Region 5 Presents: Decolonizing Social Work Book Club Series (EXTENDED THROUGH DECEMBER 2025!)

The Decolonizing Social Work Book Club Meets virtually the 3rd Wednesday of each month concluding in December 2025. 1 CE Credit is available for licensed attendees per session. Presented by Chris Fike, Region 5 Representative on the NASW-MI Board of Directors.

Decolonization in social work is the undoing of hegemony, the latter being the process whereby white supremacist values impregnated foundational social work theories, research, and practices. In recognizing that white supremacy is a mechanism of social control, that our current social structure is grounded in liberal-patriarchal capitalism, and that social work confirms to prevailing social norms, we, as social workers, must acknowledge our complicity in perpetuating a white supremacist ideology (Crudup, Fike, & McLoone, 2021; Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014). One strategy for disrupting white supremacy in social work is to develop a counter-narrative (Crudup, et al., 2021; Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014), a history that details the experiences of perspectives of those who have been oppressed, excluded, and silenced.

The voices highlighted in this book club offer counter-narrative perspectives across a range of issues and topics immediately relevant to social work.

Register for individual meetings by clicking below:

June 18, 2025: Abolition and Social Work: Possibilities, Paradoxes, and the Practice of Community Care by Mimi E. Kim, Cameron Rasmussen, & Durrell M. Washington (Part 3)

July 16, 2025: Abolition and Social Work: An Abolitionist’s Handbook by Patrisse Khan-Cullors

August 20, 2025: Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies by Renee Linklater

September 17, 2025: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

October 15, 2025: Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies by Andrea Ritchie

November 19, 2025: Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba

December 17, 2025: Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in this Crisis by Dean Spade