In recent years, Professor Gross has involved himself in a project aimed at re-inventing the very nature of publications in social work by his adopting postmodern writing methods in the service of postmodern critique. For example, the year 2002 saw the publication of “ScienZart deconstructed to da Max: A (Post) Modest Proposal” and in 2003 “Witness Protection or I am a Seagull” appeared in Reflections: The Journal of Professional Helping, respectively. The Journal of Poetry Therapy published his “Deconstructing Death: Toward a Poetic Remystification and All That Jazz” also in 2003; several students contributed to the article by lending poems for inclusion. In 2005 The Journal of Sociology and Social Work published his article on the construction of aging masculinity in the era of Viagra and The Journal of Progressive Human Services published his “The End of Justice and the Last Brand.” This latter journal published “A Profession in Search of Sign Value” in 2007; moreover, he presented “LOVE minus ZERO/no limit…A Social Work Aesthetic beyond Absence and Nullification,” at the BPD Conference, Austin, TX, 2005 and in Los Angeles, Fall, 2006, he presented “In Search of the Sanguine: Blood on the Tracks.” Most recently, JPHS published his essay “On Our Hunger for Empty Calories in the Obama Campaign: Let Them Eat Hope” and a three-part poem on terrorism and AIDS, “AIDSwords.” In 2008, Professor Gross was named Book Review Editor of the international journal, The Journal of Progressive Human Services.

Papers delivered in 2009 include “The Radical Postmodern Writer” and “The Fatigue of Social Work/The Social Work of Fatigue” at the Social Work Action Alliance Conference in Louisville, KY, and “Anorexic Nation/Obese Culture” at Saint Rose (October, 2009).
In 1992 and 1994, Professor Gross delivered papers at the New York State Social Work Education Association’s annual meeting (one on AIDS plays and the other on Javanese shadow puppetry as means of delivering social work content on the micro and macro levels). In 1998, at the annual BPD Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he delivered “Gatekeeping for Cultural Competence Ready or Not: Some Post and Modernist Doubts,” which the Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work published in April, 2000. He presented three other papers at the BPD Conference in 2000 and 2001.

In November 2002, Gross presented the postmodern approach on a panel titled “Social Work Practice with an Older Adult: Teaching Through a Kaleidoscope of Relevant Theories” at the BPD conference in Pittsburgh. In March, 2003, he presented “Deconstructing Death…” at the National Gerontological Social Work conference and “Canditatus, Accreditatus, Ohgodhelpus: A Mock Opera in One Unnatural Act” for the Arts Program at CSWE’s Annual Program Meeting, both in Atlanta, GA and in 2004 he gave “The Viagra Dialogues: Medical Technology vs. Growing Old Disgracefully” at that conference held in Anaheim, CA.
In November, 2003, Professor Gross traveled to Reno, Nevada, for the annual national BPD Conference where he delivered two papers: “The End of Justice” and “Deconstructing the Domestic Violence Dominant Narrative…,” the latter of which he co-wrote with Professor Michael Bologna of the College’s Counseling Department. The following year at BPD he presented “‘A Profession in Search of Sign Value’ or ‘Positively Queen Jane’” in Detroit.

Professor Gross has remained active off campus. In the past, he served for several years on the International Adoption Advisory Board of Parson’s Family and Child Center, on K.A.F. (Korean American Families), an educational and support group for adoptive families, and on Camp Mujigae, a Korean Culture Camp for adoptees and their families. In 1996 Parson’s and the camp honored Gross, who with his wife Judi had adopted two children from Korea, for having been a co-founder of Mujigae, ten years earlier. In 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 Professor Gross served as a mentor for the Educational Leadership Corps for minority students interested in careers in higher education. For the past decade he has served on the advisory board of the Human Services Program at Schenectady County Community College. From 1999 to the present, Professor Gross has served on The Correctional Rehabilitation and Life Skills Committee established by the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission.

For community theatre he has directed major plays that highlight issues of diversity related to single parent families and the elderly. In Summer 2000 Professor Gross wrote and directed a postmodern adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull in collaboration with Tseyhaya and Company, a modern dance company specializing in African influences. Gross directed this dance-drama with a cast composed almost exclusively of minority children and teens from the Albany inner city. He served on the organization’s board and was instrumental in bringing Tseyhaya to the campus as Company-in-Residence, 2002-2003. Later that year he co-presented a workshop at the BPD conference on theatre of the oppressed. In 2005 he joined a task force to increase opportunities to increase opportunities for Hispanic persons in the field of health care.

From 2007-9, Professor Gross served as president of Our Town Theatre Group in North Creek, NY, where he has directed and/or choreographed four one-act plays written by local playwrights.

His major interest in diversity, however, rests with Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Island peoples, about whom he injects content in several courses. This area of interest found its way into two presentations, Fall, 2000 — one for the New York State Conference on Asian Studies and the other for the national BPD conference where he presented on the puppet theatres of India, Java, Vietnam, and Japan as cultural expressions of those four nations. In 2002-03 and 2003-04, Professor Gross chaired the year-long series, “The Year of Asia” at The College and presented “Southeast Asian Theatre: Dance, Trance, and Shadow,” based primarily on his brief field research in Bali the previous summer.

The year 2002 marked Greg’s 25th year at The College.
Gross currently serves on two advisory boards, the Human Services programs at Hudson Valley and Schenectady County Community Colleges.

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