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Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters
(CRSCAD)
in collaboration with
University College
University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Online 18-Credit Multidisciplinary Graduate Certificate
Global Post-Disaster Studies
Reconstruction with Vulnerable Populations
http://uc.umb.edu/certificates/global-post-disaster/
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Global Post-Disaster Studies - Reconstruction with Vulnerable Populations
The Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters (CRSCAD), in collaboration
with University College, offers an 18-credit multidisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program in
Global Post-Disaster Studies with a focus on Reconstruction with Vulnerable Populations.
This is an extension of the work done by CRSCAD and is in response to the strong desire of
many governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as other organizations to have access
to an academic program that addresses the question of what to do AFTER emergency relief
leaves the disaster scene. The program is aligned with the University’s mission to foster studies
situated among many disciplines and to advance a productive, equitable and sustainable world.
The certificate deliberately focuses on multidisciplinary contributions with support and
teaching from a variety of faculty within several colleges and departments at the University of
Massachusetts Boston. The Program can be completed totally online. Some on-campus courses
are available. It can be accomplished on either a full-time or part-time basis.
Briefly, the certificate includes 6 courses that approach disaster reconstruction from multiple
perspectives: the social contract and its interaction with those most vulnerable, the effects of
climate and population on both disaster and disaster relief, migration, human dignity, human
rights, and sustainable food systems. There are strong political, social, community, economic,
and management dimensions to the program which should provide the following (amongst
others) with the urgently needed advanced training in post-disaster management and practices:
Professionals in Disaster Relief Agencies, Government Agencies, Non-Profit and For-Profit
organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Multilateral Agencies, and other similar
bodies; Graduates from different academic and professional backgrounds who are interested in
planning a career in post-disaster community rebuilding; and, graduate students (in American
and overseas universities) who may need some of the courses or the whole certificate to fulfill
their degree requirements. Graduates from this Certificate Program could volunteer/undertake
short internships or even find employment in several organizations which work in areas related
to humanitarian emergencies and rebuilding after disasters in the USA and internationally.
To be eligible, an applicant for the graduate certificate program must have earned a
bachelor’s degree or its equivalent; Submit a completed online Graduate Admissions Form;
Submit a copy of a resume; Submit official transcripts from every institution previously
attended; Submit a TOEFL score that meets the requirements of the University for graduate
study; Arrange for an interview by phone or online with program staff; Have access to computer
technology necessary for online study; Submit two letters of recommendation and a statement of
interests/Intent to the UMass Boston Office of Graduate Admissions and Records.
. . .. CRSCAD’s 2008 International Conference on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with Children and their families
after Disasters
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Courses The program requires the successful completion of 6 courses (18 credit hours): 3 required and 3
electives..
Required courses CRSCAD 501: Social Vulnerability to Disasters (3 credits)
CRSCAD 502: Climate change, Global food and Water resources (3 credits)
CRSCAD 503: Topics in Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters (3 credits)
Electives CRSCAD 521: Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Sustainable Post-Disaster
Reconstruction (3 credits)
CRSCAD 522: Migrants and Refugees (3 credits)
More elective courses in development, such as: Climate Change: Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation (3 credits)
Survival Skills for the 21st Century: Developing Personal, Organizational and Community
Resilience (3 credits)
Humanistic Approaches to Natural Disaster: The Law, Literature, and Rhetoric of Disaster
Political Economy of International Migration
Course descriptions
CRSCAD 501: Social Vulnerability to Disasters
The course brings disaster social science to the next generation of disaster managers to help build
a science-based and human rights approach to risk reduction. While many approaches to social
vulnerability exist, we will take a sociological approach that sees social vulnerabilities as social
productions which may be reflected, reinforced and contested in disasters, and can be reduced
through disaster management. Readings and discussion, primarily but not exclusively focused on
the United States and similar societies, introduce students to the growing body of literature on
factors shaping social vulnerability to hazards and disasters, and hence to disaster resilience.
Rather than examining “special needs” we take an approach that looks for intersecting patterns of
power and privilege, vulnerability and capacity in everyday life, which then positions individuals
and groups differently in the face of natural, technological and human-induced hazards which
may then become disasters.
CRSCAD 502: Climate Change, Global food and Water Resources
This course will examine the causes and consequences of climate change with a special focus on
food and water resources. It will analyze proposals to prevent and mitigate global warming with
both proactive and responsive policies. The course will investigate policy changes to our world
agricultural systems that will promote long term food and water security. Weekly case studies
will supplement reading assignments and facilitate discussions centered on the current issues.
Through this course students will gain a working knowledge of the politics, economics, and
science affecting water and food issues. Economics is vitally important and at the core of many
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of our most challenging food and water problems and solutions, hence, natural resource
economics will be a major part of this course.
CRSCAD 503: Topics in Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters
This course focuses on guided project on a topic selected by the student and approved by the
program director. Suggested topics include: what happens after the cameras leave?; social
vulnerability analysis; theoretical and policy debates; the roles of public, private and community-
based organizations in rebuilding post-disaster; physical, social, economic, and political
dimensions of post-disaster recovery planning and policies; analysis of post-disaster urban
reconstruction and recovery planning processes; urban design; physical planning;
neighborhood/community planning; architectural design for different building types; policy
formulation and implantation strategies; landscape design; rebuilding and revitalization of
historic sites; housing rehabilitation program; socio-economic development programs (rural,
urban district or regional); community needs assessment; evaluation of recovery programs;
capacity building; the role of vulnerable populations (for example, the elderly, disabled people,
children, women, marginalized people) in the development and implementation of reconstruction
plans; information needs and the role of the media during and after disasters; and, community
resiliency.
CRSCAD 521: Human Dignity, Human Rights and Sustainable Post-disasters
Reconstruction
Understanding the intersecting dynamics of human dignity, humiliation, and human rights in
today’s world is crucial for those working in post-disaster reconstruction. Greater awareness of
human rights ideals brings to the forefront the risk that post-disaster strategies and responses,
once accepted and considered helpful, are perceived as deeply humiliating. This course will
explore how globalization dramatically alters how we engage in helping relationships at all
levels. It proposes that post-disaster reconstruction can be an opportunity to implement
innovative and sustainable solutions that support the healing, health, and dignity of all involved
in post-disaster recovery.
CRSCAD 522: Migrants and Refugees
This course will provide you with a broad overview of challenges faced by migrant and refugee
populations that have been displaced by socio-political upheavals and natural disasters. The
course will also introduce you to legal and sociological definitions of immigrant and refugee
populations and to key issues in recent debates over immigrant and refugee rights in
international, European and North American law. One of the goals of this review is to sensitize
you to the way that definitions of immigrants and refugees (and definitions of particular
categories of refugees) can be influenced by a variety of cultural, political and economic factors.
The class will also explore the conditions that lead people to become displaced. Students will be
introduced to the concept of the “stateless population.” We will examine how and why some
stateless populations become migrant and refugee populations (and why some do not). We will
also explore several different kinds of stateless/displaced migrant and refugee populations
including: populations displaced by war and other forms of political turmoil (such as refugees
from the US-Iraq war), populations displaced by natural disasters (such as the South Asian
tsunami, the Haitian earthquake), populations displaced by changing environmental conditions
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that are being caused by global emissions and consumption patterns (such as climate refugees in
South Asia) and populations displaced by dire economic conditions (such as African asylum
seekers in Europe).
Climate Change: Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation
The theme of this course will be to address the two main imperatives in a climatically changed
world: avoid conditions that will be unmanageable and manage the changes that will be
unavoidable. The course will begin with a historical perspective of the variability in earth’s
climate, an explanation of factors affecting climate such as the Greenhouse Effect, and a critique
of current evidence indicative of global warming. To avoid catastrophic changes in earth’s future
climate, mitigation strategies involving transportation, energy, agriculture, innovative
technologies, legislation, cooperation between developing and developed nations, and individual
responsibility will be explored. Specific strategies such as smart grid, non-carbon sources of
energy, new technologies, carbon sequestration, cap and trade, and lifestyle changes will be
investigated. To manage new climate conditions, adaptive measures will be necessary. The
course will evaluate adaptive strategies to address rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and
shifting rainfall patterns. These strategies include infrastructure modification, coastal
fortification, wetlands and coral reef restoration, and the need to develop water tolerant and
drought resistant crops. The students will conclude the course with an assessment of their own
carbon footprint.
Survival Skills for the 21st Century: Developing Personal, Organizational and Community
Resilience
This course will examine resilience and the power to adapt to stress, adversity and trauma.
Coping with and managing tragedy and crisis is important to the individual, his/her family and
friends, employment and other relationships that are part of our lives.
Humanistic Approaches to Natural Disaster: The Law, Literature, and Rhetoric of Disaster
This course addresses narratives of natural disaster from a Humanities perspective—paying
particular attention to the formation of legal, literary, and political subjects in the rhetoric
surrounding disaster. A great deal has been written over the past decade about subjects in
emergency, crisis, or disaster. Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception and Homo Sacer, for
example, have been influential in historically situating the politics of the emergency. Judith
Butler’s early work on the gendered subject has likewise served as a foundation for more recent
analyses, broadly conceived, of fractured identities during moments of crisis. A more empirical
study, Kevin Rozario’s The Culture of Calamity, convincingly argues that American progress
narratives have been the product of a 200 year old rhetoric of disaster. Since the Indian Ocean
Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, studies of disaster have become increasingly sophisticated and
increasingly widespread.
This course will take this growing field of literature as a starting point in order to describe,
discuss, and occasionally challenge the links that have been formed between states of
emergency, crisis, or disaster on the one hand and subject formation on the other. In the process,
it will question the idea that the shattered subject of crisis or disaster is a pessimistic figure—an
unintended by-product of what is usually seen as a failure of democratic political theory—and
instead propose that this subject is very much central to democratic engagement.
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Political Economy of International Migration
Increased economic pressure has lead to a mass movement of peoples both inside of countries
and across borders. This course focuses on the migration of individuals across national borders.
This migration has not come without a cost to both the host and sending countries. The tensions
caused by the experience of migration makes its investigation a difficult task, as people’s bias
frequently shapes their perceptions of the causes and effects of migration. This course attempts
to examine the economic causes and outcomes of international migration from both the pro- and
anti-migrant perspective. The arguments of both sides have merit and deserve consideration, no
matter our personal disposition toward the topic. Our goal is to develop a better understanding
of both sides of the argument to gain a clearer insight into this important world phenomenon.
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the major issues associated with the economic
causes and consequences of migration. Students will first gain an understanding of the theoretical
reasons why people migrate. Many of these reasons are economic, both on the micro- and macro-
level, but the resulting dynamic is a lasting relationship between the sending and receiving
countries. We will be interested in the demographic profile of migrant populations. Their
differences from the host country’s population will help determine their reception and economic
contribution. Each week in our discussions we will focus on a different topic of the migration
experience.
CRSCAD’s international Conference on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People
after Disasters held at the University of Massachusetts Boston, July 12-15, 2010.
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Faculty They include the following individuals. Their biographical sketches are in the Appendix.
Professor Adenrele Awotona, PhD., is the Director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable
Communities after Disasters.
Michael Britton, Ed.D., Ph.D., is a practicing psychologist
Jennifer Janisch Clifford, Ph.D. is an environmental and natural resource economist
specializing in economic valuation, resource conservation, and incentive instruments
Elaine Enarson is a leading American disaster sociologist.
Phillip Granberry, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Faculty at UMass Boston and a social demographer
who specializes in unauthorized immigration.
William G. Hagar, Ph.D, is an Associate Dean in the College of Science and Mathematics
and a tenured professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts
Boston
Linda Hartling, Ph.D, is the past Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training
Institute at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Boston, Massachusetts,
the largest women’s research center in the United States.
Philip Kretsedemas, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of
Massachusetts Boston.
Ruth Miller, PhD, is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts
Boston.
Jean Rhodes, Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a
Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research and
Community Action, and a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation
Russell K. Schutt, Ph.D, is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of
Massachusetts, Boston, where he has also served as Graduate Program Director. He received
the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service.
Irwin Silverstein, PhD, has over 25 years of experience as a professional engineer managing
soil and groundwater investigations and remediation at sites impacted by commercial and
industrial activities.
Nina M. Silverstein, Ph.D., is Professor of Gerontology at the University of Massachusetts
Boston, College of Public and Community Service. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological
Society of America.
Ulrich (Uli) Spalthoff (Dr. rer. nat.) is the Director of Media Development for Human
Dignity and Humiliation Studies and a former Director of Advanced Technologies at Alcatel-
Lucent in Germany and France.
Program Staff Professor Adenrele Awotona, Director of CRSCAD
Jennifer Brunson Parrado, Research Assistant
Amanda Achin, Internet Media and Research Assistant
Angela Castillo, Administrative Assistant
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About the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Center
for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters
University of Massachusetts Boston
Founded in 1964, the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), one of five campuses
of the University of Massachusetts system, is nationally recognized as a model of excellence for
urban universities. The institution’s mission is to promote access and opportunity for all and to
respond effectively to the educational needs of a diverse student population in an urban setting.
The institution, which enrolls more than 15,000 students each year, offers liberal arts and
professional programs on the graduate and undergraduate levels, with doctoral programs
addressing issues of particular importance to urban environments and people. Our curricula,
pedagogical approaches, and financial and academic support services address the specific needs
both of traditional and nontraditional students from varied social, cultural, and ethnic
backgrounds.
The Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters (CRSCAD)
works in close collaboration with practitioners, academics, researchers, policy makers and
grassroots organizations in the United States of America and globally in their search for the most
appropriate and sustainable ways to rebuild their communities after disasters. It assists local,
national and international agencies as well as the victims of disasters to develop practical and
long-term solutions to the social, economic and environmental consequences of disasters. It
provides expert advice and training to communities which have been devastated by disasters. It
hosts international scholars, for specified periods of time, who wish to work on the problems
which they consider essential to the rebuilding of their communities after disasters. It also assists
with building local capacity to address the horrendous consequences of the various forms of
disaster which millions of people face every year, everywhere. The Center engages in innovative
research on various disaster-related topics with a focus on vulnerable populations (disabled
people, the elderly, children, women, the poor, minorities, etc.)
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CRSCAD’s international Conference on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People
after Disasters held at the University of Massachusetts Boston, July 12-15, 2010.
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CRSCAD’s 2008 Workshop on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Indonesia after the Tsunami
Bottom Right: Chancellor J. Keith Motley with University of As-Syafi’iyah Rector Tutty Alawiyah
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1 2
3 4
5 6 CRSCAD’s 2007 International Conference on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities in Iraq
Photo 1: CRSCAD Director Professor Adenrele Awotona with Dr. Rajaa Al-Khuzai, a former member of the Iraqi
National Assembly
Photo 2: Chancellor J. Keith Motley, Professor Adenrele Awotona and the Indonesian delegation
Photo 3: A section of conference participants
Photo 4: Dr. Riadh Tappuni, Former Coordinator of the Iraq Task Force and Leader of the Urban Development &
Housing Policies Team at the United Nations
Photo 5: Dr. Morad Abou-Sabe', Former President & Assistant Chancellor, Misr University for Science &
Technology, Cairo, Egypt
Photo 6: Dr. Abdul Hadi Al Khalili, a neurosurgeon and the Cultural Attaché of the Iraq Embassy in Washington
D.C.
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CRSCAD’s April 2010 International Workshop on “After the Cameras have gone – Rebuilding Sustainable
Communities in Haiti after the January 12th
Earthquake”
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1
2
3
4
5 6 CRSCAD’s 2008 International Conference on Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with Children and their families
after Disasters
Photo 2: Keynote speaker Professor Kai T. Erikson (left); Photo 3: Keynote speaker Governor Scott McCallum;
Photo 4: Professor Russell Schutt (second from left) and other participants; Photo 5: Keynote speaker Mark Sloan;
Photo 6: Panelists YinYin Zeng and Beryl Cheal
______________________________________________________________________________
Contact us For more information on CRSCAD, please visit:
http://www.rebuilding.umb.edu/ OR
Telephone: 617.287.7116; E-mail: [email protected]
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Appendix Biographical Sketches of Program Faculty
Adenrele Awotona is a professor of architecture and urban students. He is
the director of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after
Disasters. He has been a principal investigator on major projects funded by
various agencies, including the Boston Foundation, the U.S. Department of
Energy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S.
Department of Education, the British Government Department for
International Development, the United Nations Center for Human
Settlements, the United Nations Development Program, and the European
Union. Through research, consultancy and teaching, he has professional
experience in several countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East,
South America, and the Caribbean. He earned his Doctorate degree from
the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is the former Dean of
the College of Public and Community Service at UMass Boston. He has
been a reviewer of grants’ applications for the Office of University
Partnerships in the United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development as well as the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Professor
Awotona has published extensively.
Michael Britton, Ed.D., Ph.D., is a practicing psychologist and scholar
who conducted interview research with retired U.S. military
commanders/planners who had dealt with nuclear weapons during the Cold
War, exploring their experience of the moral responsibilities involved. He
has lectured internationally on the implications of neuroscience for our
global future, and provides training for conflict resolution specialists on
applications of neuroscience to their work.
Jennifer Janisch Clifford, Ph.D. is an environmental and natural resource
economist specializing in economic valuation, resource conservation, and
incentive instruments. An economic consultant on environmental
conservation projects, Jennifer has worked on several water projects,
including coastal zone and coral reef protection for the government of
Belize, benefit cost analysis of the Charles River cleanup, and a major
contingent valuation study of the Miyun Reservoir for the Chinese
government. Currently she is teaching semester-long courses in
environmental economics, natural resources and sustainable development,
environmental policy, and economic theory at the University of
Massachusetts-Boston, Harvard Summer School, and Harvard University
extension school’s graduate program in Sustainability & Environmental
Management and presenting environmental economics seminars for
intensive executive education programs at the Kennedy School of
Government.
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Elaine Enarson is a disaster sociologist whose personal experience in
hurricane Andrew sparked extensive work on gender, vulnerability and
community resilience. Now an independent scholar based in Colorado, she
co-founded the global Gender and Disaster Network and the US-based
Gender and Disaster Resilience Alliance. Elaine was lead course developer
of a FEMA course on social vulnerability, and initiated and directed a
grassroots risk assessment project with women in the Caribbean as well as
the on-line Gender and Disaster Sourcebook project. She consults
internationally on gender and disaster risk reduction, develops gender
mainstreaming materials and teaches on-line for US and Canadian
universities. She is now writing on gender, climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction. Her monograph on Women and Disaster Resilience
in the United States is under development and she is co-editor of Women,
Gender and Disaster: Global Issues and Initiatives and of the forthcoming
reader The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race and Class Matter in an
American Disaster.
Phillip Granberry, Ph.D., Public Policy, is an Adjunct Faculty at UMass
Boston. He is a social demographer who specializes in unauthorized
immigration. He worked with various community-based organizations
assisting recently arrived U.S. immigrants before earning a Ph.D. in 2007.
His dissertation, “The Formation and Effects of Social Capital among
Mexican Immigrants” examined how unauthorized Mexican immigrants
accumulate social capital in the United States, and how it helps explain
both their economic and health outcomes. He holds a M.A. in Theology
and a M.T.S. in Pastoral Studies from St. Meinrad School of Theology.
William G. Hagar is an Associate Dean in the College of Science and
Mathematics and a tenured professor in the Department of Biology at the
University of Massachusetts Boston. His research is centered on an
experimental approach to biochemical reactions and environmental
perturbations. The biochemical studies involve the use of instrumentation
to analyze plant protein complexes. The environmental monitoring work is
centered on measuring anthropogenic inputs on water systems, such as acid
precipitation on freshwater ponds and pools in Massachusetts.
Environmental monitoring includes development of on-site instrumentation
to monitor pH, temperature, and oxygen concentration, and also the
collection and analysis of freshwater organisms. Recently, this has
involved the use of stable isotope analysis of organisms in the water
systems to determine structure of food webs and possible effects of
anthropogenic inputs.
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Linda Hartling, Ph.D., who conducted the earliest research assessing the
experience of humiliation, is an expert on relational-cultural theory. She is
the past Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at
the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Boston,
Massachusetts, the largest women’s research center in the United States.
Philip Kretsedemas, a tenure-track faculty at UMass Boston, earned his
PhD in Sociology from the University of Minnesota in 1997 (and served as
a Diamond Postdoctoral Fellow in the Graduate Faculty of the New School
for Social Research, 1997-1998). His areas of specialization include
democracy and development in the Caribbean, US immigration policy and
immigration enforcement and North American (US and Canada) welfare
reform outcomes and social service needs for migrant populations. Dr.
Kretsedemas has published a number of journal articles on the subject of
immigration policy, immigrant racialization and marginality and the social
service needs of immigrant populations.
Ruth Miller joined the History Faculty in 2003 after receiving her B.A. in
History, with a Mathematics minor, from Mount Holyoke College, and her
Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. She is the author
of numerous books, journal articles, and chapters in the fields of law and
feminist theory. Her most recent book, Law in Crisis, draws on narratives
of earthquakes in Istanbul, San Francisco, and Tokyo to challenge
arguments that have posited the rational, bounded self as the normative
subject of law—it makes the case that law demands an ecstatic subject and
that natural disaster is the endpoint to law. Her current project, Seven
Stories of Threatening Speech: Women’s Suffrage Meets Machine Code,
re-reads the speech surrounding the nineteenth century women’s suffrage
movement in order to demonstrate the potential methodological benefits of
understanding harmful or violent language as a variation on machine code.
The book, under contract with the University of Michigan Press, tells a
familiar tale of the threats posed by speech, but from an unfamiliar vantage
point of information theory, computation, and code.
Jean Rhodes completed her Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology at
DePaul University and her clinical internship at the University of Chicago
Pritzker School of Medicine. She is a Fellow in the American
Psychological Association and the Society for Research and Community
Action, and a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation.
Rhodes is also a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood and Chair of
the Research and Policy Council of the National Mentoring Partnership.
She sits on the Board of Directors of the National Mentoring Partnership
and the Forum for Youth Investment on the Advisory Boards of many
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mentoring and policy organizations, and serves on the editorial boards of
several journals in community and adolescent psychology. Her book, Stand
by me: The risks and rewards of mentoring today's youth (Harvard
University Press) was recently issued in paperback.
Russell K. Schutt, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the
University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he has also served as Graduate
Program Director. He received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for
Distinguished Service. Since 1990, he has also been a Lecturer on
Sociology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School,
where he conducts research on mental health services and psychiatric
disability. His primary research foci are organizations and work, mental
health services, and legal processes; he is also an expert on the application
of social science research methods. His research on organizations and work
has focused on subjective reactions to work and the organization of work
in settings ranging from mental health, public health and public welfare
agencies to homeless shelters, vocational rehabilitation programs and the
construction trades. His research in mental health services has examined
the effects of the social environment on neurocognition, the housing
preferences of homeless mentally ill persons and their correspondence to
clinician preferences, and influences on housing loss. His latest book,
Homelessness, Housing and Mental Illness (Harvard University Press)
presents a theoretically-grounded multi-method analysis of housing
alternatives for homeless mentally ill adults and elucidates through that
analysis the importance of the development of community. He is the author
of a leading social science research methods text, Investigating the Social
World: The Process and Practice of Research, now in its 5th edition, and
three coauthored derivative versions for other disciplines. He is also author
of Organization in a Changing Environment: The Unionization of Welfare
Employees, coeditor of The Organizational Response to Social Problems,
and coauthor of Responding to the Homeless: Policy and Practice. In
addition, he has authored and coauthored more than 50 journal articles and
book chapters on homelessness, mental health, organizations, law, and
teaching research methods. His recent research projects include a National
Cancer Institute-funded study of community health workers’ orientations
to cancer clinical trials, co-directing a multi-method investigation of case
management in the Massachusetts Women’s Health Network program,
leading a large expert panel charged with improving that program, and
studying long-term effects of housing experiences among persons with
chronic mental illness. His recent scholarly articles have focused on the
impact of housing, vocational, and service options on the functioning of
persons diagnosed as severely mentally ill and on the housing preferences
and recommendations of homeless persons and service personnel. He has
also studied decision making in juvenile justice and in union admissions,
processes of organizational change; media representations of mental
illness; and HIV/AIDS prevention. Russell Schutt completed his B.A.,
M.A., and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a
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Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program
at Yale University.
Irwin Silverstein received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical
Engineering from the City College of New York and his Master’s and
doctorate in Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University.
Prior to working for several environmental consulting firms, he was an
instructor in the Civil Engineering Departments at Northeastern and Tufts
Universities. He has over 25 years of experience as a professional engineer
managing soil and groundwater investigations and remediation at sites
impacted by commercial and industrial activities. Recently, he completed a
two-year fellowship working for the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) as an American Association for the Advancement of
Science & Technology Policy Fellow. His work at EPA’s Water Security
Division and National Homeland Security Research Center helped to
evaluate how security for the water sector might be improved by
implementing strategies like backflow prevention and point-of-use/point-
of-entry treatment.
Nina M. Silverstein, Ph.D., is Professor of Gerontology at the
University of Massachusetts Boston, College of Public and
Community Service. She received her Ph.D. in 1980 from
Brandeis University. Since 1984, she has worked closely with the
Alzheimer’s Association on projects relating to the Association’s
Helpline, its Safe Return Program, respite care, support groups for
family caregivers, home safety adaptations, and environmental and
behavioral issues in special care units for people with dementia.
She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. In 2007
she was honored as the person of the year by the Alzheimer’s
Association, Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter. In 2008, she
received the Louis Lowy Award from the Massachusetts
Gerontology Association and was honored as the Foley Lecturer
by the Alzheimer’s Association, Cleveland Chapter. In 2010, she
received the David A. Peterson Award for best article in volume
for her paper on Exploring Livable Communities from the journal
Gerontology & Geriatrics Education.
Ulrich (Uli) Spalthoff (Dr. rer. nat.) Director of Media Development for
Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. Former Director of Advanced
Technologies at Alcatel-Lucent in Germany and France. As Director of
Advanced Technologies, his leadership included mentoring start-ups and
consulting high-tech companies in IT, telecommunication and
semiconductor industries from countries all over the world.
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Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters
(CRSCAD) University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Mission
The primary purpose of the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disasters
(CRSCAD) is to work in close collaboration with practitioners, academics, researchers, policy
makers and grassroots organizations in the United States of America and in all the continents of
the world in their search for the most appropriate and sustainable ways to rebuild their
communities after disasters. Examples of disasters are framed by bad governance and poverty,
environmental pollution, HIV/AIDS, wars, conflicts, severe weather-related events, earthquakes,
large-scale attacks on civilian populations, technological catastrophes, and influenza pandemics.
Scholarship, service, consultancy, workshops and training, outreach and education as well as
creative work are key components of CRSCAD’s mission.
We will accomplish our mission by
Engaging in multidisciplinary and cross disciplinary research activities
Promoting bottom-up community participatory approach as a means to improve top- down
national policy and program design and implementation
Organizing and hosting seminars, workshops and conferences on various aspects of post-
disaster reconstruction in partnership with public and private sector agencies in all the
continents of the world
Assisting local, national and international agencies as well as the victims of disasters to
develop practical, sustainable and long-term solutions to the social, economic and
environmental consequences of disasters
Providing expert advice and training to communities which have been devastated by disasters
Hosting international scholars, for specified periods of time, who wish to work on the
problems which they consider essential to the rebuilding of their communities after disasters
Assisting in building local capacity in the field of post-disaster reconstruction as well as in
technology transfer
Building strategic partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Grassroots
organizations, local and international research centers, among others.
Gender issues in disaster research, planning and practice
Vision
CRSCAD seeks to be recognized as one of the leading academic centers in the global
community addressing the issue of the creation of safe communities for vulnerable populations
after disasters, specifically children, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, national
minorities and the poor. It is a dynamic educational unit that cultivates alliances with local,
national and international agencies, government and academic institutions, NGOs, as well as
with for-profit and not-for-profit bodies which share common interests in the area of post-
disaster reconstruction globally.
For additional information, please kindly visit:
http://www.rebuilding.umb.edu/