Although their research interests are diverse, Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) faculty members, students and research partners share something in common: a focus on advancing social justice. We live this mission every day through research and scholarship that spans social work practice, policy and system reform.
Assistant Prof. Sophia Sarantakos focuses their research, writing and organizing on how professionalized social-change work — including social work — can be shaped to serve an abolitionist horizon.
In partnership with Denver Public Schools, GSSW doctoral student Colleen Cummings Melton and Prof. Sarah Bexell are integrating climate action and ecological justice into public education.
Prof. Jenn Bellamy works to advance social and racial justice in social work practice and in social work education and research — both within the school and in the broader academy.
GSSW doctoral candidate and faculty members contribute to new anthology exploring abolition and social work. Authors include: Assistant ProfessorAutumn Asher BlackDeer, Assistant ProfessorSophia Sarantakos, Associate ProfessorRamona Beltrán and doctoral candidate Annie Zean Dunbar
Community needs and assets shape our research and scholarship agenda. For example, we host 16 intervention research studies and collaborate with 128 research partners. With support from 10 public and private partners statewide, the Climb@DU initiative is training social workers to meet behavioral health needs in underserved Colorado communities. Community partners also invest in our work, as do local, state and national foundations and agencies, funding more than $11.7 million in 2019–20 in annual research expenditures.
