Global Engagement
Advancing our mission to become “a local and global partner.”
Global Engagement Strategy Launched
2023-24 marked another important chapter in our faculty’s long history as a Canadian leader in International social work. In advancing our mission to become “a local and global partner,” our faculty finalized a new Global Engagement Strategy. led by Dr. Aamir Jamal. The strategy has several immediate goals:
- To help increase student diversity within the faculty and UCalgary campus community;
- To improve global and intercultural capacity for our students and within the faculty;
- To enable at least half of our students to have one international learning experience by the time they graduate; and
- To enhance global partnerships and to support partners with sustainable development, capacity-building, research and innovation.
Riley Brandt
Transforming Masculinities: International Symposium
Transforming Masculinities: International Symposium for Well-Being and Violence Prevention
On Oct. 25 and 26, 2023, our faculty, along with other UCalgary partners, hosted the first annual Transforming Masculinities: International Symposium for Well-Being and Violence Prevention. The online and on-campus gathering brought together transdisciplinary organizations and community leaders from across Canada and around the world including Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan, and Trinidad & Tobago. More than 90 people attended on-campus, while more than 275 took part in the virtual sessions.
Participants included Elders, educators, researchers, Knowledge Keepers and students working in a range of areas including violence prevention, gender justice, well-being and peacebuilding. The successful symposium included presentations, knowledge exchange and experiential learning that focused on local and global realities of gender-based violence and highlighted prevention efforts through awareness, strategy and collaboration.
David Kotsibie
International Symposium on Youth Mental Health
Voices of Community Collaboration on Youth Mental Health: International Symposium on Youth Mental Health
Led by Dr. Dora Tam, PhD and the Children and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) Project team, the Voices of Community Collaboration was a hybrid International Symposium on youth mental health, held in Grande Prairie Alberta. The well-attended symposium presented research outcomes focused on youth mental health and wellness from the CYMH Project and included youth-led session on the importance of sharee spaces on Youth Mental Wellness. The event also featured sharing and discussion by youth and their parents and presentations from non-profit, social service organizations in Canada and in Asia.
Illustration: Ginette Crichlow
Annual Growth
2024 New Global Engagement Strategy launched
2024 Faculty hosts international Transforming Masculinities conference
2024 MSW specialization in International Social Development created
2024 2024 Faculty prepares to host 7th International Indigenous Voices in Social Work Conference
2024 Faculty Global Engagement Strategy finalized and launched
2024 Information sessions for prospective students in Uganda and Pakistan
2024 Reimagined International Social Development MSW specialization launched
2023 Transformative Social Work, a new journal developed by an international editorial team and hosted by out faculty.
2023 Faculty hosts international symposium on youth mental health
2023 Global framework for interpersonal violence prevention work created
2016 Faculty chosen to host 2020 International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) Social Work and Social Development (SWSD) Conference
2016 Faculty hosts International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect conference
1993 Faculty establishes Canada’s first international social work specialization
1988 Dr. Gayle Gilchrist James, PhD first Canadian to be elected IFSW president
1984 Faculty leads Canada’s first international social work conference
Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) Signed
We continue to forge connections with other post-secondary institutions around the world:
2024
- University of Gondar, Ethiopia
- Karabuk University, Turkey
2023
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
2017
- Sun Yat-Sen University, China
- South China Agricultural University