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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: crscad@umb.edu

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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/