Dr. Jessica Ritter, faculty member in the Department of Social Work, is completing her Spring sabbatical in Florence, Italy, where she is co-teaching a graduate level social work policy course at the University of Florence with Professor Riccardo Guidi from the Department of Political and Social Sciences—and eating loads of pasta, pizza, and gelato!! This is an incredible opportunity for students and faculty from the U.S. and Italy to exchange information and learn from each other. Students in the class, for example, have many curiosities about what social work practice (and the policy work that social workers engage in), looks like in the U.S., especially during such turbulent political times in the U.S. and around the globe.

 

In April, Dr. Ritter will be making a presentation at the 2026 European Social Work Research Association Conference in Aberdeen Scotland where she will have the opportunity to meet with social work faculty from many nations inside and outside of Europe. The title of her presentation is “A Participatory Action Approach to Social Work Policy Practice” and will explore various ways that social workers can include the input of service users/community members when working for policy change.

 

While living in Florence, Jessica has been immersed in Italian culture and has been able to meet local people and experience what life is like in Italy (e.g., the food, the arts, the language, museums, etc.) and to visit nearby cities and towns such as Siena, San Gimignano, Cinque Terre, Lucca, Lake Como, and hopefully more places by the time she has to leave. For 6 months before she came to Italy, Jessica studied Italian so that she could be conversational by the time she arrived there. It has been fun to learn some fun facts about Italy such as—did you know they have olive oil sommeliers in Italy?

 

Finally, in May, Professor Ritter will be making a visit to the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences where she will guest lecture in a social work policy class and then make a faculty talk. The presentations will cover:

  1. An overview of what social work policy practice looks like in the U.S. (and how it has evolved over time);
  2. Some interesting stories/examples of how social workers have impacted important social policies in the U.S.; and
  3. How the social work profession in the U.S. is currently responding to policies from the Trump administration that do not align with social work values and ethics.

 

Dr. Ritter is incredibly grateful to MSU Denver for allowing faculty to have sabbatical opportunities to engage more deeply with their teaching and research as well as have some time to reflect and rejuvenate. Additionally, she has deep gratitude for the financial support provided by the Department of Social Work and the Provost’s Office, which made this sabbatical project possible. Grazie mille!