On Caring|The Project was inspired by our observations of the many failures in caring exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We invite a conversation on what we care about, who we care about, and how we care. We seek foremost to press transdisciplinary ideas into the service of connecting theories, facts, and practices for thinking about what we might yet become, well beyond the welfare state and toward a caring society.

Our shared lives have led to shared thinking, ever-evolving and never-ending discussions about life, philosophy, social work, politics, and, of course: food, love, and work. One day in March, 2020, soon after the pandemic hit the news and Rutgers University moved classes online, we were having our usual early morning breakfast and palaver, and we said to ourselves: we must move beyond the world of print. We must challenge academic careerism. We must care about how and when we communicate.  On Caring | The Project was born. It is, however, the product of over forty-five years of those early morning exchanges, working, studying, reflecting, close reading, and hoping together for a better future. We borrow from our past, keeping closely in mind our present concerns, while always keeping an eye  on the future. We look forward to our conversations with you.

Jeffrey Longhofer, Ph.D., LCSW is an associate professor of social work at Rutgers University. Dr. Longhofer holds graduate degrees in anthropology and social work. He did his postgraduate psychotherapy training in child development and psychoanalysis and adult psychoanalysis at the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center (Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, accredited by the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Hanna Perkins Center. He is the past co-president (2017-2019) of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work.

Dr. Longhofer is a clinical social worker, applied anthropologist, and psychoanalyst, whose research focuses on mental health practice, mental health case management, psychiatric medication, and the roles that stigma and shame play in the social and psychological dynamics of practice. He specializes in psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. His career has been shaped by a concern for developing and disseminating experience-near analyses of human experience with the creative use of research methods from the allied disciplines of anthropology, social work, and psychoanalysis. Dr. Longhofer serves on the faculty of the The New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis and Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey He is licensed to supervise clinical social workers in New Jersey. Dr. Longhofer has conducted dozens of workshops and lectures on psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and the case study in clinical social work.

He has served as the associate editor for the Society for Applied Anthropology journal, Human Organization, and the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and as editor of the American Anthropological Association journal, Culture and Agriculture.

‍Jerry Floersch is an associate professor of social work at Rutgers University. Dr. Floersch is the author of Meds, Money, and Manners: The Case Management of Severe Mental Illness, published by Columbia University Press (2002), where, utilizing ethnographic and socio-historical methods, he examined the rise of community support services, the rise of the case manager and case management. He is a NIMH K08 recipient (2004-2009) for training in and development of qualitative methods to study youth subjective experience of psychotropic treatment. Dr. Floersch conducted a follow-up ethnography to Meds, Money & Manners, which led to a second book, On Having and Being a Case Manager (2010). His research/practice methodology is developed in a book Qualitative Methods for Practice Research (2013), published on Oxford University Press. From 2010 to 2017 he was the director of Rutger's DSW program, where he developed a case study method and curriculum for advanced clinical training. He is the past co-president (2017-2019) of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work. In 2019 he was inducted as a fellow in the Society for Social Work and Research, the flagship society for social work research.
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Dr. Floersch has practiced across many settings: in-patient hospitals, outpatient substance abuse, and community mental health centers. He conducted emergency psychiatric assessments and interventions in a large urban hospital for nearly 15 years and supervised a group home for individuals living with severe mental illness.  He utilizes a variety of psychodynamic theories and approaches. His research on adolescent subjective experience of psychiatric medications has led to an expertise in helping patients understand and take control of their particular medication narrative. He has expertise with adolescents and young adults, especially among those having difficulty making transitions from home to college, home to work, or from home to independent living.