Announcing Our 2021 Social Work Catalog
Letter from the editor:
I am pleased to share the 2021 Columbia University Press social work catalog. At what we hope is the tail end of a long pandemic, this fall semester marks a return to some kind of normality. It is not the same normality that we left in the spring of 2020, and social work has a profession has likely been forever changed. More clients will be served online through telemedicine, and more classes will be offered online too, accelerating the trend of online MSW degrees. And with these changes comes a host of new concerns and ethical challenges. But many of us are once again teaching students and seeing clients in person, and I am therefore happy to present a new set of textbooks and handbooks—some new, others revised editions of old classics—for the occasion.
In Politics for Social Workers, the political scientist Stephen Pimpare challenges us to rethink the field’s commitment to macro practice. What can the busy social worker actually do to effect change in policy? In this realistic look at the machinations of American politics, Pimpare offers practical guidelines to activism on behalf of individuals and communities.
In Dilemmas in Social Work Field Education, Terry A. Wolfer and Melissa C. Reitmeier have collected a group of real stories from field educators, supervisors, and interns and offer them as case studies in the proper conduct of field education.
In a new edition of Teaching in Social Work, Jeane W. Anastas surveys the state of the peda- gogical field: what are the theories, principles, methods, and formats that are most appropriate and applicable to teaching social work?
And in a new edition of the classic Life Model of Social Work Practice, Alex Gitterman and Carolyn Knight return to the ecological perspective, expanding and deepening it through contemporary theory and research findings and new case illustrations drawn from a wide range of practice contexts.
I will end with a book that reminds me of the most lasting reminder of the pandemic, which is those we lost. In a new edition of Living Through Loss, Nancy R. Hooyman and Sara Sanders explore the many ways in which people experience loss over the life course, from childhood to old age, and the interventions most effective at each stage. They have combined theory, sound clinical practice, and empirical research into powerful accounts of a personal experience now all too familiar to us.
I hope you find these books useful in your classrooms and practices. I am proud to have published them. Please write to me if you have questions or ideas for other books that might join their ranks.
Stephen Wesley, editor, Social Work