photo of Russell Whiting

Dr Russell Whiting

Post:Emeritus Associate Professor (Social Work and Social Care)
Location:ESSEX HOUSE
Email:R.Whiting@sussex.ac.uk

Biography

 

Qualifications and Position

  • BA (Hons), MSW, PhD
  • Senior Lecturer of Social Work
  • Head of Department

 

Summary

  • My social work experience is mainly with children and families - specifically most recently managing a family centre for a voluntary agency in London. Prior to that worked for statutory social services department as a manager of a respite care unit for children with learning disabilities. Before that I spent a number of years abroad living in Bosnia and before that in The Netherlands.
  • My PhD was on the history and current practice of social work as a profession in the churches in Britain. I maintain an interest in social work history and in the topics of religion and spirituality in social work practice and education. 
  • Along with colleagues in the department I an interested in social work education as a research topic and how research can advance the quality and standing of that education. 

 

Professional Activities

  • Member, Social  Work History Network
  • Member, British Association for the Study of Spirituality

 

Teaching

  • I convene modules on the BA qualifyiong programme on Social Work with Children and on Values, Ethics and Theories. On the MA qualifying programme I convene the Human DEvelopment and SOcial Responsibility Module. At our Partner institution, University Collge Jersey I convene the Values, Ethics and Theories module.
  • I also contribute to other teaching at qualifying, post qualifying and doctoral level particularly on professional ethics and values and on religion and spirituality

 

Tutoring

  • I see the tutoring role as key to my work and currently I am tutor for groups of BA first year and third year students.

 

 

Recent Publications

Luckock, Barry, Sims, Louise, Whiting, Russell, Meleyal, Lel and Hampden-Thompson, Gillian (2017) Cornerstone Adoption Support Programme: evaluation report. Project Report. Department for Education, London.

Luckock, Barry, Whiting, Russell, Meleyal, Lel, Sims, Louise and Hampden-Thompson, Gillian (2017) Coram’s permanence improvement project: children’s social care innovation programme evaluation report 24. Project Report. Department for Education.

Whiting, Russell (2017) Material spirituality: challenging gnostic tendencies in contemporary understandings of religion and spirituality. In: Crisp, B (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Religion, Spirituality and Social Work. Routledge, Abingdon.

Whiting, Russell and Gurbai, Sándor (2015) Moving from the implicit to the explicit: ‘spiritual rights’ and the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 4 (3). pp. 103-126. ISSN 1929-9192

Whiting, Russell (2015) Gestures of mutuality: bridging social work values and skills through Erasmian humanism. Ethics and Social Welfare, 9 (4). pp. 328-342. ISSN 1749-6535

Whiting, Russell (2015) Don't mention the war: a response to Reeves and McIvor on the early career of Clement Attlee. Renewal: a Journal of Labour Politics, 23 (1/2). pp. 117-126. ISSN 0968-252X

Whiting, Russell (2013) Gandhianism in London: Bringing the past to bear on the present in discussion of the social work and spirituality of Muriel and Doris Lester. International Social Work, 56 (3). pp. 403-415. ISSN ISSN: 0020-8728

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Role

 Currently Head of Department for Social Work and SOcial Care - Appointed January 2019