW alumnus Angelo McClain
Past Pinderhughes lecturers have included Salome Raheim, the Dean of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, renowned cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, Vincent Rougeau, Dean of the Boston College Law School, and Christine Griffin, Executive Director of The Disability Law Center, to name just a few. Lecture topics have ranged from “Reflections on Justice and Religious Diversity: Why Living Together Is Better than Apart” to “Diversity and Inclusion: When Will People with Disabilities Be Included?” to “Immigrants and Refugees: Settlement Issues and Service Delivery Models.”
“We are so fortunate that Elaine has continued to play such an important role within our school,” said Dean Alberto Godenzi. “Every year, the Pinderhughes Diversity Lectures address a critical topic to the field of social work, and to our times. Over the course of ten years, we have heard from leading intellectuals and executives on how to better respond to issues of diversity and justice in our studies and practice, a most meaningful experience for our faculty, administration, and students alike.”