Dual Pandemics

Dual Pandemics: Creating Racially Just Responses to a Changing Environment through Research, Practice and Education commits to promoting and disseminating knowledge that calls for the dismantling of systemic racism and creating racially just responses to the dual pandemics.

COVID-19 and anti-racist uprisings as a result of the murders of Mr. George Floyd and many other African Americans and other people of color due to police violence has unprecedented impact on our society. While these two pandemics appear to be different in nature, both pandemics attest to the fact that systemic racism continues to be a grand challenge and that COVID-19 differentially affects communities and people of color as well as socially disadvantaged groups. This book offers intellectually sound examination, conceptualization, and rigor in providing viable, socially just, responsive paths forward. The volume include chapters that focus on anti-racist pedagogy in social work education, conceptual discussion contributing to refining a shared understanding of constructs relevant to anti-racist social work, and micro, mezzo, and macro social work practice that aims to prevent or eliminate the negative impact of racism as well as promote racial justice, equity, and inclusion among individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities.

This book will be of great value to students and scholars of Social Work, Public Policy, Race and Ethnic Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

Mo Yee Lee is Professor and PhD Program Director, College of Social Work, The Ohio State University. She is editor of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work since 2007 and president of The Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work from 2019-2021.

Monit Cheung is Professor of Social Work, Mary R. Lewis Endowed Professor in Children & Youth, Principal Investigator of Child Welfare Education Project, and Director of Child & Family Center for Innovative Research at the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.

Michael A. Robinson is Professor at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. He is the author of over 40 articles and book chapters. Two of his articles have received national awards. He has focused his research on the unjust killings of African American males by police and continues to publish in this area.

Michele Rountree is Associate Professor and Academy of Distinguished Teacher with the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. She founded Black Mamas ATX, providing culturally aligned, client centered and mental health services that support Black women through pregnancy and postpartum period.

Mike Spencer (Kanaka Maoli) is Presidential Term Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and Director of Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Oceania Affairs, Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. He is Grand Challenges for Social Work Executive Committee Member and Co-lead for the Close the Health Gap and Eliminate Racism Grand Challenges.

Martell L. Teasley is Interim Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost. Appointed dean of the College of Social Work in 2017, Martell is in his second terms as president of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Social Work. As the lead investigator on the Social Work profession’s Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism, his major areas of research interests are African American adolescent development, school social work practice, and diversity in social work education.