UCalgary Team Teaching Award honours Social Work professors

The University of Calgary Teaching Awards acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding contributions of faculty members to education. Those who receive the awards are nominated by fellow students, faculty and staff. This year, the awards recognized the extraordinary efforts put into creating valuable learning experiences through online, in-person and blended lectures.

Dr. Régine King, PhD, and Dr. Patrina Duhaney, PhD, of the Faculty of Social Work (FSW) have been recognized as outstanding contributors to teaching and learning for their course, Africentric Perspectives in Social Work (SOWK 555.55). The course was developed as part of FSW’s commitment to social justice, equity and anti-racism. 

Both King and Duhaney have been central and catalytic figures in faculty discussions and formal efforts to examine teaching, research and service contributions in the university and the wider community to advance the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism.  

Adopting the team-teaching approach for their course allowed the two educators to unite their intersecting and overlapping pedagogical approaches to help harness critical thinking in their students. SOWK 555.55 is designed to introduce learners to ideas, questions and analytical perspectives that are foundational to the lives of people of African descent. It centres Africentric perspectives as a body of knowledge for social work in response to historical and contemporary social issues affecting Black Canadians, such as addressing anti-Black racism. 

“Congratulations to both Dr. King and Dr. Duhaney for their team-teaching award, and for their inspired commitment to advancing Africentric bodies of knowledge, epistemic pluralism and more-inclusive perspectives in the social work curriculum,” says Dr. Malinda S. Smith, PhD, UCalgary’s vice-provost and associate vice-president research (equity, diversity and inclusion). “Equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism need to be embedded in teaching and learning and, in turn, will greatly contribute to enhancing the student and learning experience at UCalgary.

“Their efforts to cultivate deeper knowledge of Africentric knowledge and perspectives is central to UCalgary’s commitments to the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion, and they are leading change that will benefit all students at the University of Calgary and in the wider community.”

To learn more about the University of Calgary Teaching Awards, visit the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning website.

Dr. Régine King

Dr. Régine King, PhD, an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Work, has a doctorate in social work and a Master of Education in counselling psychology and community development from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Education from the National University of Rwanda. 

“I wish to thank the Taylor Institute for recognizing my teaching through this team-teaching award,” says King. “I wish to extend my gratitude to the leadership of the Faculty of Social Work and colleagues who supported our nomination.” 

King’s research interests include equity and racial justice, cross-cultural mental health, social processes of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation, refugee issues, and Indigenous knowledge. Her research agenda is guided by anti-colonial, anti-racist perspectives, and Black feminism. 

King is a community-based researcher who utilizes critical ethnography and critical storytelling/narrative methods in her research projects. She has published her work in the areas of truth and reconciliation, intergroup dialogues, healing of collective trauma, anti-Black racism, refugee mental health, transnational social work, and critical pedagogies. King is a knowledge translator through public speaking on various issues, including, but not limited to the promotion of health equity and mental health equity and genocide-prevention. She is a member of various academic committees and community advocacy groups.

Dr. Patrina Duhaney

Dr. Patrina Duhaney, PhD, is an assistant professor, critical race scholar and social work activist in the Faculty of Social Work. Her research grapples with issues related to race, racism, the intersections between victimization and criminalization, and is informed by critical race theory, critical race feminism and anti-racism. 

Duhaney has more than 14 years of experience working as a social worker, counsellor and front-line worker with diverse populations including women who experience domestic violence and individuals in conflict with the law. She is actively involved in various initiatives within the university and across various communities to help bring Black people’s experiences and perspectives to the forefront and confront anti-Black racism.

Duhaney says she is grateful to FSW for nominating her and King for the team-teaching award; their students and colleagues for their kind words along the way; those who wrote strong letters of support; and those who assisted in preparing their nomination package. 

She says the development and delivery of SOWK 555.55 was timely given UCalgary’s recent signing of the Scarborough Charter. 

“It is because of our tireless efforts in creating awareness around Black knowledge, experiences, ways of knowing and anti-Black racism that this course will be required for incoming Bachelor of Social Work students in the FSW,” Duhaney says.