Behavioral Sciences

Serving women who’ve served their country

stuxbury — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:08:46 +0000

Serving women who’ve served their country stuxbury Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:08

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bipartisan bill to create a Michigan license plate for women veterans last November. The request for the license plate came from women veterans themselves — and grew from a 51��Ƶ-Dearborn-facilitated effort.

Students Katie Dreher and Hannah Stovall participated in the “Same Mission, Many Stories: Dialogues with Women Veterans” project at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn. They helped facilitate conversations with women veterans, giving them opportunities to share their experiences and listen to the stories of others. The students shared their findings at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency’s Women Veterans Conference in fall 2023.

“We presented a list of what women veterans wanted during a statewide veterans conference, including the license plate,” Dreher says. “These women have already given so much. I was proud to give them a voice in front of all those people.”

“Same Mission, Many Stories” — an initiative of Michigan Humanities’ Community Conversations program — took place at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn and Saginaw Valley State University in 2023 and included women veterans from all branches of the military.

At 51��Ƶ-Dearborn, 25 metro Detroit-area veterans participated in facilitated discussions — led by Professor of Sociology Francine Banner, Professor of Health and Human Services Lisa Martin and students — about challenges they faced while serving in the military. 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s Veterans Affairs Coordinator Tom Pitock reached out through his many military service-related networks across the state to let women veterans know about this opportunity.

Professor of Sociology Francine Banner

Martin — who is also 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s Women and Gender Studies program director — says the “Same Mission, Many Stories” project not only reached policymakers, it also documented the history of challenges facing women veterans. “We need to record these narratives to better understand people’s life experiences so that they can be properly addressed. With the erasure that is happening in today’s society, work like this is so important. We don’t want to lose history, even when it’s a difficult topic to look at. We need to learn from it,” says Martin, noting that all participating veterans were assured anonymity since many of them talked about traumatic experiences.

“These veterans have experienced difficult emotional fallouts from their workplace that includes silence, shame and isolation. Sharing stories in a group setting builds connection and trust and reduces isolation,” Martin continues.

Stovall, a senior who transferred to 51��Ƶ-Ann Arbor last year and is majoring in public health, says the six weeks of facilitation training and practice she received prepared her to guide discussions. Stovall learned methods to move conversations forward in engaging and productive ways, such as using open-ended prompts, demonstrating nonverbal cues like nodding, and redirecting discussions when they stray too far from the topic at hand. For example, Stovall and Dreher used a picture of a service person coming home from deployment and being greeted by family to encourage the veterans to open up about their experiences. Martin notes that this technique is one way to spark a deep, complex conversation without making any one person’s feel too vulnerable.

Professor of Health and Human Services Lisa Martin

Banner — who, along with Martin, supported the students during the sessions — says the photo elicited feelings of reconnection and concerns about reacclimation. It also brought up challenges women veterans face after coming home. “The need for child care and women's health care services was frequently brought up,” she says. “Many of the conversations had a similar theme — there need to be more resources that focus on the needs of women veterans.”

There are more than 230,000 women actively serving in the military today. “Women are serving in combat zones in very dangerous situations. When looking at the contemporary military and the women who are actively serving, that’s more than 17 percent, but they are still marginalized and their service is not recognized at the same level,” Banner says. “But they have challenges that men do not because they have to navigate a very masculine environment while in the service and afterward when working with the VA. As more women continue to join the military and serve their country, it’s important to look at ways to help these service members and veterans be supported and seen.”

Other recurring themes in the conversations included sexual harassment and assault, the improper fit of male-designed equipment, the job pressures of post-pregnancy weight loss, a lack of women-focused health care services and interacting with people who assume a male partner is the veteran.

Ashley Ross, the former director of programs and a current facilitator with Michigan Humanities, says the work that took place at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn impacted programming across the state. “During the 2023 conference, the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency took note. They realized that these conversations were getting people to listen and to share their needs. The MVAA became interested in expanding this work,” she says.

A second phase of the project will expand to all 10 of the MVAA’s regions — which covers the entire state — and will include additional underrepresented populations in the military. Banner will continue to be involved with the program as an advisor. “We are going to use the dialogue model we used at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn and expand it so we can bring different voices into the conversation, for example the experiences of African American veterans and LGBTQ veterans,” Banner says.

Ross says the intent is to continue to connect veterans with government agencies and policymakers. “We know that change cannot always be made, especially right away,” Ross says. “But if people listen to each other and a trust is built, more productive conversations can take place that can lead to a place of understanding. This project shows how important it is just to be heard and acknowledged.”

And that is where the license plate — which will be out in November 2025, according to the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency — comes in.

“The women wanted a license plate because it is one tangible way for these veterans to feel seen. One veteran told us about how she has a standard veterans license plate on her car and people often tell her to thank her husband for his service. When she shared her story, others said the same thing had happened to them,” says Dreher, who graduated with a degree in psychology last semester and is preparing for graduate school while working as a Michigan School of Medicine Research Assistant intern in pediatric neuropsychology.

Dreher and Stovall saw how beneficial the “Same Mission, Many Stories” project was and say it was a memorable experience that will guide them as they enter therapy-based careers in health settings.

“With a future career in public health, I want to learn about different interventions that benefit people — and veterans are such a huge part of the population,” Stovall says. “Hearing the experiences these women have had let me know that extra support is needed to lift them up. The ‘Same Mission, Many Stories’ program helped me see how I could do that by creating a community, encouraging people to share their stories and advocating for their needs.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Health and Human Services

Off

Wed, 03/26/2025 - 18:08

“Same Mission, Many Stories” gave women veterans a safe place to share their experiences and needs, while providing 51��Ƶ-Dearborn students with therapy-based skills to use in their future careers.

Students Hannah Stovall, left, and Katie Dreher participated in the “Same Mission, Many Stories" project. In this 2023 photo, they presented at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency’s Women Veterans Conference. Photo by Lisa Martin

Understanding cultural beliefs to bridge mental health literacy gaps

stuxbury — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 18:20:28 +0000

Understanding cultural beliefs to bridge mental health literacy gaps stuxbury Wed, 03/19/2025 - 14:20

Clinical Health Psychology graduate student Abirami Suthan is passionate about mental health. Many times, people can point to an accolade or interest that influenced their career choice. For Suthan, it was a person.

When Suthan was an undergraduate student and a resident assistant at the University of Toronto, she held weekly meetings. One of Suthan’s favorite residents, CJ, who was an international student from India, would always be there and ready to help. Then CJ stopped showing up. “When I noticed a shift in her behavior, I reached out. CJ told me she was having suicidal thoughts, but was fearful to seek help. When she was in high school in India, a teacher she confided in suspended CJ after she shared that she was having these thoughts,” says Suthan, who helped CJ make a counseling appointment and walked her to the first session. “CJ has since graduated and is now doing well. Years later, her experience still affects me. Being from the South Asian culture myself, I know how deeply stigma shapes our responses to suicide. I needed to do something more to address this."

Suthan — who was raised by Sri Lankan parents and grew up in a South Asian American neighborhood in Texas — says there's a pattern of silence and shame around mental health in her community. To address this, Suthan became focused on educating herself and others.

Suthan, who started at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn in Fall 2023 and has an undergraduate degree in psychology and anthropology, is working on her thesis, "Cultural Identity and Suicide in South Asian Americans." She’s looking at age, cultural perspectives, mental health literacy, societal stigma and more.

To do this, Suthan — who’s advised by Psychology Professor Nancy Wrobel — created a survey that asks a variety of questions aimed at South Asian American-identifying adults aged 18 to 60 to gauge what people believe about mental health and suicide and how it’s tied to their cultural identities. Her research work is funded by an EXP+ Graduate Student Independent Research grant, which allows Suthan to compensate survey participants for their time.

“I believe suicide prevention work in a community starts with destigmatization and understanding cultural beliefs,” says Suthan, who chose 51��Ƶ-Dearborn for graduate school because of the faculty expertise and its clinical-based experiences. “For example, if someone believes depression is due to laziness and can be fixed through working harder — that’s one belief I’ve heard in my community — mental health literacy efforts can be made to explain how conditions are biological and psychological.” She’s also looking at how South Asian and American identities can be at odds with one another — one is more of a collective mindset and the other is more about the individual, respectively — and ways to bring those closer together. “I want to know, ‘How can we balance the norms of both cultures?’”

Suthan says her research didn’t start with suicide in mind. It began with a curiosity about mental health resources and how much they were accessed by South Asian Americans. “There was quite a bit of research on this and it says access is minimal because there are lots of stigma barriers,” she says. “Then I noticed a huge literature gap on South Asian American beliefs about suicide — there’s barely anything out there. I wanted to help find answers.” Data about South Asian Americans and suicide was so scarce that she looked to the United Kingdom, a comparable Western society to the United States, for statistics. Suthan found that South Asians in the UK were three times more likely to commit suicide and South Asian women were 7.8 times more likely to inflict self-harm than their white counterparts. “I’m not entirely sure why there is a lack of data in the U.S.,” Suthan says. “But it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”

Suthan and her research took first place at the recent Three Minute Thesis Competition at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn. The competition, run by the Office of Graduate Studies, provides an opportunity for graduate-level students to share their research in three minutes or less in an uncomplicated and easy-to-understand way. Suthan will represent the university at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools regional competition from April 2 to 4 in Indianapolis. “I’m looking forward to representing 51��Ƶ-Dearborn and having a larger audience to talk with about this research gap in the South Asian American community and what I plan to do about it,” she says.

Suthan says she has identified participants for her survey, which will be sent out soon. And she’s hoping the answers show trends that will give insight for next steps in building bridges between the South Asian American community and mental health literacy.

Suthan has seen how education can open conversations to create change in her own family. When she first told her parents — who lived through the Sri Lankan Civil War — that she wanted to pursue a career in psychology, they had negative feelings about her working in mental health. But, knowing her parents' story about leaving their country because of a war and relocating nearly 10,000 miles away with nothing but hope for a better life, puts things in perspective. “Honestly, it helps me understand why mental health was put on the back burner for them. It was just about survival — it’s hard to think beyond that when your basic needs aren’t being met. Many people from South Asian communities have this type of trauma,” Suthan says. “But once things have stabilized, there is an opportunity to go beyond the physical needs.”

Now, Suthan says her mother sends her journal and magazine clippings about careers in suicide prevention and mental health. “It was once a topic that wasn’t discussed and now she is sending me articles and making comments on how interesting they are. She is now my biggest supporter. And my father, even though he was skeptical when I first chose this career path, is one of my biggest cheerleaders,” she says.

Suthan says she has hopes that educating the South Asian American community in a way that embraces cultural awareness will open doors for more South Asian therapists, more research studies and an increased acceptance of mental health needs.

These would all help to realize the ultimate goal of suicide prevention. “I love my community and I come from some very resilient people. But, even when we don’t talk about it, trauma still exists,” she says. “Imagine how much better life would be if we took care of each other now — before it is too late.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Research

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Wed, 03/19/2025 - 18:18

Three Minute Thesis Competition winner Abirami Suthan’s research looks to open doors for mental health care acceptance in South Asian American communities.

Graduate student Abirami Suthan won the 2025 Three Minute Thesis Competition at 51��Ƶ-Dearborn. Photo by Annie Barker

Who’s to blame?

kapalm — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:58:29 +0000

Who’s to blame? kapalm Fri, 10/11/2024 - 10:58

“Complicity” is a term used with increasing frequency in today’s society — applied to broad harms like the climate or opioid crises, but also a driving force in cancel culture. Calling out complicity can be a force for positive change, but it also can cause deep, and often unwarranted, damage to others.

Professor of Sociology Francine Banner’s latest book “Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems” (University of California Press) examines the complex role that complicity plays in U.S. law and in popular culture. Banner, who practiced as an attorney before receiving her doctorate, recently discussed the reasons most people tend to focus on individuals, rather than institutions, when making accusations of complicity. She also reflected on the significance of this “threshold moment” where — driven by movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo — this tendency appears to be shifting.

“Complicity” is a very powerful – and, as you point out, very broadly used – term in today’s society. What are some of the productive ways the concept is being applied or thought about?

We're in a space of radical reimagining about accountability and responsibility in the world right now. We’re also in a period where we're facing a lot of newly identified risks in the form of things like climate change, war and natural disasters. Long-term issues, like racism and sexism, are coming to the surface in new ways as well.

The idea of complicity can force the hand of institutions and corporations and governments, pressing them to be accountable for the role they have played in creating harms that we're facing today. For example, we see the Black Lives Matter movement demanding that state officials be held accountable for harms they've created through long-term discriminatory behavior and use of force. The #MeToo social movement is calling for, and succeeding in making, legislative changes.

Now, we also see institutions pushing back against social reforms and trying to place responsibility for addressing and controlling harms back on individuals. But the Black Lives Matter and #Me Too movements really have been an example of people coming to understand that the hazards we are facing today are about more than individual culpability. They are created by the government’s lack of investment in social services, ignoring ongoing risks and systematic mistreatment of certain populations. Calling out the government as complicit exposes this long-term and often hidden responsibility.

What are some of the harmful ways the idea of complicity is used?

I think the negative side of complicity really comes out in the interpersonal — things like cancel culture. Social media followers will be quick to blame a celebrity, for example, who may have nothing to do with a political cause, for not posting in solidarity with a particular position. And then we'll see this period of cancellation, where they'll lose fans or maybe be denied some opportunities. Then they apologize, and the cycle starts again. This is what happens when the public tries to address a systemic problem through stigmatization and not education.

You’ve talked about the fact that there is no concept of “uncomplicit.” How significant is this to the damage an accusation of complicity can cause?

Yes, something really interesting about complicity is there is no “uncomplicit.” It's not as though you can say, “Hey, now I solved this. I no longer have any hand in whatever crisis or harm is happening.” If we look at something like climate change, I would love to say, “I, Francine Banner, have no responsibility for climate change.” But, in fact, I'm drinking from a plastic cup right now, I commute to work in a gasoline-powered car. Even if I decide to stay silent and do nothing, I will probably be contributing to harm in some way. Now, is this as significant as what, say, ExxonMobil is doing? No. Do I know how to blame ExxonMobil? I do not. Do I know how to cancel Francine Banner? Yes, I do.

There are no boundaries to complicity — especially in the court of public opinion. But even in the law, there's not really any direct measure of how little or how much a person needs to do to become an accomplice. Current laws don’t draw a distinction — as they used to — between accessories-before-the fact and principals. Let's say there's a bank robbery. We're going to hold the person who held the door open as accountable as the person that cracked the safe, and as responsible as the person who actually put the gun to the clerk’s head. The law doesn't draw a distinction. Although at least the law has boundaries of constitutionality and proportionality.

On social media, on the other hand, there really aren’t boundaries. So we can have somebody who did something really, really bad, and they apologize and they stir up some goodwill in the public, and they come back from cancellation seemingly unharmed. Then we see someone who did something that we might think of as relatively minor, and for whatever reason, they're unable to rebound from that and suffer extreme consequences. There are intersectional factors at play — most often race and gender — but sometimes there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it, who stays canceled and who emerges bulletproof.

You talk in the book about society being at a “threshold moment” in terms of complicity. How did we arrive at this moment?

There are different periods of time in which there's more space for debate, often due to societies undergoing trauma. During and after World War II, people came to understand the extent to which other people were capable of doing horrible things. In the post-war period, the field of psychiatry expanded, because people were starting to understand post-traumatic stress, a concept that really hadn't existed before, for instance.

We can see Covid, I think, as a collective trauma that a lot of us went through and are still experiencing. After living through the pandemic,, there are new conversations happening. Right now, across the board, I think we've got people from all walks of life asking questions they wouldn't have been asking prior to 2020.

We're now at a point in our history where concepts and ideas that we would have seen as sedimented in other times are now more up for debate. Because of recent social movements more people are having conversations about different types of harms. We're seeing emotional harm being recognized, we have a concept of hate crimes, we are beginning to appreciate the impacts of collective, individual and inter-generational trauma. As a society, we understand mental health differently than 20 or 30 years ago. With this, we're rethinking how we identify harms and injuries and reconsidering how we need to address them. Thanks to recent social movements, we are debating topics we might not have talked about before, and we have more nuanced language to engage these complicated questions.

Has there been a backlash against this shift?

We are definitely seeing a walking back of some of the promises that were made as a result of the social movements that were so powerful in 2020. That's in part because it's really difficult to sustain the types of intense activism that people were engaging in. It's difficult to hold corporate and governmental feet to the fire. It’s also hard to keep sustained interest in one topic when there are so many other, urgent global problems. And there are really strong interests in keeping the status quo. When it comes down to it, it’s a lot easier to blame a challenging situation on, say, your neighbor who has a political sign you disagree with in their yard than it is to actually figure out who's responsible for the large-scale disasters we're facing and then hold the people that are really in power accountable in a tangible way.

So, what can people do so they do not become discouraged?

It can be easy to become paralyzed in the face of something so daunting. As soon as you start questioning the machine, you realize you're part of the machine. And I think it can be tempting to have self doubt, because, by its nature, the breadth of complicity means that we're all going to be complicit in something. However, as we recognize shortcomings — our own and others’ — it’s important not to become preoccupied with those and lose sight of the need to hold these larger systems and structures accountable. I think there are optimistic ways to look at this show of strength by the status quo. You could look at it as institutional power, but you can also look at it as a recognition of the power that the opposition has.

###

Interview by Kristin Palm

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Tue, 10/15/2024 - 13:51

'Complicity' is a potent term these days. Sociology Professor and 2024 Susan B. Anthony Campus Award winner Francine Banner explores how its use can cause great damage — or be a force for change.

Professor of Sociology Francine Banner

Moving past Pantsuit Nation

kapalm — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 19:18:54 +0000

Moving past Pantsuit Nation kapalm Wed, 10/02/2024 - 15:18

By the time Kamala Harris formally accepted her nomination as the second female major-party presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention, it was clear much had changed since the campaign of her predecessor, Hillary Clinton. Professor of Sociology Pamela Aronson is especially attuned to what is different this time around. The author of “Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life," Aronson has extensively researched voters’ opinions on the gender self-presentations of political candidates. She also studies Gen Z — one of the most-sought after voting blocs for both presidential candidates. Her latest project examines the influence of reproductive freedom concerns in the 2022 and 2024 elections. She recently talked to Reporter about her research and what she's been observing since Harris' surprise entrance into the race in July.

What has shifted with the way women candidates present themselves now, as compared with 2016 when Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee?

Let's just take the example of pantsuits, which sounds very trivial. But it's something that is symbolic of how we think about women candidates. And so, when Hillary Clinton ran in 2016, the symbol of that pantsuit was huge. For her supporters, especially women, that pantsuit meant they were going to elect and support a woman candidate. Whereas opponents were calling out her pantsuit: Why is she wearing this? Why is she not wearing a skirt suit, which is what we expect from women in politics? So when we think about Kamala Harris as a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and then, subsequently, the vice presidential candidate, at this point, no one is talking about pantsuits anymore. Now, it's not that how women dress, how they talk, those kinds of elements are not important anymore. It’s still a very hard line that, in general, women candidates have to walk in terms of being all of those things to everybody. Women candidates face an impossible dilemma: They are expected to be competent, tough and nice all at the same time. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was berated for the tone of her voice and her “tough” style. Although she tried to “soften” her image, she was ultimately unable to overcome the sexism that she faced on the campaign trail. A lot has changed since then.

Since Trump was elected in 2016, women have been running for office in record numbers, winning seats at unprecedented rates and achieving offices that they have never occupied before. They have also effectively created more multifaceted ways of being a woman candidate that are simultaneously unapologetically confrontational, assertive, overtly feminist and yet feminine. So, for instance, starting with the 2020 Democratic primary, we saw Kamala Harris striking a balance between showing she’s tough enough to do the job of president and being likable. She uses the word “fight” a lot — “We’re going to fight for justice,” for example — and presents herself as a strong leader. At the same time, she shows a more traditionally feminine side, with things like cooking videos. I think that what we've seen so far in her short candidacy for president is that she's very relatable.

What these newer women candidates for executive positions — Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and others — end up with is a more authentic self-presentation, because they don’t have to pretend that gender isn't an issue and they don't have to pretend that they’re nice all the time. They're now presenting themselves in more complex ways. So with Hillary Clinton and that generation of women politicians, there was a real focus on trying to be gender-neutral in their self presentation — we're not going to focus on gender, we're going to focus on the issues. Starting in 2018, we saw a lot of women candidates across the country leaning into gender in a new way. That’s really different than what we’ve seen before.

How have voters changed since 2016?

One of the things that's different is that candidates and voters have both leaned into women's anger — about reproductive freedom, for example. Harris has made reproductive freedom a big piece of her core campaign. For some voting groups, abortion is the number one or number two issue. In Michigan in 2022, we saw that the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative drew a lot of people to the polls. The state had the highest turnout of young voters in the country that year and, in one survey, 69% of women said that it was at least somewhat important in their decision to turn out. And turnout is ultimately what the election comes down to.

The #MeToo movement has also had a broad-scale impact on how people are thinking about living their everyday lives. Because so much of it was social media and electronic media, it's sort of supercharged, how the ideas spread. We had what was called the Women's March, which was another resurgence of the Women's Movement, in relation to Trump's election. In the middle of the pandemic, Black Lives Matter became very, very visible, and was also being organized through social media. We've seen, particularly among young adults, the campus protests against the war in the Middle East. All these movements and issues have arisen or evolved since 2016 and will be influencing factors.

How important a role will Gen Z play in the election and what are their concerns?

Gen Z were born between 1997 and 2012, which means that they are between 12 years old and 27 years old right now. For many voting members of Gen Z, this is their first presidential election. So it's hard to predict how they're going to vote because they haven't voted yet. But what I can say about Gen Z is that it's the most ethnically diverse generation in many ways. That’s important in thinking about what issues may be important to them.

The defining characteristic of Gen Z is coming of age in the pandemic and the aftermath of the pandemic. They faced so much disruption. My research has found that Gen Z is really feeling abandoned by older adults. And they feel sort of caught adrift from political leadership, from institutions that are supposed to nurture them, like higher education. So they're concerned about things like: How are they going to financially support themselves when there's an affordable housing crisis? How are they going to move into the career that they want when education costs a lot? There was a recent survey that found that young adults had two times the anxiety as teenagers. They were worried about their financial future and pressure to do well at school, but they also mentioned abortion bans, school gun violence and climate change. So these are the political issues that are affecting young people the most and we could expect that those kinds of concerns would have a role in how they choose to vote — and whether they choose to vote.

What is the political significance of memes to younger voters, like the popular one based on Kamala Harris and a quote about falling out of a coconut tree?

When we think about memes, what happens is, it's not just that people are reposting the same thing. There's an interaction with others and with the ideas. So you do see reposting but you also see creativity going into it and tweaking it a little bit to be representative of what the author is trying to express.

What I found really interesting about the particular example of the coconut tree meme was how much it spread. It was a spontaneous thing that young adults took upon themselves to embrace. Some people don't know the context, but they find that one line funny and they find Harris’ laugh funny, so they're interacting with her and in a way they're engaging in the election. Now, it might not be a very politically informed engagement because they might not know anything else about her. But it's something that gives her event visibility and perhaps credibility in the eyes of young voters. When they see other people posting about this, and when they themselves spend time creating a meme, they’re interacting. It shows that they're engaged, that young adults are engaged.

###

Interview by Kristin Palm

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Mon, 10/07/2024 - 07:14

As the '24 election approaches, Sociology Professor Pamela Aronson discusses what's changed since Hillary Clinton's presidential bid and the issues that matter to Gen Z

Professor of Sociology Pamela Aronson

Building a ‘culture of health’ for all Dearborn residents

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:23:21 +0000

Building a ‘culture of health’ for all Dearborn residents Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/14/2022 - 12:23

Healthy Dearborn—a community coalition anchored by Beaumont Health, the City of Dearborn and Dearborn Public Schools—may only be a few years old. But its 500-plus members already have racked up an impressive list of victories—including a new bike share project, multiple community fitness programs, improvements to the local farmers market and a robust research team that’s providing data-driven insight into the health needs of Dearborn residents.

The goal is to build a holistic “culture of the health” in the city by improving access to healthy foods and supporting active lifestyles. But as Healthy Dearborn forges ahead, steering committee member and 51��Ƶ-Dearborn Sociology Professor Carmel Price said there’s a renewed emphasis on ensuring the coalition’s work is addressing health priorities for all—and not just some—of Dearborn’s residents.

“The challenge we recognized is that the people who are shaping the conversations are often those who already have more resources,” Price said. “But what about the parts of the city where there are higher rates of chronic conditions? Do they have representation in the Healthy Dearborn coalition? Are they included in the conversations that shape policy and programs? We didn’t want all this great work we’re doing to reinforce the inequities that exist.”

While health disparities have always been part of the Healthy Dearborn mission, Price said it’s become a higher priority since the release of new health data from the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC’s 500 Cities project, detailing chronic disease risk factors and health outcomes in America’s 500 largest cities, painted a picture of a heterogeneous community, where some neighborhoods had far different health outcomes than others. Among the major storylines revealed in the data: Residents in east and south side neighborhoods, which border some of the heaviest industry in metro Detroit, had higher rates of asthma and COPD than their west side neighbors.

New health data from the Centers for Disease Control shows residents in east and south side neighborhoods had higher rates of asthma and COPD than their west side neighbors.

“When we typically think about healthy living, we think about exercising more or eating better,” Price said. “But when we held some community forums on the south side, the resounding message from residents was that their biggest need was air quality—and the fact they didn’t feel comfortable being active outside because of air quality. So it was a much different set of challenges that require a different kind of work than the coalition had done so far.”

Price’s good friend and 51��Ƶ-Dearborn colleague Natalie Sampson has been crucial in that work on the south side of the city. The assistant professor of public health and veteran of air quality campaigns in neighboring Detroit also has enlisted students in one of her public health courses to help facilitate community forums. Sampson said some students, like Karima Alwisha, a south Dearborn resident and public health major, have emerged as strong community leaders.

That work has inspired what Sampson calls “a separate but closely related” new initiative called Environmental Health Research to Action (EHRA). Through EHRA, Sampson, her students, Price, and key community leaders and partners are undertaking several new projects around air pollution, including building an air quality report for the city and launching a summer youth academy.

“The idea is to not just get youth to understand air quality issues—they live there, they know all about that,” Sampson said. “But we can help train them in the science, the epidemiology, how to do air monitoring—and how you can then take that and create a policy advocacy strategy.”

This semester, students in Sampson’s Community Organizing for Health course also worked on so-called “shared use policies.”

“Given that there’s interest in physical activity, but people can’t always be active outside, Healthy Dearborn is trying to make sure people have access to indoor public spaces, like high school gyms, after hours, for exercise,” Sampson said. “So students are researching existing resources and policies and what other communities have done to see if this makes sense for Dearborn.”

Sampson and Price said creative solutions like these are indicative of the contributions the 51��Ƶ-Dearborn community is making in the push to make the city a healthier place. In all, more than 50 faculty, staff and students have lent their effort and expertise to various Healthy Dearborn coalition projects.

“Our students are a critical piece of getting this work done,” Price said. “The coalition members are developing strategic plans and action plans, but when it comes to implementation, we’ve really relied on students to make these ideas a reality. And our researchers—here and at Wayne State and elsewhere—are writing grants, doing data collection, and providing all kinds of expertise. So it’s incredibly exciting to see us building momentum.”

Experiential Learning

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Health and Human Services

Metropolitan Impact

Off

Mon, 04/23/2018 - 05:00

51��Ƶ-Dearborn faculty, staff and students are helping the Healthy Dearborn coalition take on its biggest challenge yet: tackling the city’s health disparities.

Children play in the shadow of heavy industry in a south Dearborn neighborhood. Photo courtesy of Healthy Dearborn.

Digging in

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 15:20:49 +0000

Digging in Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/08/2022 - 11:20

This article was originally published on September 11, 2019.

Materials from one of America’s first colonial settlements are in Associate Professor John Chenoweth’s archeology lab.

Chenoweth, along with 13 students, spent four weeks digging for their version of buried treasure — 350 year old trash. They worked at the Doane Memorial site in Massachusetts, which marks the homestead site of early English settler John Doane and his family. Doane and six other families were the first Europeans to permanently settle in Lower Cape Cod, being granted permission in the winter of 1644-45 and creating the town of Nauset (later Eastham) the following summer.

Looking through the trays of seventeenth-century red brick fragments, Chenoweth remarks on how surprisingly substantial the home was for the time and place — after all, Henry VIII used bricks a little more than a century before to impress when building Hampton Court Palace in England. And to take the time to make bricks in the new world — where you could have built a wooden shelter a lot quicker — would have only meant one thing: The settlers planned to stay.

Except — less than 50 years after Doane’s death in 1685 — it appears they left, starting new homes in the area.

Chenoweth, who frequented Cape Cod National Seashore — where the site is located— during childhood family trips, is exploring what remains there to learn more on why the settlers left and what we can learn from it today. A major research goal is to determine how the environment has changed since European settlers arrived in the mid-1600s. For example, what was once rich soil used by Native Americans for nearly 4,000 years became grainy sand shortly after colonists settled.

“When it came to land, Puritans had a specific idea about the relationships between land and people: They believed that God gave it to them for their use and that they had to ‘improve”’or ‘tame’ it.. But in less than two generations, their very different farming practices lead to deforestation and erosion, producing the famous sandy landscape that you still see in Cape Cod today,” Cheoweth says. “I’m interested in these environmental changes, and how these changes shifted religious beliefs, social structure, and economic systems on the New England frontier.”

Chenoweth’s research expands on archeological work that was started by the National Park Service in the 1970s, which confirmed that European settlers had lived at the location and that there were artifacts on the Cape Cod historical site. Using the map the NPS created, Chenoweth and his student crews spent their time digging for clues and cataloguing where each artifact was found.

Senior Stacey South was among the students in the excavation excursion. In addition to college credit received for the work, South says although the stuff found can be cool — that appeals to the art history major — she’s learned what’s more interesting is what it can tell you.

“We were looking at literal garbage. In the mid-1600s, when you broke something or it no longer had a use, you threw it out the window and it was covered with dirt. But that garbage can give you a bigger picture on what may have happened to someone,” says South who has a second major in sociology. “For example, a cow femur was found with the bone marrow scraped out. Professor Chenoweth shared that was indicative of the desperation there. That makes you feel something, it makes a person’s experience real."

And she appreciates how her experience with the 350-year-old trash can hold value for her future.

“You are learning about documentation, precision and teamwork. You are looking at items and finding connections on how or why they were used in the society,” she says. “Care with detail, accuracy and critical thinking are useful professionally and personally whether you are looking at the past or planning for the future.”

After Chenoweth’s year-long analysis, all property discovered at the Doane site will be given to the National Park Service. The dig was made possible by the Institute for Field Research.

Experiential Learning

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Wed, 09/11/2019 - 05:00

Anthropology Professor John Chenoweth spent his summer on the Cape Cod National Seashore looking for “350-year-old trash.” Along with 13 students, Chenoweth brought artifacts to the Anthropology Lab to learn more about one of America’s first colonial settlements.

How Native Americans shape the American experience

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 18:20:50 +0000

How Native Americans shape the American experience Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/18/2022 - 14:20

This article was originally published on November 12, 2019.

Standing in front of a full classroom, Anthropology Associate Professor Brian McKenna speaks about Native American contributions to community structure, medicine, government systems, agriculture and environment. Students seem a bit surprised.

McKenna continues: And the names of more than half of our states.

“States, cities, communities. So many of our places have native origins,” he says. “I think destroying who or what was on the land and then naming the spot after what was once there is the American way. Think of apartments with names like Deer Park Run. No one sees deer there because the construction pushed them away or destroyed their food sources. But it does sound really nice.”

McKenna talks honestly, with a bit of dark humor. And his class appreciates him for it. Their hands are constantly raised with questions and contributions to the discussion. And he gets students to relate to the material he includes in his lectures.

Since we all can’t sit in his classroom — there are only about 40 desks, after all — here are some of McKenna’s course take-a-ways.

When it comes to the environment, Native Americans can teach us.

“Most of us are concerned about climate change and what’s left of our resources. But Native Americans are way ahead of us on this. The Native Americans lived here 20,000 years without messing it up. The Iroquois have the seventh generation principle, which dictates that decisions that are made today should lead to protecting the land for seven generations into the future. And American Indians are the ones we see fighting to preserve what is left; look at the Dakota Access pipeline protests and the Enbridge pipeline actions Up North. If we really want to stop or reverse the damage that’s been done, they have examples we can follow.”

Sixty percent of our consumed foods have Indian origins.

“Like fries? I’m Irish, but my history can’t take credit for the potato. That’s the Peruvian Indians and the Incas. How about chocolate? That’s the Mayans. Fall foods like squash and beans? The Native Americans have a long tradition with those foods and the New England colonists learned from them. And if you have a drink on your desk, remember that there wouldn’t be a soda industry without the coca leaves from the Indians of Bolivia. Corn? You already know. Unfortunately, that one’s led to the capitalistic creation of corn syrup. But that’s what I call the Indian’s revenge.”

Much of our prescription knowledge comes from Native American medicine.

Look in your medicine cabinet. If you have aspirin in there to help with a headache, know it comes from the willow bark of the poplar tree. Don’t thank Bayer; thank an Indian. They had 20,000 years to get to know their land and have so much knowledge of botanical medicinal properties. The early American explorers were known to write it down and take it back to Europe with them. Dogwood reduces fever. Trillium eases the pain of childbirth. A small amount of Curare — not too much, it’s poisonous — stops lockjaw cramping. 51��Ƶ-Dearborn Emeritus Professor Daniel Moerman published a Native American Ethnobotany Book and put it online. Type in a symptom and you can find what Natives Americans — thousands of years ago and today — use for relief. It’s a reminder that we are walking over and past medicine all of the time.

If you like the idea behind our Constitution, thank the Iroquois.

“There are leaders who helped form our government who aren’t traditionally mentioned in World History. When the original 13 colonies were busy fighting each other, Onondaga leader Canassatego encouraged them to unite and shared the Iroquois Great Law of Peace as an example on how to do this. Benjamin Franklin printed Canassatego’s words and invited the Iroquois Grand Council of Chiefs to speak to the Continental Congress in 1776. It’s where we got our checks and balances, two branches for passing laws, the impeachment process and more. Our government is descended from theirs — Congress officially recognizes this now. It’s too bad we didn’t include their seventh generation principle.”

After class ends and students have filtered out of the room, McKenna — an environmental journalist and medical anthropologist — explains how an Irish man from Philadelphia became so involved with Native American culture. He says it began with a chance meeting with a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) as a teen in the mid-1970s while traveling across America.

“Basically, I was dropped into history.”

While staying with a newly made friend in South Dakota, McKenna met a Native American from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The man — McKenna pauses and thinks about giving a pseudonym, then decides anonymity is best — was a body double for a leader of AIM. McKenna recalled how much he admired the man’s bravery in standing up against police brutality and systemic poverty in extreme circumstances. He relayed how this experience sparked his curiosity about the history and culture of American Indians.

“The courage I saw really was life changing. After getting to know some members of the Pine Ridge reservation, I was shocked at the level of ignorance about the American Indian Movement during that time. I wanted to do what I could to dispel myths and bring awareness,” says McKenna, who’s spent time during his career working with American Indian Health and Family Services in Detroit and at National Public Radio’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Years later, McKenna is surrounded by engaged students who, just like he was, are curious about Native American history and want to build community with native peoples. McKenna’s taught the course — created by Emeritus Professor Daniel Moerman in 1974 — for 15 years.

Not only does McKenna teach, he encourages the students to interact with tribal communities — noted alumna Kay McGowan, a writer of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, is a frequent guest speaker; students also do a project where they are encouraged to get to know Native culture first-hand.

“For the class project, students have the opportunity to reach out to a first nation. “I’ve recently had a student document the repatriation of ancestral remains from U-M. He went to the Saginaw Chippewa’s Recommitment to the Earth ceremony in Mount Pleasant. Other students have attended powwows or visited a Native American museum. I want our students to learn from native people directly,” McKenna says.

“And I update my course every time I teach it. For example, I’m using David Treuer’s 2019 “The Heart of Wounded Knee” right now. Treuer graduated from U-M with an anthropology degree. I want to make sure I’m relating to my students of today about issues the Native Americans are facing today. People evolve so my course can’t stay stagnant.”

But there is something that remains the same: Native American influence on shaping American culture.

So, in honor of the month — and Governor Whitmer’s recent decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day — McKenna wants to create awareness of cultural appropriation and have us appreciate American Indian contributions that enhance our lives all year round.

Inclusion or Diversity

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Tue, 11/12/2019 - 06:00

November’s designated as Native American Heritage Month. But Anthropology Associate Professor Brian McKenna reminds his students in campus’ Indians of North America course that we benefit from the knowledge of this country’s indigenous people all year long.

To serve and protect

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:35:31 +0000

To serve and protect Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/18/2022 - 13:35

This article was originally published on December 19, 2019.

Dearborn Police Corporal Foyid Mockbil has Special Weapons and Tactics training. He’s been the first person into a building during a standoff with an armed suspect. Mockbil’s learned about working undercover with a special task force many citizens credit with reducing Dearborn’s crimes.

But he’s never — and he’s been an officer for 23 years — taken a training course like 51��Ƶ-Dearborn’s Alternatives to Violent Force.

“It raised awareness for officers that there is an opposing viewpoint out that that comes from a deeper place than a news article or someone’s one-time bad experience with an officer,” Mockbil said.

Speaking quite frankly — Mockbil said officers have a habit of that — he wasn’t thrilled to take the class at first.

“You never know if you’re going to get lectured by someone who doesn’t understand police work. And it seems that there is so much tension these days about police, politics, just about everything really, that productive conversations are hard to have.”

But Mockbil said it wasn’t like that at all.

“It was hearing from people who have worked in or with law enforcement. They’d share their experiences and how citizens might have viewed what they did when talking about different reasons there’s disconnect between police and the people we serve. Instead of talking at us about it, we talked it out. It was more like the beginning of a healing process.”

Alternatives to Violent Force, a Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES)-certified program, addresses topics like how the public views police action and force, the voices behind behind the Black Lives Matter movement, ways to approach citizens with mental illness, and other areas that lead to healthy discussions that address the us vs. them narrative and why it exists in the media and in communities.

The program is part of the Justice Reform Project and Current Policing Curriculum Series (CPCS). The Justice Reform Project and the CPCS were developed under the leadership of Public Policy Professor Julie Roddy and the Hon. Donald Shelton, 51��Ƶ-Dearborn Criminology and Criminal Justice Program director and a 25-year veteran of the Washtenaw County trial courts.

“We have turned our police officers into warriors — this idea that they are soldiers in a battle to preserve order. But at the same time, they have to be guardians, treating civilians with respect and with safety. You have to be both, and that’s hard work,” said Shelton on why he wanted to create the program.

Sociology Associate Professor Paul Draus and 51��Ƶ-Dearborn 2018 Alumna Omitra Gates, who is pursuing law school, are also heavily involved in organizing each cohort.

At a Tuesday night class, Draus — teaching the group about empathetic thinking — pushed for participation from the officers to give examples where they used discretion while on the job and then talk about the result of that choice.

One officer shared how he was called to arrest a homeless man outside of a store. Seeing the man wasn’t a nuisance, but was underdressed for the cold temperatures, he bought the man warm clothing, got him a meal and drove him to a homeless shelter.

When Draus asked the officer why he empathized with the man, the officer said he was concerned for the man’s health because it was cold and he wouldn’t want any of his family or friends out in weather like this.

The Draus asked: “Are you glad you used discretion?”

After a pause, the officer replied yes. But explained that he’s since seen the man out on the streets and underdressed for the weather again. “Even if I helped him over and over again, he’d be in the same spot again. But at least I know for a little while he had warm clothes and food.”

This sparked a discussion among the officers on both sides of the fence on if giving breaks or going the extra mile benefits people in the long term. Draus then redirected the conversation back to understanding the meaning of empathy.

“Don’t get empathy confused with being emotional and not strategic. Sympathy is an emotional reaction. Empathy is a thought process to see the situation from someone else’s point of view. It’s more about trying to understand someone’s situation when coming to the most beneficial decision,” Draus said. “And I want to be clear that you can still empathize and still give someone a ticket or take someone to jail. It’s not about being soft. It’s about taking a moment — when you can — to do this thought exercise.”

In addition to 51��Ƶ-Dearborn members, several guest educators are involved with the program. For example, Harold J. Love, a retired Michigan State Police officer and licensed mental health therapist, spoke about crisis intervention, de-escalation and communication training specific to people with mental illness; Daryl Harris, a minister/community organizer who is an honorary member of the Detroit Police Department talked about the sanctity of life and the importance of justice and respect from all parties. And Vincent Dalfonzo, a retired 30-plus-year FBI agent, spoke about how law interprets force and how the public views police action.

Educators like Daryl Harris, a minister/community organizer who is an honorary member of the Detroit Police Department, spoke to police at the Alternatives to Violent Force training

Mockbil — at the end of the seven-week session that met for three hours each Tuesday night — said once the group of 20 officers finished AVF, the Dearborn Police Department would have 100-percent completion among the officers.

Mockbil says he appreciated the educators’ views and liked having open, honest discussions in the sessions. But he’d like to see the work go a step further by bringing in members of the community. Maybe it wouldn’t work in this particular program, but he feels there’s a bridge-building opportunity.

“We are all adults, but it can be uncomfortable having real conversations with people we have preconceived notions about or who we don’t understand. But to get to a place of understanding, conversations need to take place. I’ve gained a lot by learning how I can be seen by someone who doesn’t know me,” Mockbil said. “Maybe one way to continue the healing process is to bring in community members to learn about police pressures and then have us work together — when we have an understanding of each other — on ways we can do things better. If that happens, sign me up.”

Health and Wellness

Leadership

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Thu, 12/19/2019 - 06:00

With hashtags and history at times grouping authority and the public on opposing sides, what can be done to bring everyone back together? Police officers are working with educators to understand the public point of view during the campus-created Alternatives to Violent Force training.

Associate Professor Paul Draus speaks about empathetic thinking with officers and listens while officers share examples of showing empathy on the job.

'This is a generation that can change the world for the better'

stuxbury — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 21:59:03 +0000

'This is a generation that can change the world for the better' stuxbury Mon, 04/18/2022 - 17:59

Many people are tired of discussing COVID. But psychology graduate student Katie Smith isn’t one of them — especially when it comes to how families were affected.

Smith has always been interested in working with kids and child psychology has been a big draw for her. She said the experiences people have as children often shape their adult lives — so the impact is broad. But children’s mental health is under-researched.

“Kids are naturally resilient and can handle pressure, but the pressure of growing up while their families adapt (to COVID changes) can have a huge mental impact,” Smith said. “Fear of the unknown and isolation all increase stress. Stress increases, use of immature defense mechanisms increase, and maladaptive behavior may arise. It feels like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”

For the year-plus of research she’s spent looking into this, Smith and her thesis research “Parent and Child Adaption to COVID-19” won the 2022 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on campus. The 3MT Competition, originally developed by The University of Queensland, cultivates academic, presentation and research communication skills with students presenting their work succinctly and in an easy-to-understand way. The virtual campus event was sponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies and the Office of Research.

“I didn’t know anything about 3MT initially,” Smith said. “I was encouraged by Dr. Michelle Leonard, my professor, to submit the idea. I was given a positive nudge towards doing it, and while it was scary, it was equally interesting.”

To gather this information, Smith collected responses from parents — which she is currently still in the process of doing — and examined the reports of academic researchers.

“COVID-19 is very topical now, and I thought about connecting the two. Parents and children are interconnected and the study was vital, which led to my research topic. It was perfecting that balance to showcase the child-parent relationship and how individuals together as a unit influence each other.”

Smith stated that a key aspect of the adaptation boils down to individualistic differences. Families in more challenging scenarios — like economic difficulties and communication gaps — may be closer to the tipping point than others.

But according to Smith’s research, there is good news: It points to an evident decrease in stress as people have adapted to COVID-related changes and when they have found support within their communities. She said counseling and therapy support also have played an important role in this.

Smith said mental health is always addressed case by case by providing the tools and support to parents and children, ranging from individualistic treatment and family therapy to even just talking to some families that may just need the information to understand the situation around them.

“Psychoeducation — which involves informing parents about parenting styles and defense mechanisms to observe, recommendations, research data, action plans and more — is an excellent way to move forward in the present and post-COVID. Some families can work through it independently, while some may require communities to play a huge role in helping them out.”

Smith competed at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT regionals in Milwaukee to represent 51��Ƶ-Dearborn in early April. She didn’t win, but Smith said she gained experience in communicating research and scientific findings and it challenged her to be concise and avoid academic jargon.

“All of this will be useful skills in my future career as a clinical psychologist,” Smith said. “This experience also has broadened my network of peers I can consult with. I’ve met several other 3MT participants that were extremely knowledgeable in a wide variety of fields and specialties. When I listened to everyone’s research, I thought this is a generation that can change the world for the better.”

Smith emphasizes that her campus 3MT win wouldn’t have been possible without the support from professors Michelle Leonard and Caleb Siefert. “Dr. Leonard helped a lot through this process while my adviser Dr. Siefert has always been there since the beginning, leading to this wonderful experience.”

Article by Rudra Mehta.

Awards

Campus Life

Graduate Research

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Graduate Studies

Off

Mon, 04/18/2022 - 21:59

Grad student Katie Smith and her psychology research won the 2022 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on campus and she recently competed at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools' regionals.

Katie Smith won 51��Ƶ-Dearborn's 3MT Competition. Photo by Rudra Mehta

How to manage the transition back to the office

stuxbury — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 22:19:01 +0000

How to manage the transition back to the office stuxbury Mon, 08/09/2021 - 18:19

Photo of External Relations Marketing Manager Bailey Ayers-Korpal in her Administration Building office

Apple’s employees are returning to the office three days a week in early September. Wall Street banks like JP Morgan & Chase and Goldman Sachs already have teams back in their branches and buildings. And U-M faculty and staff are getting ready for a Fall 2021 return.

After many were forced to work from home due to the pandemic — and initially feeling confined to a home space — people acclimated to their remote schedules. Now 18 months after the mass office exodus, the reception is mixed on how people feel about coming back to the workplace.

A 2021 Work Trend Index survey — which includes responses from more than 30,000 people in 31 countries — shows that over 70 percent of workers want flexible remote work options to continue, while over 65 percent are craving more in-person time with their teams.

Photo of Professor Marie Waung

But how do team leaders do both while still maintaining organizational identity and the social cohesion of a typical workplace setting? And what does this mean for the 8-5 office workday?

College of Arts, Sciences, & Letters Associate Dean and Professor Marie Waung, who’s spent three decades researching workplace psychology, explores what’s on the horizon for the 21st century office space, and gives suggestions for supervisors on how to support their teams’ return-to-work shifts.

“As humans, we like to be able to predict what will happen next. When change occurs, it tends to bring with it some degree of unpredictability, and with that some anxiety. This is why even small changes are difficult,” Waung said. “When change happens during a truly unprecedented time, it only adds to the unpredictability. The key is to clearly communicate and be flexible when possible.”

Supervisors should build in a transition period if possible.

Marie Waung: “To help people see what their new routine may look like, allow for a brief transition period if possible. This could be a week or two.

This transition time may be having people come into the office, but being flexible on in-person hours during that transition time. It could be having meetings in person, but individual work time at home. It depends on the situation. There’s not a one-size-fits-all transition plan. But no matter the plan, it’s important for supervisors to be clear in their policies and expectations, and be specific regarding how employee performance will be assessed.”

After the transition period, people will still be adjusting.

MW: “Changes to our daily routine are difficult — and work is a part of our daily routine. As for how long it takes to acclimate to a new routine, the rule of thumb that works for me is three weeks. It seems that most people can get used to most life changes over that time period.”

Consider mentors for employees new to your organization or who are early in their career.

MW: “Anecdotal evidence suggests working from home has been particularly challenging for people earlier in their careers. For example, recent college graduates experiencing their first post-college jobs may feel unsure of their performance and of employer expectations and have difficulty establishing workplace mentors and friends in a remote environment. Those hired in 2020 and 2021 are likely to seek workplace connections and search for mentors as they enter the physical workplace. Leaders may want to look for ways to facilitate connections.”

Be flexible when possible.

MW: “Getting up earlier to get ready for work, packing lunches and commuting take time and energy. These tasks used to be part of our routine, so we did not question them. However, now that we have experienced life without them, they may seem inconvenient and it’s likely many of us will be unenthusiastic about their return. People may also struggle with the work/life balance shift. Getting children to and from school, dog walking, doctor’s appointments and preparing dinner can become more challenging when working outside of the home.

People will have to figure out how to handle difficulties they experience — if you are on a hybrid schedule, one suggestion is try to stagger work days with a partner, family member, neighbor or friend who also has a hybrid schedule to help with life tasks — but manager flexibility definitely plays a role in job satisfaction.

On occasion, maybe it’s ok to let your team do an early morning meeting from Zoom at home. Or if an employee has a reason they can’t make it in, like their child’s school is unexpectedly closed or there are poor weather conditions, consider giving the option to work from home. I think that many employees are hoping for fewer white-knuckle commutes to work on icy or snowy mornings, reasoning that we have been able to quickly switch to remote work in the past and can do so, as needed, in the future.”

Team needs come first.

MW: “In some places of work, there will still need to be a critical mass of employees. It should be recognized by staff that supervisors must balance an adequate presence in the workplace to maintain operations and facilitate employee productivity and work quality.

But that’s not all that needs to be maintained. Team morale does too. In-person teams have advantages like an enhanced sense of community, quicker and more efficient communication, and access to more information through the grapevine — that’s what’s exchanged before and after face-to-face meetings or when employees bump into each other in the hallway. If too many employees are working from home on a given day, people in the workplace lose these advantages. One of my neighbors recently said he works two days a week from the office, but felt it was pointless because there are only a handful of employees there. That’s not good.

Supervisors likely want to work with their employees, but they are going to have to make some tough calls. They cannot grant a request if it negatively impacts team goals.”

Time will reveal what works best in our new world of work.

MW: “My prediction is most places that can have people work remotely will create a hybrid schedule that’s either three days at work and two at home, or two days at work and three at home. Finding what works best may be a little messy at first, but I believe changes will moderate themselves. Some things will work and some won’t. This is new for most of us, just try to be patient with each other.

After more than a year of staying constantly logged-in to work through email and Zoom, you might find that getting back to the workplace helps establish a firmer boundary between work and home life. Or you might discover that you need the independence that full remote work gives and are no longer a good fit where you are.

I think the 8-to-5 weekdays with everyone in the office at the same time is most likely a thing of the past. The pandemic has definitely shifted how we do work. But time will tell exactly how much.”

Interview by Sarah Tuxbury. Professor Marie Waung is an expert in organizational and industrial psychology, focusing on areas like professional development, employee promotion and productive workplace processes. If you are a member of the media and would like to speak with her, please let us know at 51��ƵDearbornNews@umich.edu.

Faculty and Staff

Faculty Research

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

Off

Mon, 08/09/2021 - 22:17

Professor Marie Waung explores what’s on the horizon for the 21st century workspace, and gives suggestions for supervisors on how to support their teams’ return-to-work shifts.