Faculty

Jane McPherson develops, evaluates, and advocates for human rights-based approaches to social work practice in the U.S. and around the world. She also conducts archival research exploring how local Georgia histories of charity and social work entwine with ideologies of white supremacy and capitalism, and asks questions about how these histories still echo in social work practice today. As an arts activist, Dr. McPherson was an organizer for One Million Bones, a nationwide anti-genocide initiative that created and laid one million handmade bones on the National Mall. A licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), Dr. McPherson worked for 20 years in child protection, bereavement, mental health, maternal-child health, infant mental health, and torture treatment before becoming a professor.

Slavery at UGA: A Tour of North Campus
Truth telling is a social work intervention. The short film Slavery at UGA: A Tour of North Campus (co-produced by Dr. Jane McPherson), is an effort to truthfully narrate some of the University of Georgia’s difficult history. The film illuminates this history and also contributes to discussions of how this history should be remembered, memorialized, and addressed today.

One Million Bones
One Million Bones was a national arts-activism project that laid one million handmade bones on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as a visible petition against ongoing genocide and mass atrocity. Dr. Jane McPherson explains the project in this video documenting the installation of 25,000 ceramic bones in Tallahassee, Florida, in April 2012.