Mimi Abramovitz
Mimi Abramovitz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Michigan (BA in sociology, 1963); Columbia University (MSW, 1967; PhD, 1981) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, educator, advocate |
| Employer | Hunter College School of Social Work |
| Known for | Advancing civil and welfare rights in the United States, with emphasis on women's issues |
| Title | Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Policy; Chair of Social Welfare Policy department |
| Awards | Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award (1977); Feminist Scholarship Award (2004); Distinguished Recent Contributions in Social Work Education Award (2004); Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (2015) |
Mimi Abramovitz is a prominent American writer, educator, and advocate dedicated to advancing civil and welfare rights in the United States, with a special emphasis on women's issues.
Education
Abramovitz completed her undergraduate studies in sociology at the University of Michigan in 1963. She then obtained a master's degree in social work in 1967 and later earned a Ph.D. in social work from Columbia University in 1981.
Career
While residing in New Haven, Connecticut, Abramovitz became involved with the American Independent Movement (AIM), an organization committed to challenging the concentration of wealth and power. She played a key role in founding New Haven Women's Liberation, which concentrated on welfare rights advocacy, organizing anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and supporting the unionization efforts of clerical staff at Yale University. Subsequently, she began her academic career teaching social welfare policy at Hunter College.
Alongside Jan Poppendeick and Melinda Lackey, Abramovitz co-created the Community Leadership course at Hunter College, integrating historical perspectives on activism with applied skills training. The trio also established the Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI), a grassroots student-led group that equips students who have experienced poverty with tools to enhance educational opportunities.
Abramovitz currently holds the Bertha Capen Reynolds Professorship of Social Policy and serves as chair of the Social Welfare Policy department within the Hunter College School of Social Work.
Awards and honors
- Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights' Outstanding Book award (1977) for Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States.
- Feminist Scholarship Award from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in 2004.
- Distinguished Recent Contributions in Social Work Education Award granted by CSWE in 2004.
- Elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare in 2015.
Books
- Regulating the lives of women: social welfare policy from colonial times to the present (South End Press, 1996)
- Under attack, fighting back: women and welfare in the United States (Monthly Review Press, 2000)
- Taxes are a woman's issue: reframing the debate (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2006), co-authored with Sandra Morgen
- The dynamics of social welfare policy (Oxford University Press, 2007), co-authored with Joel Blau
Chapters in books
- Abramovitz, Mimi. "The U.S. welfare state: a battleground for human rights." In Human rights in the United States: beyond exceptionalism, edited by Shareen Hertel and Kathryn Libal, 46–67. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 9781107400870.
Journal articles
- Acker, Joan. "The privatization of the welfare state: a review." Social Work, July 1986, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 257–264.
- Acker, Joan. "Should all social work students be educated for social change? Pro." Journal of Social Work Education, 1993, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 6–11.
- Acker, Joan. "Social work and social reform: an arena of struggle." Social Work, November 1998, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 512–526.
- Acker, Joan. "Everyone is still on welfare: the role of redistribution in social policy." Social Work, October 2001, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 297–308.
- Acker, Joan. "The largely untold story of welfare reform and the human services." Social Work, April 2005, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 175–186.
- Acker, Joan. "Welfare reform in the United States: gender, race and class matter." Critical Social Policy, May 2006, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 336–364.
External links
- Oral history interview with Abramovitz hosted by Columbia University
- Welfare Rights Initiative
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1941 births
- 21st-century American academics
- 21st-century American women writers
- American feminist writers
- American social workers
- Columbia University School of Social Work alumni
- Hunter College faculty
- CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies faculty
- Living people
- University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
- American women non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers