Mimi Abramovitz
Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor Social Work, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, CUNY Faculty Associate, Roosevelt House

Mimi Abramovitz is Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. She has published widely on issues related to women, poverty, human rights and the U.S/ Welfare State. Professor Abramovitz is currently writing a book on the history of low-income women’s activism in the U.S. Her previous books include the award-winning Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the U.S., Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy From Colonial Times to the Present, The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy and Taxes Are A Woman’s Issue: Reframing the Debate. She has also published more than 80 articles in scholarly and popular journals. Among her honors and awards, Dr. Abramovitz has been inducted into the Columbia University School of Social Work Hall of Fame.

Recent Awards

• Received the Humanitarian and Leadership Award for Contributions in the Field of Social Work, Women, and Human Rights Association for International Conferences. New York, April 19, 2013

Recent International Conference

• The Logic of the Market vs the Logic of Social Work: Social Services in theNeo-Liberal Era.
  Keynote Address at Conference entitled Social Work and Solidarity: In Search of New Paradigms. University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia., 8/20/18-8/22/18
• Privatization in the Human Services in NYC: Understanding Managerialism,
  Keynote Address at Conference entitled Ambivalences of the Rising Welfare State.
  University of Bielefeld & University of Geneva, Hannover, Germany, May 28-May 30 2018
• Presented an invited paper entitled Privatization in the Human Service: Impact on the Ground Floor and the Front Lines at the Conference on Privatization, Globalization, and Social Responsibility, (Vulnerability & Human Condition Initiative) Lund University, Faculty of Law, Lund Sweden, June 14 – 15, 2013

Recent Keynote Addresses/Panels – National

• Keynote Panel on the Politics of Austerity, Alfred A Taubman Forum on Public Policy, Brookings Institute, Washington, D.C. May 22, 2013
• Keynote Address entitle Gendered Obligations. Understanding Low – Income Women’s Activism in the US Since 1900, The International Conference Education Sustainable Development , Leadership and Policy, Columbia University NYC, April 16-19, 2013
• Keynote Panel on Leading to Economic Security National Council for Research on Women, New York City, March 5,  2013

Books

• 2018    Regulating The Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy From Colonial Times to the Present, Routledge  London and New York  3^rd Edition
• 2014    The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy, NY: Oxford University Press (and Joel Blau). (4th revised  edition)

Articles

• 2016    Case to Cause: Back to the Future, Journal of Social Work Education (w. Margaret Sherraden., v. 52 ( special Issue ) S89 to S98
• 2015    Privatization in the Human Services Implications for Direct Practice, Clinical Social Work Journal June43(3):283- 293   (with Jennifer Zelnick)
• 2015    Moving Toward Racial Equity: The Undoing Racism Workshop and Organizational Change. Journal of Race  and Social Problem(with Lisa Blitz) 7(2): 97-110
• 2014    Indicator Analysis for Unpacking Poverty in New York City,Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Association with Jochen Albrecht), 26(1): 5-12.
• 2013    Community Loss: A New Social Indicator (with Jochen Albrecht) Social Service Review. 57(1)
  (December) 677-774.
• 2012    Feminization of Austerity, New Labor Forum, Winter 21(1): 32-41

Chapters

• 2018    Abramovitz, Mimi From the Welfare State to the Carceral State: Whither Social Reproduction in (eds.) A. Kessler–Harris and M. Vaudagna Democracy and the Welfare State, Columbia University Press. pp, 195-226
• 2017  Abramovitz, M. & Zelnick, J.R. Privatization in the Human Services: Impact on the Front Lines and the Ground Floor in M. Fineman, U Andersson and M. Mattsson (Eds) Privatization, Vulnerability, and Social Responsibility ; London: Routledge, pp.182-200
  2016 Abramovitz, M.. When Does Race Matter? Examining Antiracist Organizational Change, in Carten, Pender Greene, and Siskind (eds.) Transforming Health and Human Service Systems, Oxford University, Press (with Liza Blitz) , pp. 67-87
• 2014  Economic Crises, Neoliberalism, and the U.S. Welfare State: Trends, Outcomes and Political Struggle. Global Social Work Education: Crossing Borders and Blurring Boundaries, Carolyn Noble, Helle Strauss & Brian Littlechild (eds.) Sydney University Press., pp.225-241
• 2014  Which Side Are We On?  In Chris Jones and Tony Novak (eds), Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work. Policy Press, Bristol/UK/Chicago/US, pp.27-34/
• 2012 Abramovitz, Mimi. Theorizing the Neo Liberal Welfare State. The Sage Handbook of Social Workin Mel Grey, James Midgley and Stephen Webb (eds.) Los Angeles Sage Publications Ltd, Chap 2, pp. 33- 47
• 2011 Abramovitz, Mimi., The Welfare State: A Battleground for Human Rights in K Libal & S. Hertel (eds) Human Rights in the United States: Beyond Exceptionalism. “New York/Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, pp 46-67