Volume 78 | March 2021
OGA Newsletter
an image of a globe
The Office of Global Activities (OGA) is dedicated to connecting MSW students to international social work opportunities through fundingspecial programs, academic resources, internationalized curriculum, and arranging faculty and student exchanges at partner institutions.
Spotlight- World Social Work Day at the UN Conference
& ISWED Conference
World Social Work Day at the UN Conference

HETS-Geneva is teaming up again with the University of Social Work of Friborg (HETS-FR), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the International Association of Schools of Social Work (AIETS), and the International Federation of Social Workers (FITS) to organize the 2021 edition of the International Day of Social Work at UN-Geneva, on March 17 and 18.

The program for Wednesday, March 17 consists of plenary lectures - during which you will have the opportunity to hear  Yvonne Riaño, a specialist in geographies of inequalities, and  Aruna Roy, co-founder of the Union for the strength of workers and peasants, one of the largest civil rights organizations in India - and a choice of interactive workshops. As for Thursday, March 18, it offers presentations and a round table welcoming representatives from different regions of the world who will discuss the lessons learned from the pandemic in terms of support to communities.
ISWED Conference


The International Social Work and Development Online Conference (ISWED), Human Relationships: Keys to Remaking Social Work for the Future, aims to empower social workers and social service organizations to make an impact on the lives of the people amidst drastic social changes and facilitate effective professional practice and human services in the decades to come. The main conference is March 16-18, 2021, and April 14-17, 2021.

On the World Social Work Day, conference organizers would like to invite you to join the Opening Keynote Address (March 16 13:00 GMT / 9:00 am EDT) and the Closing Keynote Address (March 18 13:00 GMT / 9:00 am EDT) of the March Session.

Both sessions will be livestreamed through ISWED 2021 YouTube Channel for public view. 
Virtual Events
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 6:00 - 7:30 pm EDT
Brief Description: To launch this year's Asian American & Pacific Islander (AA&PI) Heritage Month, the Opening Ceremony will feature the hosts of the Continental Shifts Podcast, Gabriel Tanglao and Estella Owoimaha-Church! Gabriel and Estella describe themselves as “dope educators wayfinding the past, present, and future,” and their podcast centers around how the AA&PI community can organize, educate, and support one another as we learn from our cultures and work through current issues. Dinner will be available for pick up for those on/near campus who register for this event.
AA&PI Heritage Month which is celebrated mid-March to mid-April at the University of Michigan. All events this year will be held *virtually.* A full list events will be coming soon on MESA's website.
Date: Wednesday, March 17, at 1:00 pm PDT / 4:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: Humanitarian communication is notorious for shaping a popular imaginary around refugee ethics that dehistoricizes the cultural figure of the refugee and focuses on charitable, ameliorative action rather than on understanding the root causes of displacement. Borderstory, a 24-minute film on the word 'border,' uses the genre of fairytale to produce a dehistoricized understanding of the word 'border' and then employs postcolonial filmmaking strategies to interrupt and re-contextualize it. Considering the process of creating the film opens up significant questions about narrative forms and their relationship to refugee discourse.  A discussion will follow the screening.
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 8:30-9:30 pm EDT
Brief Description: ELI Student to Student events are fun, interactive virtual offerings planned and led by U-M students to help you meet people and make connections, whether you are physically on campus or somewhere else. You can relieve stress, increase social connectedness, and learn about U.S. and Michigan culture—while practicing English! Specifically, come learn about the history of Michigan basketball, March Madness, and create a bracket to follow the action throughout March and April!
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers research, study, and teaching opportunities in over 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students. This competition is administered on campus by the International Institute. Join U-M campus representative Melissa Vert and representatives from the International Institute of Education (IIE) as they discuss opportunities, awards, and the general application process. For more information about Fulbright, visit here.
Date: Monday, March 22, at 12:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: The Black+Abroad Virtual Series is in collaboration with Virginia higher education institutions to promote candid conversation and equity among Black students to encourage travel and study abroad. This series connects students with study abroad alumni, expats and nomads of color to engage in conversation around blackness perception, funding, travel tips, lessons learned and opportunities for international experiences. This event is intended for all students and advisors.
You can register for individual sessions or to receive recordings. A list of resources is also available.
Date: Tuesday, March 23, at 6:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: Join the Asian American Writers’ Workshop for a lecture with Tamara K. Nopper. This lecture will last 2 hours and is free to the public. Nopper’s lecture will examine the alarm and growing discourse regarding “anti-Asian violence,” currently circulating in mainstream and social media among pundits, celebrities, and Asian American community organizers across the country. The lecture will examine the merging of fighting “anti-Asian violence” with the promotion of “Black-Asian solidarity” in the context of COVID-19. This lecture calls for defunding the police and for abolition. We will examine the intertwined narratives of “anti-Asian violence” and “Black-Asian solidarity,” considering the work the narratives are doing and if they challenge or promote carceral logic. What might these narratives reveal or conceal about Asian Americans and racial politics. We will also look at how this replicates or departs from discourse and programs promoting Black-Asian solidarity in the wake of the 1992 LA Rebellion.
Date: Thursday, March 25, at 4:00 - 5:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: International Coffee Hour is a great place for international and U.S. students, scholars, faculty, and staff to virtually socialize with each other and meet new people from around the world. The March session will have a wellness theme and will feature a special guest from Wolverine Wellness.
Date: Tuesday, March 30, at 3:00 - 4:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: Whether you are planning a short trip to Canada, are interested in working Canada, or would like to live there, there are specific requirements and different programs that you should understand. Representatives from the Canadian Consulate General will talk about these requirements and will also answer any questions you might have. These representatives are experts on this topic, so this is an excellent opportunity to get accurate information and to have your questions answered.
Date: Friday, April 9, at 8:00 am - 5:00 pm MDT/ 10:00 am - 7:00 pm EDT
Brief Description: Cross Cultural Medicine Workshop (CCMW) is designed to provide physicians, medical students, hospital staff, counselors, program staff, and healthcare professionals a greater understanding of traditional American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) healing practices and improve cultural communication between Native peoples and health professionals. Objectives include:
  • Understand traditional healing practices and improve cultural communication between the American Indian/Alaska Native community and healthcare professionals.
  • Analyze modern Western medical practices using evidence-informed Indigenous healing practices and traditions from around the world.
  • Describe how culture influences both patients' and providers’ expectations and decision-making.
  • Outline strategies and practices that can increase the healthcare provider’s ability to conduct culturally sensitive services.
Professional Opportunities

Brief Description: The Student Community of Progressive Empowerment (SCOPE) is the undocumented students organization on campus and this semester they are piloting a mentorship program. Graduate students who identify as undocumented or DACAmented can apply to be mentees and/or mentors. Folks who consider themselves allies can support undergraduate students who identify as undocumented or DACAmented. The goal of the program is to build a close-knit community among students and community members in a personal and professional sense. Mentor and mentee pairing will be prioritized based on majors and future career plans. The tentative time commitment is 60 minutes a month with your student or mentor: two 30 minute meetings or one hour meeting per month. 
Registration Deadline: Monday, March 22, 2021
Submission Deadline: Monday, July 12, 2021
Brief Description: The Geneva Challenge, hosted by the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies, is a project funded by Swiss Ambassador Jenö Staehelin and aims to encourage interdisciplinary problem-solving analysis among master students on advancing human development within the scope of a relevant topic. This year, students are invited to develop analysis-based proposals on "The Challenges of Crisis Management". As the key to this issue is an interdisciplinary solution, crossing traditional boundaries between academic disciplines, we are inviting Master students from all academic programmes and from anywhere in the world to provide helpful strategic recommendations. Five prizes, one per continent, will be distributed.

The Geneva Challenge 2021 will distribute 25’000 CHF in monetary prizes and the five finalist teams will be invited (travel and accommodation expenses covered) to publicly present their work in Geneva before a panel of high-level experts. Networking opportunities are also envisioned as part of the prize package.
Application Deadline: Sunday, March 28 at 11:59 pm GMT/ 6:59 EDT
Location: London, UK
Duration: 10th May 2021 – 29th October 2021
Brief Description: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering two internships within the Goodwill Ambassador Section (GWA) in the London office. UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in 135 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions. This is a unique opportunity for the right person to join a high performing team and develop their career in working with influencers for the furtherance of humanitarian goals. 
Application Deadline: Monday, March 29 at 3:00 pm EST
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Brief Description: The CDC is recruiting two Masters-level fellows to support the COVID-19 response. The Disproportionately Affected Population Team on the Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force addresses the public health and science needs for populations that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including persons experiencing homelessness, incarcerated populations, persons with disabilities, older adults, and others. We value the quality of experiences of our fellows highly, and want to work with fellows that are interested in growth in both their scientific skills and their knowledge of health equity issues impacting disproportionately affected populations. 
Application Deadline: Submit at your earliest opportunity
Location: Dallas, Texas
Brief Description: Multiple positions are available including a Family Reunification Specialist and Finance Coordinator. Details provided at links in the job title.

The R&P Family Reunification Specialist coordinates the completion and submission of family reunification applications managed within the Reception and Placement (R&P) program. The Specialist identifies current clients eligible to file such applications and conducts community outreach to advertise the programs. The Specialist works with clients to prepare and submit applications to Headquarters.

The Finance Coordinator is a member of the Dallas Finance team and is responsible for essential accounting functions related to accounts payable and accounts receivable, monthly and closing assistance, and various reports to donors and HQ.  This is a full-time, non-exempt position reporting directly to the Finance Manager.

More positions at the IRC are available around the world, click to view the IRC Careers page.
Grant Opportunities
Deadline: Rolling
Brief Description: Anti-racism grants are available to support student organization activities and projects by student groups for anti-racism work, with a specific focus on confronting anti-Blackness, racism against Indigenous peoples, and confronting white supremacy. The goal is to inclusively support the work of student groups seeking to confront racism to the greatest degree possible. Such funding could be for projects, events, services, programming, or partnerships with external organizations.

Student groups who would like to brainstorm potential project ideas are invited to contact Professor Luke Shaefer and Professor Larry Gant
Deadline: Rolling
Brief Description: This fund is intended to help departments and student organizations recognize the diversity of the international student population through special events and programming. We are looking to fund creative and collaborative programming that will address the following goals:
  • To elevate the voices of the international student population at the University of Michigan.
  • To provide programming to support international students.
  • To hold events or offer initiatives of particular interest to the international student population, at large or subsets of it (cultural, vocational, etc).
The application process is currently rolling. Departments and organizations are encouraged to apply at least 14 days in advance of their planned event.
Resources
"This document was initially directed at ways for how to turn fieldwork that was initially planned as using face-to-face methods into a more ‘hands-off’ mode. However, people have added useful material about ‘born digital’ research (content already generated on the internet by online interactions), which provides an alternative source of social research materials if researchers decide to go down that path."
Recordings Available: Indigenous Health Seminar series at Harvard Medical School
The Indigenous Health Seminar series held at Harvard Medical School during February and March, co-sponsored by the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP) and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine has recordings available. Links are included in the specific titles. 
Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice just published a special double issue entitled, “Reflections on a Pandemic: Disruptions, Distractions, and Discoveries.”.  It was co-edited by Karen Staller, Håvard Aaslund (VID Specialized University, Norway), and Briana Starks (UMSSW Social Work and Sociology). The double issue contains 86 reflexive essays submitted by authors from 35 different countries (and every continent except Antarctica).  The articles are grouped in 11 topical categories.  Taken together they paint a stunning portrait of the breadth and depth of social work during the earliest months of the historic pandemic from every corner of the globe. UM contributors include current doctoral students (Finn Bell, Angela Perone), UM faculty (Dr. Odessa Gonzalez Benson) as well as UM alumni (Drs. Alexandra Crampton, Jean Balestrery, and Mary Kate Dennis).  

Håvard Aaslund and Alexandra Crampton have both been visiting scholars in the Office of Global Activities.
School of Social Work Professor, Dr. Odessa Gonzalez Benson's work with the Missing Migrants (of the Mediterranean) project was featured in Forced Migration Review, a global academic magazine of the University of Oxford.

With an on-campus exhibit and online platform and in partnership with a Tunisia-based migrant advocacy organization, this project presents the voice of missing migrants of the Mediterranean. Seeking safe and dignified lives, migrants crossed from Tunisia and other MENA countries into Italy and Europe via the Mediterranean Sea route in recent years. Many do not live to reach their destination. The Italian government and the international community manage rehousing, or burial, of migrants without due process; deaths are tallied as mere statistics, and bodies are not identified nor given due respect. Meanwhile, behind each missing person is family, friend, community.
View this recording of Dr. Donna Nagata's, of the University of Michigan's Department of Psychology, presentation on her research into the long-term societal impacts of our country's incarceration of Japanese American citizens during World War II. Following the Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. government ordered 120,000 Japanese American men, women, and children into incarceration camps. This presentation addresses the intergenerational impacts of this World War II event. Framing the incarceration as a racial, historical, and cultural trauma, the talk describes psychosocial reverberations of unjust incarceration for Japanese Americans that extended long after the war ended, leading to a range of impacts on those who were incarcerated and their post-war offspring.
Recordings of all sessions are now available on the U-M Africa website. Africa Week brought together thought leaders in higher education, industry, and government for a series of discussions on the key issues and opportunities that will shape Africa in the coming decades. The conference consisted of various lectures and workshops focused on economics, technology, healthcare, education, reclaiming and repatriating African heritage, STEM collaborations, COVID-19 and more.
Europe is a popular destination for LGBTQ people seeking to escape discrimination and persecution. Yet, while European institutions have done much to promote the legal equality of sexual minorities and a number of states pride themselves on their acceptance of sexual diversity, the image of European tolerance and the reality faced by LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers are often quite different. To engage with these conflicting discourses, Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe brings together scholars from politics, sociology, urban studies, anthropology and law to analyse how and why queer individuals migrate to or seek asylum in Europe, as well as the legal, social and political frameworks they are forced to navigate to feel at home or to regularise their status in the destination societies.
A photo for CAPS' online anxiety workshop
This three session video workshop will focus on understanding anxiety, learning strategies to manage anxiety, and developing a plan to apply the strategies on a daily basis wherever you are during the Pandemic.
SSW has listed resources and information on this web page related to tuition costs, financial aid, employment, health insurance and general questions and support.
Global Impact: News Story of the Week
*All news stories presented are likely to include bias. Please be aware of this as you read the article. If interested, we encourage you to read further about the topic at your own discretion.
Nathan Rott

"Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo, has become the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

The Senate voted 51-40 Monday to confirm the Democratic congresswoman to lead the Interior Department, an agency that will play a crucial role in the Biden administration's ambitious efforts to combat climate change and conserve nature.

Her confirmation is as symbolic as it is historic. For much of its history, the Interior Department was used as a tool of oppression against America's Indigenous peoples. In addition to managing the country's public lands, endangered species and natural resources, the department is also responsible for the government-to-government relations between the U.S. and Native American tribes..."
To find previous OGA Newsletter volumes, click the OGA Newsletter Archive .
Email ssw.oga@umich.edu if you have any questions.