Christian Vaccaro, professor in the Department of Sociology, co-authored Exploring Humor in Child Welfare Casework: Laugh to Get Through It or Cry Forever with Lisa Landram, alumna of the Administration and Leadership Studies in Nonprofit and Public Sectors program (PhD ’20). Landram is an incoming assistant professor of social work at Mary Baldwin University.
The book, based on Landram’s dissertation research, explores how humor is used among child welfare caseworkers and what it reveals about how social workers experience stress and manage their emotions. It’s an excellent primer for students in human services-oriented fields or social work programs. Landram says that she hopes readers will take away “a realistic view of what it is like to manage emotions and stress associated with working in child welfare.”
Vaccaro and Landram worked closely in developing the book from start to finish. Vaccaro says of the collaboration, “It’s wonderful to have an opportunity to work with an expert such as Dr. Landram on developing her experience into a dissertation followed by an academic book.” Landram said of Vaccaro’s assistance “I am extremely grateful for my coauthor, Dr. Vaccaro, who did a lot of great things, one of those being that he was able to view the material from an academic perspective.”
One important takeaway from the book is that the use of humor in child welfare casework is heavily relied upon as a beneficial source of stress relief for both the mundane and traumatic experiences caseworkers encounter. Despite these positive benefits, humor in this context can also be quite problematic at times. Landram says the findings should leave the reader with some trepidation. “Just like social workers in the book, I am concerned with ethics and codes of conduct, and humor appears to challenge that at times.”
, published by Lexington Books, is available for presale.
A special discount of 30 percent is available when code LXFANDF30 is used when ordering.