Implications of Race, Culture, and Oppression for Social Work Practice

Catalog description

This course critically examines the historical, political, economic, and cultural systems that uphold power, privilege, and oppression. The course explores how structural inequality is reproduced and maintained across social institutions, policies, and everyday practice and often in ways that remain invisible or normalized. Course materials and activities will uplift the voices, knowledge, and resistance of marginalized communities while investigating how social work has both contributed to and challenged oppression. Students will engage with critical theories, anti-oppressive frameworks, and culturally grounded practices that move between the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of analysis. Emphasis will be placed on developing the capacity to identify, intervene, and transform oppressive systems through ethically grounded, socially just practices. Students will reflect on their own social locations, identities, and positionality, with structured opportunities to examine personal biases, assumptions, and the impact of lived experience on professional practice.