I found my professional, scholarly voice, so to speak, several times throughout my career. The first time occurred while a doctoral student at the University of Chicago. Simply put, everything came together when completing my historically-oriented dissertation, which focused on the role of the federal government in social welfare provisioning in the early twentieth century. Early drafts of the dissertation were quite convoluted and extensive. I felt sorry for Lynn Vogel who as chair of my dissertation committee had to…..
Much of my scholarship revolves around the role of government in the economy and society and social responses to people in need, animated by a sense of social justice for economically disadvantaged persons and families. These themes resonate well with the profession of social work, though not exclusively so. The profession afforded me the opportunity both to increase my understanding of human behavior and the social environment and to do something about changing for the better the lives of economically…..
I consider myself most fortunate in that mentors played pivotal roles at every turning point in my intellectual and career development from collage onwards. At Brooklyn College the historian Donald Gerardi and the sociologist Roberta Satow fostered and nurtured my intellectual curiosity at higher levels of education. At Iowa State University, Hamilton Cravens and Harold Sharlin furthered that development, as did Arthur Mann, Lynn Vogel, Frank Breul, and Donnell Pappenfort, among others, at the University of Chicago. It’s difficult to…..
Connecting the Dots recounts several pivotal moments, or forks in the road, that could have easily altered intellectual and career paths. Leaving New York to attend Iowa State University in 1972 was transformative – I came to realize how provincial growing up in Brooklyn, in the Big Apple, could be despite its size and diversity. Brooklyn and New York City receded from their centrality to my life, while subsequently Ames, IA, Phoenix, AZ, Chicago, IL, Philadelphia, PA, and Miami, FL…..
Hi, I’m Richard K Caputo, a Brooklyn-born under the radar Professor of Social Policy and Research at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work in New York City. In Connecting the Dots I chronicle and reflect on the my zigzag intellectual and career development, while acknowledging the mentors who helped shape my thinking and actions: primarily from undergraduate days at Brooklyn College during the late 1960s, through graduate study in history at Iowa State University and social work at Arizona State…..