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Dr. Barbara Levy Simon delivers inaugural lecture of new Social Work Seminar in Professional Identity
On August 30, 2005, Dr. Barbara Levy Simon, associate professor of
social work at Columbia University, delivered the opening lecture in
the School of Social Work's new Seminar in Professional Identity. Her
talk, Social Work History in the United States: A Tale of
Sense and Sensibility, explored the history of various
tensions within the social work profession, which Dr. Simon views
as rooted in the conflict between romanticism and rationalism
prevalent at the time of social work's emergence in the 19th
century.
Dr. Simon highlighted the impact that
religion, warfare, migration, eugenics and feminism have had at
various stages of the profession's development, from Calvinist charity
movements that arose out of the turmoil of the Civil War, to
efforts in the 1970s to assist Southeast Asian war refugees
and contemporary debates about faith-based funding of
social work programs. Borrowing Austen's phrase, Dr. Simon drew
attention to the shifting allegiances social work has devoted to "sense
and sensibility" as the profession evolves. She exhorted those entering
the field to champion both the rational and the romantic in what
she characterized as a "wonderfully messy profession."
MP3 audio file of Dr. Simon's lecture (1:18:53 - 38 megabytes)
© 2005 The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
Click the above link to listen to Dr. Simon's lecture. If you wish, right-click the link to save the file locally, then open it with your preferred MP3 application or listening device (such as an iPod or other MP3 player).
August 30, 2005
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