Fulbright Scholar Zoë Kessler will be Working in the RSU Department of Welfare and Social Work This Spring

She defended her PhD thesis titled “Making new lives after exiting care: social orphans in Latvia” in 2021. Describing where her interest comes from, Kessler reveals that her personal experience working on the front lines of social work was the driving factor in building her career as a social worker.

Kessler is a Fulbright scholar and will continue to research the deinstitutionalisation process in Latvia including the life stories and life trajectories of young people who have lived in orphanages.

The lecturers and students from the RSU Department of Welfare and Social Work will have the opportunity to get acquainted with Kessler's research results, as well as to implement the project Fotobalsis (Photo Voices – Ed.), which will give insight into the lives of young people living in orphanages and break stereotypes. The work that the young people have created will be featured in a photography exhibition at RSU, Salem State University, and possibly elsewhere.