Personal papers of Edward R. Canda

Edward R. Canda, born in 1954, attended Saint Charles Borromeo Elementary School and Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, Ohio. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in cultural anthropology from Kent State University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study East Asia philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. While there, he met Hwi-Ja and they would later be married in 1977.

Canda went on to earn a master’s degree in religious studies at the University of Denver in 1979 and a master’s and a doctorate in social work from Ohio State University in 1982 and 1986, respectively. He taught at the University of Iowa for three years before beginning a 30-year career in the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas (KU) in 1989.

Canda's scholarship encouraged the culturally appropriate, ethical incorporation of religious and non-religious spirituality into the practice of social work, especially in working with refugees and those with mental and physical health challenges and disabilities. Using the strengths perspective, honoring a client’s own goals, beliefs, and interests in a culturally sensitive way, Canda's work was informed by his own experience with the benefits of spiritual practice in dealing with cystic fibrosis.

Canda published widely in scholarly journals, books, and textbooks. His books Spiritual Diversity in Social Work and Contemporary Human Behavior Theory are widely cited and his work has been translated into multiple languages.

Among numerous other awards and honors, Canda received the Lifetime Achievement Award for innovations on spirituality through scholarship and education from the Council on Social Work Education in 2013. In 2021, the Society for Spirituality and Social Work honored him for founding the organization in 1990 and for ongoing leadership.

Edward Canda retired from KU in 2019 at which point he began working to ensure that the research and scholarship he created is freely available on the internet, KU Scholarworks, and ResearchGate.