Podcast

Abolitionist Social Work in Unsettling Times

Join editors and contributors of Abolish Social Work (As We Know It) and Abolition and Social Work for a discussion about the intersections of abolitionist politics and principles and social work.

Pick up a copy of Abolish Social Work (As We Know it) here: https://btlbooks.com/book/abolish-social-work

Pick up a copy of Abolition and Social Work here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2226-abolition-and-social-work

Pick up a copy of Not Your Rescue Project here: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2258-not-your-rescue-project

Pick up the Creative Interventions Toolkit: https://www.akpress.org/creative-interventions-toolkit.html

Moment of Truth Statement of Commitment to Black Lives: https://wscadv.org/news/moment-of-truth-statement-of-commitment-to-black-lives

Speakers:

Cameron W. Rasmussen is an educator, researcher, social worker, and facilitator. Cameron is an Assistant Professor in the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. His research is focused on issues of accountability, restorative and transformative justice, and the intersections of social work and abolition. Cameron is a Co-Editor of Abolition and Social Work: Possibilities, Paradoxes and the Practice of Community Care and is a Collaborator with the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAASW). He completed his PhD in the Social Welfare program at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Craig Fortier - (they/them) is an Associate Professor in Social Development Studies at Renison University College (University of Waterloo). They have been involved in community based organizing with migrant justice, queer/trans* liberation, anti-capitalist, Indigenous solidarity, and abolitionist movements. Craig is the author of Unsettling the Commons: Social Movements Within, Against, and Beyond Settler Colonialism and co-editor of Abolish Social Work (As We Know It). Their research is interdisciplinary, experiential, and rooted in day-to-day organizing work - including studies on colonialist memorialization projects, queer and trans* community sports, social work history, social movement organizing, and political theory. They currently reside in Tkaronto/Toronto (Michi Saagiig Nishaabeg, Wendat, and Haudenosaunee territories) and acts as a co-commissioner in the Field of Dreamers Cooperative Softball association, playing shortstop for the Don River Curse Breakers.

Durrell Malik Washington Sr. is an Abolitionist, a Social Worker, Educator and PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. His research interest lies at the intersections between P.I.C. Abolition, Juvenile legal law, policy and other youth serving systems, Black families, and Health. Durrell is a Beyond Prisons Fellow at UChicago and a collaborator with the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work.

Mimi Kim is a longtime community accountability/transformative justice practitioner. As a co-founder of Incite! and founder of Creative Interventions, Mimi has challenged interpersonal and state violence through the building of community-based liberatory practice. She is currently re-launching the StoryTelling & Organizing Project through a Stories for Power collaboration between Creative Interventions and Just Practice. Mimi is also an Associate Professor of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach.

Chanelle Gallant - (she/her) is a movement writer, organizer, strategist and consultant and co-author of Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice (Haymarket Books, 2024). She co-founded the Migrant Sex Workers Project, SURJ-Toronto and has provided training and advocacy on sex work and racial justice, from city hall to the United Nations. Chanelle sits on the national board for Showing Up for Racial Justice and Catalyst Project and has helped to move millions into organizing through donor advising and grassroots fundraising. She holds an MA in Sociology and was a Lambda Literary Fellow. Find her at chanellegallant.com

Sena Hussain (she/her) is a social worker, editor, and prison abolitionist based in Toronto. She has spent over a decade supporting criminalized and marginalized people through harm reduction, advocacy, and direct support. Sena is the editor of Cell Count, a publication amplifying the voices of prisoners and has co-facilitated workshops in federal prisons on health and harm reduction. Her work is rooted in anti-oppressive practice, abolitionist organizing, and a commitment to systemic change.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and Network to Advance Abolition in Social Work.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo7juGv5H2o

Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org

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