2008 PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Janet Finn — School of Social Work

Growing up in the middle of the hard-rock mining industry of Butte, Janet Finn couldn’t have known how much she shared with children in a certain town in northern Chile. Chuquicamata was Butte’s sister mining site, where Anaconda Copper Co. was digging for the same ores and where the lives and livelihoods of labor communities were determined by the company in the same way they were in Butte. It wasn’t until years later, when she found herself in Chuquicamata making pasties and empanadas with women in mining families and conducting research for her dissertation, that she learned of the stark similarities of these parallel communities. The research led to her first book, “Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture and Community from Butte to Chuquicamata.”

Finn has now published five other books in English and Spanish, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her current research examines the roles of children and perceptions of childhood in Butte’s mining heyday.

As the director of UM’s Master of Social Work Program within a nationally renowned College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences, Finn uses an ethnographic, historical and social justice lens to approach modern social work. With about 25 students in each graduating class, the master’s program is a perfect size, Finn says. “It’s ideal because we’re able to maintain a strong sense of community.”

A strong emphasis on internships at more than 100 different sites in Western Montana – from hospitals to fair-trade shops – rounds out the students’ classroom education. Finn says the program’s discussion-based teaching atmosphere challenges and enriches students and faculty alike. In the end, she says, it’s all about improving social programs for the people who need them most.

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