RAMSES TAKES ON
APM 2022
Editor’s note: This article was written by our very own writer-in-residence, Ramses.
Dear GSS Community,
If you were paying attention to our Instagram stories in mid-November (@FordhamGSS - give us a follow!), you know that I attended The Council on Social Work Education's 2022 Annual Program Meeting (APM) conference and had a blast. I had the chance to watch our GSS faculty present their research, and heard a ton of great speakers from fantastic schools of social work across the country. I got to mingle with other schools of social work at the conference Expo, and gave out some GSS swag to our friends and colleagues.
Most importantly, I partied all night long at the *renowned* GSS APM reception — fit with pomegranate cosmopolitans on the rocks and a live jazz band.
And don’t worry, I took pictures along the way. Let’s take a look back on this incredible weekend.
Day One - Touchdown in Anaheim, and the Opening Plenary Speaker
I hopped off the plane at LAX… and straight into Los Angeles traffic. Arriving in Anaheim at 4:30 p.m., I shook off my jet lag and got ready for the opening plenary speaker, Kimberley Motley, Esq., founder of Motley legal and the first American lawyer to practice in Afghanistan. Talk about starting off strong!
Let me take an aside for a second and tell you about the buzz around this conference when I first arrived. OK, I know how that reads, but the buzz was not actually about my arrival - though we can pretend it was. It was the excitement coming from people who haven’t seen one another in a long time. A couple thousand people who haven’t seen one another.
I traversed through the main doors of the Hilton Anaheim and saw hugging, cheers-ing (is that a word?), and felt the energy that you just don’t get from a virtual get-together. The nervous excitement coming from professionals who had been preparing to present their research to colleagues from across the country was palpable.
At 6:30, we were ushered into one of the main ballrooms on the second floor of the hotel to see Motley kick off this incredible weekend. It took a few moments to get everyone seated and hushed (there were probably a few hundred people in this gigantic room). Once everyone quieted, Darla Coffey, CEO of CSWE, stepped to the microphone and welcomed everyone to the 2022 CSWE Annual Program Meeting to a roar of applause.
The Opening Plenary
After some more welcomes, the board of CSWE was honored— including GSS’s very own Dr. Shirley Gatenio Gabel. Then, Motley stepped to the podium and began telling the story of her career as an attorney who spends 9 months of the year living in Afghanistan and representing its people.
Motley narrated the story of her relationship with a client named Jade, a 21 year-old woman from Vienna. Jade's boyfriend had just proposed, and now she was being brought to Afghanistan by her family to get her grandmother’s approval of the marriage. Or, so she thought.
When Jade and her family got to Afghanistan, her uncle said she wouldn’t be visiting her grandmother, or ever going back to Vienna. She’d be marrying someone else. Jade's own family had kidnapped her, and was now organizing an arranged marriage.
After days of back-and-forth texting between Motley and Jade (who hid her phone’s SIM card from those around her), Motley’s team finally got Jade out of the house where she was being kept against her will. The experience was Motley’s first time in Afghanistan. She hadn’t even taken an international law class—but she got it done.
Many of those in attendance may not work in Afghanistan, or deal with kidnappings, or have ever been inside a courtroom. However, social workers have all been in a situation where they are responsible for someone in need. Everyone in that room knew the helpless feeling that can come when you feel like there is nothing more to be done.
And everyone in that room also knew the joy of breakthrough. So when Jade’s picture flashed on the screen behind Motley, safe and rescued, it was like a stream of cool water splashed onto your face— a reminder of why everyone in that room chooses to show up for the profession everyday.
When we are in the thick of difficult situations—a pandemic, a polarized world, and an uncertain future—we need those reminders to keep going. Motley’s address was what everyone needed to lock in for the next few days and deliver.
Day Two - Presentations and Parties
GSS Assistant Professor Sameena Azhar kicked off our faculty's presentations on Friday at 1:15 p.m. In her presentation, titled “Associations between HIV Stigma and Social Support for People with HIV in Hyderabad, India”, Azhar detailed the hardships facing India’s third-gendered population, specifically as it pertains to those in the population dealing with an HIV diagnosis.
Dr. Sameena Azhar
Left to right: Dr. Abigail Ross, Huangshu Xu, and Dr. G. Lawrence Farmer
After Dr. Azhar finished with a powerful video detailing the lives of those vulnerable people, I ran over to the poster presentations to see Dr. Abigail Ross and Dr. G. Lawrence Farmer present a poster presentation with GSS doctoral student Huangshu Xu.
Dr. Lauri Goldkind was also presenting with her social work group #SWEduActs. This was an interactive presentation, with attendees breaking up into affinity groups and asking themselves and each other questions about how they can incorporate anti-racist work into their classrooms as faculty members. Additionally, the question was posed of how the CSWE (the host of APM) could support these efforts throughout the academic year.
The #SWEduActs groups in action.
Dr. Carole Cox and Dr. Dana Marlowe
To finish the day of presentations, Dr. Carole Cox and Dr. Dana Marlowe presented their research titled “Antisemitism: Implication for Social Work Practice.” Spurred from a popular article Cox wrote in 2020, Cox and Marlowe saw a demand for Jewish social workers to hold space due to the rise in anti semetic acts, both from the environments they live in, as well as in the popular media. Cox and Marlowe used their presentation to call for CSWE to rule it necessary for MSW programs across the country to implement religious hatred courses into their human rights and social justice curriculums.
While all of this was going on, the GSS Expo booth ran from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., showing off our school and giving out free swag. This day, if I might say, had the best giveaways of them all…
The GSS Reception
GSS is known for its APM excitement, and the reception is the piece de resistance.
The theme for the night was New York City Speakeasy — fit with sweet, pomegranate cosmopolitans on ice as the night’s specialty cocktail. A four-piece band set the mood for a wonderful evening.
I’m a simple Ram. I’m no poet, and they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. I’ll let some pictures from the night do the talking:
Days Three and Four: More Presentations and Just Hold On, We’re Going Home
On the morning of day three, I put on my red GSS shirt (it’s the only shirt I have) and made it down to Dr. Goldkind’s 7:45 a.m. presentation, titled “Reviewing Manuscripts for Professional Journals: Building Your Skills to Support Your Scholarship". In this presentation, Dr. Goldkind and her co-presenters explained what makes a successful journal review.
Dr. Shirley Gatenio Gabel
Our last GSS presentation of the day was saved for GSS Professor and Mary Ann Quaranta Chair for Social Justice for Children Dr. Shirley Gatenio Gabel. This presentation was packed. Every seat in the room was filled within minutes of the doors opening, and many had to stand at the back of the room and in the hallway in order to hear the speakers.
The presentation, titled “EPAS 2022: Integrating Equity, Justice, and Human Rights Into the Social Work Curriculum” had seven presenters and taught participants how to properly assess social work program efforts to advance human rights and social justice through their curriculums.
On Sunday, there were two more GSS presentations.
The first was Dr. Azhar, presenting her research titled “Perspectives of Mullahs/Ulamas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan on Khwaja Sira (Third Gender) Identities”. The second featured Dr. Janna Heyman, Dr. G. Lawrence Farmer, Dr. Linda White-Ryan, and Dr. Henry Davis, and was titled “Empowering Youth in Foster Care: Making a Difference in Their Lives”.
However, I unfortunately did not get a chance to attend, as my flight was early Sunday morning. Ramses had some important work to catch up on at home, and missed Manhattan.
And that was APM! I’m sure there are many things that I missed, but with all of the excitement, I wrote down as much of it as I could. I hope you feel like you were there! Maybe next year you’ll see me around the hotel in Atlanta. We appreciate all the hard work of the presenters and conference staff, and we look forward to the next opportunity to celebrate with our colleagues across the nation.
Thanks for reading!
Some Bonus Fun
OK, so, I couldn’t end this article without acknowledging that we were in Anaheim for the conference. And you know what else is in Anaheim? Right across the street from our hotel?
Disneyland.
Did Ramses get to go? No! Didn’t you just read the thousands of words detailing the APM conference? I barely had time to breathe, let alone scream on Space Mountain!
However, I do know someone who got to go. They had a great time, and took some great pictures. So, I took to Photoshop and gave Disneyland the Ramses treatment.
Enjoy….