During World War II, nearly 120,000 individuals thought to have “Japanese ancestry” in the United States were removed from their homes, incarcerated, and resettled. Social workers were involved in this federal program, underscoring the tension between our profession’s values and its professional functions that can enable injustice and actualize social biases.
On Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, UNC School of Social Work will host “Facilitating Injustice: The Complicity of Social Workers in the Forced Removal and Incarceration of Japanese Americans,” a Zoom event featuring guest speaker Yoosun Park, Ph.D., MSW, an associate professor at Smith College School for Social Work. The event is 5-6:30 p.m., free, and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Smith P. Theimann Jr. Distinguished Professorship.
Park’s scholarship, framed within the broad substantive area of immigration, pursues two overlapping lines of inquiry: social work’s history with immigrants and the issue of immigration. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Washington.