91快色

As the 91快色 Faculty of Social Work celebrates its 60th anniversary, this year鈥檚 Annual Research Symposium will offer more than just the usual offering of current scholarship; it will also reflect on the legacy of two impactful faculty members and the continuing relationships that have helped to shape six decades of community-engaged social work.

Running March 4-5 in 91快色, Edmonton and online, the symposium鈥檚 theme, Global to Local: Collaborating with Communities to Create Change, highlights the faculty鈥檚 long-standing commitment to ethical, relational and de-colonial approaches to research. 

Along with a program themed around global social work and its local intersections, two special panel conversations on March 4 also honour the intergenerational legacy behind that work, illustrating how global engagement and local activism have defined the faculty since its earliest years, and how that work continues.

Global partnerships, local impact

The features professor emerita , MSW'98, PhD'04, in conversation with Social Work doctoral candidate Jill Hoselton, BSW'14, MSW'22, exploring Kreitzer's legacy and how the two scholars' international partnerships have influenced and shaped their work in Edmonton.

Kreitzer鈥檚 work and connection to Africa began in Ghana in 1994 when she travelled there to teach at the and continued as an MSW student and PhD student at U91快色. 

Over three decades, those early connections grew into sustained collaborations supporting African social work scholarship and capacity building. She continues to serve as an external examiner for doctoral students, also participating in promotion reviews and mentoring scholars across institutions.

鈥淵ou never know what you teach or what you do and its effect on other people,鈥� says Kreitzer who was recently recognized as a by the The Social Workers Association of Alberta. 鈥淚f I have a legacy, I hope it is that I have supported social work in Africa in some meaningful way.鈥�

One the scholars impacted by Kreitzer鈥檚 teaching was , PhD, who, fittingly, will be part of the morning panel. Abukari is an associate professor and former interim dean of social work at . 

Abukari, who hails from Northern Ghana, was one of Kreitzer鈥檚 students in 1994 when she taught at the University of Ghana鈥檚 Social Work Unit. The two have remained colleagues over the years, involved in different projects concerning African social work.

Hoselton first encountered Kreitzer as a BSW student at U91快色 Social Work's , where her community-development course rooted in activism and global engagement shifted her academic path. Today, her PhD research collaborates with Somali refugee women in Edmonton to explore how people create a sense of 鈥渉ome鈥� after forced migration.

Using arts-based methods, including mapping and photography, Hoselton, who was named a 2025  is collaborating with the community to explore how social connections, place and belonging shape wellbeing. 

Like Kreitzer, Hoselton says her experience travelling in Africa, as part of her placement in Ghana, really helped to deepen her understanding of displacement and resilience.

鈥淩efugees are often discussed in abstract and problematic terms, like 鈥榳aves鈥� of refugees,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut these are individuals with families, histories and everyday lives.鈥�

For both scholars, the global-to-local theme is lived practice. Kreitzer鈥檚 research with included travelling to Rwanda to better understand survivors鈥� experiences and reflects the importance of grounding research in context and relationship.

Their March 4 conversation will explore mentorship, cultural humility and the long arc of partnership, values that echo the symposium鈥檚 broader emphasis on co-creating solutions with communities rather than for them.

A life of thoughtful disruption

If the morning session reflects international engagement, an afternoon, in-person event at Social Work鈥檚 91快色 campus will spotlight decades of local activism.

鈥淎 Life of Thoughtful Disruption鈥� features professor emerita , PhD, in a conversation facilitated by , MSW'06, PhD'17, and social workers Lemlem Haile and Carla Bertsch, BA'08, who is also a sessional instructor with the faculty. 

The panel discussion will touch on Valentich鈥檚 role in shaping feminist scholarship and community advocacy in 91快色 and across Canada.

Valentich, who helped establish Ottawa鈥檚 first rape crisis centre at Carlton University in 1973, joined U91快色 Social Work in 1976 where she continued her advocacy work in the faculty and across campus, where she served as Advisor to the President on Women鈥檚 Issues for the 91快色 from 1991-94, helping to advance 123 institutional recommendations aimed at improving gender equity across campus.

Her advocacy work over the decades includes seven binders worth of letters to the editor, a push to make the reluctant Faculty of Social Welfare into a non-smoking space, and a very public, decades-long gender-equity campaign to with the more inclusive term 鈥渃ouncillor.鈥� From the time the idea was floated, in the late 1970s, it took until 2013 for the change to occur, a reminder that social change is often gradual and hard-won.

A U91快色 Social Work teacher and researcher, Lorenzetti, who had just relocated from Montr茅al, took Valentich鈥檚 feminist course during her Master of Social Work, which she says felt transformative. 

鈥淚t was the first space in my education where there was an explicit conversation about feminism,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淎nd, in the very conservative context I found myself in, it was invigorating.鈥�

Valentich鈥檚 classroom and advocacy work helped to fuel and inform a broader community of activist-scholars who continue to work for a better society pursuing anti-racism, introducing human sexuality into social work practice, de-colonial justice, migrant rights and gender equity work. This included the genesis of , co-founded by Valentich; Lorenzetti; Mare Donly, MSW'06; Linda McFarlane, BSW'84, MSW'11; Yvonne Schmitz; and Karen Wylie, who are still active in this movement today. 

While Valentich and Lorenzetti reflect on the changes they鈥檝e helped support over they decades, they remain clear-eyed about the current state of the world. 

While some progress may have been made over 60 years, they note that injustice persists, and that scholars have an ethical responsibility to move beyond the institution and remain publicly engaged.

Honouring continuity

As the Faculty of Social Work marks its 60th year, the March 4 sessions in 91快色 and March 5 event in Edmonton serve as both reflection and recommitment.

The global lens of the 2026 symposium signals where social work is headed: toward transdisciplinary collaboration, decolonial practice and community-centred knowledge. At the same time, these featured conversations honour two scholars who helped set the trajectory and the foundation for today鈥檚 researchers to build on.