Empathy and the Anthropological Imagination

Abstract

The experience reported here does not come from teaching within a social work program as such, but rather from teaching in a joint sociology-anthropology program with a student constituency that is largely oriented to social work. My small institution delivers undergraduate degree programs to some 1200 students in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It has no professional schools, yet many students, including the majority of those in a special work-study program at the university, see themselves headed toward social work careers. That special program welcomes about 100 freshmen each fall and is thus the single biggest Arts program on campus. For Nova Scotians, one route to social work lies in taking a Bachelor of Social Work program, and students can transfer into such a program after completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. Many go that route, since the university which offers the only B. S. W. program in the province is 300 miles away and Cape Breton is an economically depressed region.