DIANE R. WIENER

Assistant Professor of Social Work and Women's Studies

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Social work discourses and related implications for local, regional, and national (U.S.) social work practices and policies
• Social constructionism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics in relation to social work theory, research, policy, practice, and activism
• Engagements with social justice in social work program and curriculum development and in social work students’ learning processes
• Critical explorations of psychiatry and biomedicine in mental health treatment contexts
• Autobiographical and cinematic representations of U.S. mental health consumers, psychiatric survivors, and ex-patients/patients, especially with respect to gender, sexuality, race, and class
• Representations of social workers in the mainstream media and the effects of these images upon “mainstream” societal understandings of the social work profession
• Teaching writing and critical thinking to social work students through creative, social justice-focused diversity initiatives in curriculum development
• Interdisciplinary linkages between social work, disability studies, and medical anthropology, and related applications to social work curriculum development
• LGBTIQ studies and social work curriculum development
• Applications of the expressive arts in social work education and practice

RECENT COURSES

Human Behavior in the Social Environment I & II, Advanced Social Work Practice with Groups, Generalist Social Work Practice III, Special Topics in Social Work: Perspectives on Gender, Women and "Madness" in American Film

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Ph.D. in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies (focus in feminist media and autobiography studies), disciplinary minor in Anthropology, concentrations in Women’s Studies and Disability Studies, University of Arizona

Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Anthropology, University of Arizona

L.M.S.W., New York State

M.S.W., concentration in Casework, Yeshiva University

B.S., Animal Science, concentration in Pre-Veterinary Medicine, Rutgers University

Certificate in Comprehensive Science Education (K-12), Rutgers University

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Rosenwald, M., Wiener, D., Smith-Osborne, A., & Smith, C. (In Press). The place of political diversity within the social work classroom. Journal of Social Work Education.

Wiener, D. R., & Smith, C. M. (2010). Runners-up: How lesbian and gay sidekicks in mainstream U.S. cinema can influence lesbian and gay youth and those who work with them. In C. C. Bertram, M. S. Crowley, and S. G. Massey (Eds.), Beyond Progress and Marginalization: LGBTQ Youth in Educational Contexts (pp. 280-290). New York: Peter Lang.

Wiener, D., Ribeiro, R., & Warner, K. (2009). Mentalism, disability rights, and modern eugenics in a "brave new world." Disability and Society, 24(5), 599-610

Wiener, D. R., & Rosenwald, M. (2008). Unlocking doors: Providing MSW programs and students with educational "keys" to social justice. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 19(2), 125-139.

Wiener, D. R. (2008). A meditation on depression, time, and narrative peregrination in the film The Hours. In H. Clark (Ed.), Depression and Narrative: Telling the Dark (pp. 157-164). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Wiener, D. R. (2008). Benny & Joon’s “alternative philosophies” of emotional (dis)ability, class, gender, and sexuality. Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual Journal, 9(1).

Wiener, D. R. (2005). Antipsychiatric activism and feminism: The use of film and text to question biomedicine. Journal of Public Mental Health, 4(3), 42-47.

Wiener, D. R. (2005). Entry on “Andrea Weiss.” In I. Aitken (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film (pp. 1432-1434). New York and London: Routledge (Taylor and Francis).

Wiener, D. R. (2005). “Normals, crazies, insiders, and outsiders”: The relevance of Sue Estroff’s medical anthropology to disability studies. The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 1(3), 76-82.

Wiener, D. R. (2003). Performativity and metacommentary in Jewish American Mother light bulb jokes. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6(5).

Ruggill, J., & Wiener, D. (2003). Leaving the “prison for your mind”: The Matrix’s escapist and orienting liberatory in-sights. In Conference Proceedings (CD-ROM and .pdf). Honolulu, HI: International Conference on the Arts and Humanities.

Wiener, D. R. (2000). Representing pre-millennial tensions: Hollywood’s gendered invasion narratives. CineAction, 51, 17-22. 

Wiener, D. R. (1998). Living within darkness: Psychiatric survivors and the protection of mythical language. The Arts in Psychotherapy: An International Journal, 25(3), 167-181.