Faculty and Staff News

Nancy Farwell Receives Fulbright Award

Nancy Farwell, Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Chair of the African Studies Program in the Jackson School of International Studies, has been named a Fulbright Scholar for 2008-2009. Her one-year combined award for research and lecturing will enable her to continue research for her book titled Toward a Global Perspective in Social Work: Making a Difference in Kenyan Communities as well as to give invited lectures in Kenya. The book, co-authored with two colleagues at the University of Nairobi, examines local knowledge production with respect to social work practice in Kenya, and its intersection with Western perspectives and increasingly globalized views of development. Farwell will be affiliated with the University of Nairobi.

Farwell has also received a Graduate Faculty International Travel Award from The Graduate School for presentation of her paper “Promoting Social Justice Through Community-Based Learning in Social Work Courses” at the 34th Biannual Congress of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) Conference in July 2008: "Transcending Global-Local Divides: Challenges for Social Work Education and Practice" in Durban, South Africa.

In her role as chair of African Studies, Farwell is the principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) Title VI Project, which received full funding for 2008-2010. Of particular interest to social work undergraduates, a major component of the project comprises the development and implementation of a four-course sequence designed for students enrolled or interested in the professional schools. The sequence, which will be launched in winter quarter 2009, begins with a course on Health, Human Rights, and Social Transformation in the Greater Horn of Africa. It includes language instruction and cultural orientation in Swahili here at UW during spring quarter, as well as a summer practicum and capstone course in Kenya or Tanzania. The UISFL project also includes faculty development, addition of instruction in Tigrinya and Amharinya (languages widely used in the Horn and its Diaspora), library acquisitions, and community outreach.