News: International Social Work

Alumna Jennifer Bornemann (MS’00) has been deployed to Monrovia, Liberia, to care for victims of Ebola. We wish her all the best and our thoughts are with her during the holidays.

In this podcast, we talk to Associate Professor Louisa Gilbert, who co-directs, with Professor Nabila El-Bassel, the School of Social Work’s Global Health Research Center of Central Asia. This year marks the 10th anniversary of their efforts to assist regional NGOs in Central Asia with developing solutions to the region’s HIV/STI, hepatitis C and TB epidemics.

The protest marches on behalf of Ferguson are a “statement about the long overdue need to confront and eradicate racism and to fix institutions, among them the criminal justice system,” says Dean Jeanette Takamura in this statement.

How does fall semester at our School look from the perspective of our dean, Jeanette Takamura? She shares (at least!) 5 “cool things” in this podcast, and we also learn some amazing facts about her…

Professor Nabila El-Bassel takes time out to answer some questions about her participation in the 2014 International AIDS Conference, where she is presenting a paper, and about her work of the past 25 years in the field of AIDS intervention research.

In this short video, Associate Professor Fred Ssewamala recounts a typical day in the life of a rural Ugandan youth—a story that helps provide context for the interventions he designs for helping young people in this East African country stay in school.

This video was created for the World Health Organization, and is being screened this week at its General Assembly. It highlights the collaboration between CSSW’s Dr. Fred Ssewamala and MSPH’s Dr. John Santelli in developing interventions to prevent Ugandan youth who are risk of HIV infection, from dropping out of school.

The Columbia Social Work Review serves as a forum for the exchange of innovative ideas from the perspective of social work students. Check out the highlights of this year’s issue in this slideshow celebrating the mid-April launch.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs was the special guest at a seminar hosted by the Columbia Population Research Center. He spoke about bringing population trends back into the model for Africa’s economic development. Watch the introduction on video.

In time for World AIDS Day, the international journal “Drug and Alcohol Dependence” has published a special issue on the AIDS crisis in Central Asia, guest-edited by Willma and Albert Musher Professor Nabila El-Bassel and two public health experts—a first.