Social Work's 12th Annual Diversity lecture looks at race, violence and community

Teresa Méndez, a clinical social worker in private practice in Baltimore and director of the Baltimore Psychotherapy Institute, will deliver the Wayne State School of Social Work's 12th Annual Diversity Lecture entitled "The Psychology of a City: Race, Violence, and Community." The lecture will take place on Thursday, March 22 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the university's Community Arts Auditorium.

A former journalist, Méndez publishes and presents on the intersection of race, ethnicity, and culture, with a special interest in mixed-race identities. Inspired by her efforts to make sense of the racial violence in her community, "The Psychology of a City" asks: How can a city, group, or individual carry the unbearable feelings for a country, and how do we begin to work with this in treatment? The lecture, which is presented by Social Work's Office of Continuing Education, will help participants articulate some common defenses against discussing race, describe how racism enacts erasure, psychic violence, and trauma, and consider how "the psychology of place" contributes to trauma.

Méndez, who is president-elect of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, received her Master of Social Work from the Smith College School for Social Work, where she is on the clinical faculty. She is consulting editor to Psychoanalytic Social Work, a publication founded by Wayne State Interim Social Work Dean Jerrold Brandell, and has presented to diverse audiences across the United States.

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The Michigan Social Work Continuing Education Collaborative has approved this lecture for 2 Continuing Education contract hours at a cost of $10 under CE Approval # MICEC-0058. No pre-registration is required, simply register directly before the lecture at the auditorium and receive your CE certificate following the event. For more information, contact Lauree Emery, Social Work's director of continuing education, at ab7097@wayne.edu.

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