UMB StaffMarie Nakhoul, MD, assistant professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine.“Unfinished Stories: A Book of Memory, Exile, and Return” (Independently published, 2025).
“Unfinished Stories” is a hybrid art‑poetry collection that weaves together 20 original paintings and 20 lyrical poems into a cohesive narrative of home, loss, and rebirth. Through richly textured visuals and spare, evocative verse, the book traces the arc of displacement — from the sun‑scorched streets of Beirut to the urban tapestry of Baltimore — and explores how memory both fractures and sustains us in exile. The work reflects on the ache of departure, the search for belonging, the quiet rituals of everyday resilience. It contains 20 pieces of moving abstract art that meet intimate confession in verse, inviting readers to inhabit moments of longing, joy, and quiet revelation.
Maureen Sweeney, JD, professor and director, Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, coauthor. “Crimmigration in a Nutshell” (West Academic Publishing, 2025).
Wondering where to begin when determining how to advise a noncitizen client of the potential immigration consequences of involvement with the criminal legal system? Trying to figure out if a conviction for your jurisdiction’s theft offense will make someone deportable? “Crimmigration Law in a Nutshell” provides an introduction that will open the door to a rewarding and intellectually stimulating area of the law. Practice at the intersection of immigration and criminal law is complex and often involves high-stakes consequences ranging from prolonged immigration detention to deportation. It can also be the key to keeping families together and transformational problem-solving for clients. This book guides the reader through the analysis required for these cases, as well as the best practices for representing noncitizens who are facing criminal charges, have been convicted of criminal activity, or are suspected of having engaged in criminal activity. Intended for students and practitioners venturing into a new area of practice, “Crimmigration Law in a Nutshell” is a helpful introduction for criminal and immigration practitioners.
Corey Shdaimah, PhD, LLM, LLB, Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, University of Maryland School of Social Work (UMSSW), coauthor. “Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World,” second edition (Sage Publications, 2025).
“Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World” offers an engaging, student-friendly approach that links policy and practice, while employing a critical analytic lens to U.S. social welfare policy. With particular attention to disparities based on class, race/ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and gender, the authors assess the impact of policies at the micro, meso, and macro levels. The authors provide a brief foundation in history, the policy process, and theory, while primarily helping students understand how policy shapes their lives, communities, and clients. Connecting description, theoretical analysis, and advocacy, this text challenges readers to critically assess policy development, its consequences, and future implications. Students will come away with a newfound understanding of how to use the political process to address social justice issues and advocate for meaningful policy change. New to this edition are a chapter on the making of race and structural oppression in the United States; updated alignment with the 2022 Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards; and updated references, data, and statistics to reflect the many changes in law and policy since the first edition.
Rabiat Akande, JD, associate professor, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. “Entangled Domains: Empire, Law and Religion in Northern Nigeria” (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
This work by Akanda, who joined Maryland Carey Law in 2024, has received several honors including special mention, the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) Book Prize; honorable mention, the Canadian Law and Society Association Wesley Pue Book Prize; and finalist, African Studies Association Book Prize. Set in Colonial Northern Nigeria, the book confronts a paradox: The state insisted on its separation from religion even as it governed its multireligious population through what remained of the precolonial caliphate. “Entangled Domains” grapples with this history to offer a provocative account of secularism as a contested yet contingent mode of governing religion and religious difference. Drawing on detailed archival research, Akande vividly illustrates constitutional struggles triggered by the colonial state’s governance of religion and interrogates the legacy of that governance agenda in the postcolonial state. This book is a novel commentary on the dynamic interplay among law, faith, identity, and power in the context of the modern state’s emergence from colonial processes.
Karen Hopkins, PhD, MSW, professor and co-director, Human Services Leadership and Management Certificate, UMSSW, co-editor. “Transforming the Human Service Workplace” (Routledge, 2025).
This book guides human service organizations in their transformative efforts to create greater workforce inclusion and well-being through a range of forward-thinking practices: promoting employee mental health; providing personal and professional wellness coaching; engaging in multisolving strategies; identifying supports for individuals as they enhance organizational climate; building meaningful evaluative practices with a focus on social justice; elevating the financial well-being of lower-wage workers; employing a trauma-informed model of leadership; and preparing graduate students with online and in- person pedagogies for inclusive supervision and leadership. Each chapter provides a unique voice and view into current needs and practices that human service managers grapple with in addressing, improving, and even transforming workforce well-being, inclusion, and leadership development. These thoughtful perspectives and proposed actions will prove inspiring in the daunting, yet incredibly important work carried out every day by nonprofit and public human service managers and in the professional discourses of human service leaders, researchers, and educators.
Michael Reisch, PhD, emeritus professor, UMSSW. “Social Policy and Social Justice: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Society,” fifth edition (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2025).
“Social Policy and Social Justice” is grounded in a clear conceptual framework of social justice. It offers rigorous, up-to-date analyses of contemporary social policy issues, contributed by leading experts in the field. The book examines the complex relationship between social policy and economic, social, and cultural transformation, while also addressing the persistent conflict between universal and population-specific approaches to social welfare. In addition, this book addresses the critical contextual components of social policy development and implementation (history, ideology, political economy, and culture), analyzes major substantive areas of policy (e.g., income support, health and behavioral health, social services), and provides content designed to strengthen students’ skills in policy analysis, critical thinking, and advocacy.
