As the life-threatening impacts of the climate crisis grow more aggressive each year, the Biden-Harris administration is implementing an all-of-government approach at the scale and speed this urgent situation demands. Vital to this mission is the U.S. Department of the Interior’s collaborative, on-the-ground efforts that bring local communities, Indigenous Knowledge and young people to the decision-making table. Through Secretary Haaland’s leadership, the Department is centering environmental justice and empowering communities with the tools and resources they need to protect our shared planet for current and future generations.
This ticketed event is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available from the Michigan Union Ticket Office (MUTO) beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Friday, March 8, 2024.
Award-winning journalist Kara Swisher has interviewed nearly every consequential innovator and tech entrepreneur working today. Her new memoir, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” is an insider’s tale of success, failure, hubris and optimism. As Detroit gains influence in technology and the EV revolution, Swisher sits down with Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, to discuss her new book and explore the dynamic interplay of legacy companies, innovation, strategic bets on the future, and tech’s potential to solve problems and not just create them.
Kara Swisher is the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, producer and host of the Recode Decode and Pivot podcasts, and co-executive producer of the Code Conference series. She also has a special series on MSNBC called Revolution on the impact of technology on work, society, and more, and is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times.
Mary Barra is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. She was elected Chair of the GM Board of Directors in 2016 and has served as CEO of GM since 2014. Under Barra’s leadership, GM envisions a world with zero crashes, to save lives; zero emissions, so future generations can inherit a healthier planet; and zero congestion, so customers get back a precious commodity – time. She is focused on creating the best customer experience and strengthening GM’s core vehicle and services business, while also working to deliver transformative technologies such as electrification, autonomous driving and software.
Historically, maps have served as a panoptic technology, assisting imperial powers in governance, discipline, and control. In this exhibit, internationally renowned Filipino artist Cian Dayrit acts as a counter-cartographer, reclaiming mapmaking as an emancipatory activity.
Dayrit’s artworks, embroidered on textiles or painted over collages of colonial-era maps, plot the extraction of natural resources, land grabbing, and dispossession and displacement in his native Philippines. At the same time, their resistant lines summon new imaginaries out of the overlaps between places and memories.
Dayrit’s practice is critically and practically informed by the narratives of Filipino communities. Items exhibited alongside his artwork are the result of map-drawing workshops the artist has convened with rural, urban, and indigenous communities across the Philippines. Propositions to Progress invites you to engage in the collaborative endeavor to activate alternative territories from the ground up.
Cian Dayrit is an interdisciplinary artist exploring colonialism and ethnography, archaeology, history, and mythology. Dayrit subverts the language of the state, museum, and military to visualize the contradictions on which these institutions are built. He studied at the University of the Philippines.
As the 2024 presidential campaign ramps up, candidates are facing pressure to pledge not to touch Social Security. While this pledge is framed as ‘protecting benefits,’ it is – in reality – an implicit endorsement of a 23 percent across-the-board benefit cut in 2033, when the Social Security retirement fund becomes insolvent. In that year, annual benefits would be cut by $17,400 for a typical newly retired dual-income couple.
US Budget Watch 2024 is a project of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget designed to educate the public on the fiscal impact of presidential candidates’ proposals and platforms. It does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.
Marc Goldwein is the Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, where he guides and conducts research on a wide array of topics related to fiscal policy and the federal budget. He is frequently quoted in a number of major media outlets and works regularly with Members of Congress and their staffs on budget-related issues.
Previously, Marc served as Associate Director of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (The Fiscal Commission) and senior budget analyst on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (The Super Committee). He also conducted research for the Government Accountability Office, the World Bank, the Historian’s Office at the Social Security Administration, and the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley.
In addition to his work at the Committee, Marc serves on Martha’s Tables’ Business Advisory Council and teaches economics at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California DC. Marc is the recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Excellence in Teaching award and was featured in the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for Law & Policy. He holds a BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University.
Housing Works brings together cutting-edge research and creative practices that are having a real impact in the development and provision of equitable housing. Addressing our national housing crisis requires profound changes in how we fund and build housing. These changes may involve overhauls of the existing regulatory system, significant expansion of different funding sources, and creative adoption of new design and construction methods. This symposium invites academic field-leaders to present their work toward enabling equitable housing across diverse domains and to share their experiences bridging academic institutions and public entities.
Housing Works is organized and hosted by the University of Michigan’s Collective for Equitable Housing (CEH). We bring together architecture, urban design, and urban planning faculty at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning to promote housing equity within the state of Michigan and beyond. By leveraging faculty expertise, funding, and community-based partnerships, CEH pursues research questions and impact-driven projects that address housing affordability, enable equitable development, and promote sustainable building design and practices.
This event is generously supported by the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Lecture Fund at Taubman College.
Join special guests Director of Community Health Services and the Manager of Ceasefire, Marshea Browner and Quincy Smith to dissect the intersectionality of public health and violence.
Emmanuel’s talk offers a critical examination of how cities utilize public resources, labor, land, and materials to address challenges and plan for the future of the built environment. The conversation explores SWF’s practice of re-mapping cities’ resources at its Communiversity to create true Common Wealth – the spaces, structures, networks, resources, and opportunities essential to mending the urban fabric, healing communities, and equipping our neighborhoods to thrive, rather than merely survive. The talk invites us to imagine: “What if??? What if…. neighborhood development took place on a human scale, fueled by the critical connections that cultivate the relationships and collective commitment to do the necessary work?”
Emmanuel Pratt is an Urban Designer, Artist, and MacArthur Fellow. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of Sweet Water Foundation. Emmanuel’s praxis is rooted in decades of work that interrogates the cross-sectionality of architecture, urban planning, agroecology, and human development. His work builds upon and moves beyond the theory of Communicative Action towards the creation of a new paradigm of Regenerative Neighborhood Development (RND). Emmanuel was a Harvard GSD Loeb Fellow in 2017, a 2019 Joyce Award recipient, and a 2019 MacArthur Fellow.
As a national leader in promoting an inclusive campus climate, the Trotter Multicultural Center serves as a campus facilitator, convener, and coordinator of cultural awareness and inclusive leadership education initiatives for students. The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is designed to increase healthy discourse and learning throughout the University of Michigan by inviting speakers from the political and public service sectors of national and international note. Our goal is to bring together bright minds with talks that are idea-focused on a wide range of subjects to foster learning, inspiration, and wonder – and provoke conversations that matter to students at the University of Michigan. The Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series is developed with the financial support of generous donor gifts.
In a conversation and book launch, Charles Waldheim and Jeffrey Nesbit will present Technical Lands: A Critical Primer.
Technical lands are spaces united by their “exceptional” status—their remote location, delimited boundary, secured accessibility, and hyper-vigilant management. Designating land as “technical” is thus a political act. Doing so entails dividing, marginalizing, and rendering portions of the Earth inaccessible and (in)visible. An anti-visuality of technical lands enables forms of hyper-visibility and surveillance through the rhetorical veil of technology. Including the political and physical boundaries, technical lands are used in highly aestheticized geographies to resist debate surrounding production and governance. These critical sites and spaces range from disaster exclusion and demilitarized zones to prison yards, industrial extraction, and airports and spaceports. The delineation and instrumentalization of technical land have increased in scale and complexity since the rise of neo-liberalization. And yet, the precise empirical and theoretical contours that define these geographies remain unclear. Technical Lands: A Critical Primer (Berlin: Jovis, 2022) assembles authors from a diverse array of disciplines, geographical specializations, and epistemological traditions to interrogate and theorize the meaning and increasing significance of technical lands.
Developing equitable and mutually beneficial partnerships with community members and organizations requires taking a critical look at how power operates in university-community partnerships. This interactive workshop will introduce participants to key principles of equity-focused community engagement and discuss how relationships of power shape university-community partnerships for research and student learning. We’ll consider how power operates in such areas as: the structure and terms of partnership agreements, participation dynamics in university-community projects, and funding/compensation. Participants will generate strategies for re-shaping inequitable power dynamics, share insights with colleagues, and identify ways to apply key principles to their own community-engaged work.
This session is designed especially for participants who are involved in (or interested in) community-engaged research, teaching & learning, project/program administration, and/or campus initiatives at Michigan.
Lori Lightfoot was the 56th mayor of Chicago, the second woman, first African-American female and first openly gay person to ever serve in that role. In conversation with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, she will reflect on her background and preparation for public service, the challenges she faced as mayor, and lessons about leading in crises. A proud U-M alum, she moved to Chicago in 1986 and held a number of prominent roles, including as Assistant US Attorney, President of the Chicago Police Board and Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force. During her term, she confronted multiple challenges, including the COVID 19 pandemic, public safety, the post George Floyd murder uprisings, the fight over good governance and anti-corruption efforts, expanding access to health care and mental health, and eliminating food deserts.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
Sopheap Pich is widely considered to be Cambodia’s most internationally prominent contemporary artist. In 1979, when the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia led to the ousting of the Khmer Rouge régime, he fled with his family to Thailand, spending four years in refugee camps before immigrating to the United States. Memories of traveling vast distances on foot and witnessing the devastation of war — broken bodies, ravaged landscapes, abandoned artillery, ruined buildings, and the breakdown of social and cultural institutions — underpin his early sculptural practice. While Pich studied painting, earning a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1995), and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999), he turned his attention to sculpture after returning to Cambodia in 2002 where he laboriously began working with local materials – bamboo, old rafters, rattan, burlap, beeswax, broken utensils, and earth pigments gathered from his local surroundings. Pich’s works have been collected and shown in many museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Centre George Pompidou, the Mori Art Museum, M+, and the National Gallery of Singapore, as well as many international exhibitions including the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), Documenta 13 (2012), the 6th Asia Pacific Triennale (2009), the Setouchi Triennale (2022), and the Guangju Biennale (2023), among others. He lives and works in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Pich’s work is featured in the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) exhibition Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia, curated by U‑M History of Art Professor Nachiket Chanchani and on view February 3 — July 2024. As crises of public health, racial injustice, economic instability, and climate change spread worldwide, millions are experiencing distress, conflict, indebtedness, and vulnerability. This mélange of unnerving emotions is hardly new for Cambodians. Between 1975 – 1979, when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, about a quarter of the country’s population died of infectious diseases, weapon wounds, and malnutrition. Bringing together more than eighty artworks spanning a millennium — including many on loan from collections worldwide — this landmark exhibition presents the visual culture of Cambodia and its diaspora and allows viewers to encounter the still-fresh scars of a genocide and of related upheavals and critically appreciate strategies evolved to nurture resilience.
The 2024 Doris Sloan Memorial Program is presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Established through the generosity of Dr. Herbert Sloan, this annual program honors one of the Museum’s most ardent friends and supporters, Doris Sloan, a long-time UMMA docent.
Lead support for Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia is provided by the U‑M Office of the Provost, the U‑M Office of the President, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the Eleanor Noyes Crumpacker Endowment Fund, and the U‑M Ross School of Business.
Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.
Dr. Rajiv Shah is the president of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. Shah will discuss his new book, “Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens” (Simon & Schuster, 2023), and how universities can embrace a big bets mindset of transformative change, especially as it relates to solving the climate crisis. In his talk, Shah will share a dynamic new model for creating lasting change, inspired by his own work and that of The Rockefeller Foundation on some of the biggest humanitarian efforts of the 21st century. Shah will draw from his experiences working as the 16th administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and his leadership roles at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The event will include an audience Q&A session and a book signing immediately following the talk. A limited number of books will be available for purchase.
This event is FREE and open to the public. Although you may have a ticket, it does not guarantee you a seat. We will be seating ticket holders first and recommend you are in your seat 10 minutes before the start of the event. We will start to let in general public seating 10 minutes prior to the event.
Hosted by the University of Michigan, the School for Environment and Sustainability, and the Frederick A. & Barbara M. Erb Institute, and co-sponsored by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, Graham Sustainability Institute, Global CO2 Initiative, Planet Blue, and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and Literati Bookstore.
Join us for a lunch and roundtable discussion with Iuliia Mendel & Kseniya Yurtayeva!
Iuliia is a well-known Ukrainian journalist who served as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former Press Secretary from June 2019 to July 2021. She is also the author of “The Fight of Our Lives (2022).” Her work has been featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times, Politico Europe, VICE, The Evening Standard, World Affairs Journal, Kyivpost, Spiegel Online, and CNBC. Currently, she is the WCEE Distinguished Fellow and Knight-Wallace Fellow.
Kseniya Yurtayeva is a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan. Her research centers on cyberaggression in contemporary warfare and navigating post-truth for international justice. Kseniya teaches the course “Theory of Hybrid Conflicts in the Context of Russia-Ukraine War” in CREES . She is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs.
In commemoration of the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Taubman College’s MLK Planning Committee is proud to host the 2024 MLK Symposium. Our featured panel will transcend conventional narratives and challenge us to move beyond performative activism. Our distinguished panel of faculty, alumni, and students will engage in a profound exploration of going beyond performative activism to create effective and transformative change.
After extensive years of formulating strategies and emphasizing the significance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, how can we move beyond theoretical discussions to generate a more substantial impact, addressing the challenges faced by People of Color (POC) communities across various domains, especially within academia? Given the ongoing global and university-wide transformations, it is imperative, now more than ever, for the Taubman community to proactively address these challenges that move beyond performative allyship and towards genuine inclusivity/action.
The International Policy Research Seminar (IPRS) is a multi-disciplinary speaker series that showcases research-in-progress on international phenomena presented by invited (external) faculty guests. This year’s theme is “Constructing and Destructing Global Orders.” Please join Dr. Tamma Carleton as she discusses her climate change-focused research.
Since 9/11 and the global War on Terror, we have seen the racial projects of Islamophobia grow to dangerous ends, targeting Muslims and those who ‘appear’ Muslim as unassimilable Others to be surveilled, contained, and eliminated. At the same time, we have seen growing coalitions of diverse Muslim, Middle Eastern, and Arab Americans coming together to challenge anti-Muslim politics and the systems that legitimize them. These solidarity politics have found roots in the legacies of Dr. King and the Black freedom struggle. However, recognizing the interconnection between Muslim immigrants and Black Americans has been a longer and more complicated journey that offers us all lessons for the deep divides that face us today. This talk draws on archival data and focus groups to trace the strategic trajectory of Muslim American activism from histories of aspirational whiteness to futures of intersectional coalitions. Muslim activists progress from early strategies centered on maintaining their distance from Black identity and history to eventual strategies that use the memory of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement as a cultural bridge, joining Muslim identity with Black identity in multiracial coalitions. What results from this new understanding of “who we are” is not only a reclamation of what it means to be American but also an emancipatory conception of what it means to belong to a human community across borders, boundaries, and time.
Speaker
Hajar Yazdiha, Assistant Professor of Sociology University of Southern California
The Washington Post has examined both the devastation caused by AR-15 assault rifles as well as its allure for segments of American society, in a 13-part series.
Photo editor Kainaz Amaria, series editor Peter Wallsten, and reporter Silvia Foster-Frau, will speak about their reporting on “The gun that divides a nation – revered as a modern-day musket; reviled as a tool for mass killers.”
The series can be seen here. A warning that many of the images are disturbing.
Kainaz Amaria oversees immersive, visual-first stories for the National desk at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Kainaz was Vox’s first-ever visuals editor. And before that she was an editor on NPR’s Visual Team, where she had multiple roles in NPR’s “Planet Money Makes a T-shirt” project, including managing producer, photographer and videographer. The project won NPR numerous awards, including a News and Documentary Emmy. In 2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar and completed a short film on the Parsi Zoroastrian community in Mumbai. In 2020, Amaria was honored with the John Long Ethics Award by the National Press Photographers Association for her writing and criticism on the photojournalism industry and visual language. Kainaz began her career as a local newspaper photographer.
Peter Wallsten is senior national investigations editor. He has led or helped oversee four Pulitzer Prize winning lines of coverage as an editor on The Washington Post’s National staff. Most recently, he shepherded The Post’s abortion coverage in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v Wade, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting. He has served as The Post’s senior politics editor, leading political coverage during the Trump administration, and was the founding editor of the paper’s Politics Investigations and Enterprise team. Before becoming an editor in 2013, Wallsten was a White House correspondent for The Post and a political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he was editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
Silvia Foster-Frau is a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post who explores the impacts of America’s changing racial, ethnic and cultural demographics. She also has covered several mass shootings, including in Sutherland Springs, Atlanta, Uvalde, Nashville and Allen, among others. Silvia won the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s Elaine Rivera Civil Rights and Social Justice award in 2022 for her work on the largely untold crisis of police violence against Latinos. She joined The Post in February 2021 from the San Antonio Express-News, where she covered immigration and border security, winning Texas APME Star Reporter of the Year in 2019. Silvia is vice president of NAHJ’s D.C. Chapter.
Join New York Times journalist and author Rachel Swarns as she discusses her book The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold To Build the American Catholic Church, a story of servitude and slavery spanning nearly two centuries and detailing the beginnings of Georgetown University and the U.S. Catholic Church. Swarns’s journalism started a national conversation about universities with ties to slavery. This is a 2024 U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium event and is free and open to the public.
Registrations are not required, but allow us to send you event updates and reminders. Click here for more information.
Foundations of Community Engagement is an interactive workshop that introduces principles and practices of equitable, ethical community engagement. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of what the term “community engagement” means, as well as the many forms it might take - from research and course-based projects to philanthropy, activism, policy, and direct service. Across all these forms of engagement, participants will learn concepts and actions that promote equitable partnerships, center community-defined priorities, and disrupt entrenched power dynamics between universities and community members. Participants will also discuss real-world community engagement scenarios that ask them to apply what they’ve learned in the workshop to various situations.
**New for 2023-24, this workshop is an updated version of Ginsberg’s long-standing Entering, Engaging, and Exiting (E3) session. If you’ve attended that session in the past, you’ll gain additional knowledge from this session.**
The talk will discuss the various ways Lori has responded to pressing issues of our time. Lori will present an overview of key aspects of ongoing research, advocacy, and activism that have focused on topics from immigration and the border, equity within the built environment, to reproductive justice. All provide various opportunities to intersect with law, policy, and the built environment.
Lori Brown’s creative practice examines the relationships between architecture and social justice with particular emphasis on gender and its impact upon spatial relationships. She is the author of Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals, the editor of Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture and the forthcoming Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960-2020 co-edited with Dr. Karen Burns. She is the co-founder and leads ArchiteXX, a gender equity in architecture organization in New York City. Brown is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a 2021 Architectural League of New York Emerging Voices recipient. She is a Distinguished Professor at the School of Architecture Syracuse University and a registered architect in New York state.
The Ford School will welcome Montgomery, AL, Mayor Steven Reed to Weill Hall for an event on Tuesday, Jan. 16, in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Following remarks, he will sit down with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes for a conversation.
Mayor Reed is serving his second term, and has led initiatives on job growth, increased investment in public schools, and public safety and neighborhood collaborations.
Mayor Reed is a lifelong public servant and leader who previously served as Montgomery County, Alabama’s first Black and youngest elected Probate Judge. You can read more about his professional background here.
Beyond his civic engagements, Mayor Reed is an accomplished author. His memoir “FIRST, BEST: Lessons in Leadership and Legacy from Today’s Civil Rights Movement” reflects on his childhood and circuitous path to becoming Montgomery’s first Black mayor. Copies of the book will be available to the first 50 attendees.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
Free and open to the public (refreshments served).
REGISTER HERE
The rich, complex, hopeful story of today’s rural America too often goes untold or misrepresented, but a cadre of vocal rural champions are working to change that. Join us for an intimate conversation between two leading voices for rural prosperity: Tony Pipa (Scholar, Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution, and Host, Reimagine Rural Podcast), who will share his experiences visiting rural communities across the country, and Sarah Lucas (Director, Office of Rural Development, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development), who will highlight inspiring stories from within the state of Michigan.
The 2023 Mayors Forum will focus on topics particular to Big Ten college cities including development of infrastructure that promotes social cohesion, challenges and opportunities of creating an infrastructure for urban technology, and campus and community participation in local elections. Join us for a conversation with Mayor Fazlul Kabir of College Park, MD; Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, WI; and Mayor Christopher Taylor of Ann Arbor, MI moderated by Jim Throgmorton, Professor Emeritus University of Iowa School of Planning and Public Affairs and former mayor of Iowa City. This annual event brings together mayors virtually to timely topics of national importance that manifest at the municipal level and insights on how leadership at the city level shapes our national approaches to some of the most pressing issues of the day.
This virtual event will have a live watch party for the University of Michigan community at Taubman College Art and Architecture Building Auditorium (Room 2104), 2000 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor. Portions of the event will be filmed and live-streamed from the watch party. All are welcome to attend; dinner will be provided.
Sponsors:
- Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century
- Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, University of Michigan (CLOSUP)
- Democracy & Debate 2023-’24, University of Michigan
- Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
- Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan
Join us for our Fall 2023 Democracy in Crisis event, a conversation with Jake Tapper, CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent, and Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House Center for Journalists. Their wide-ranging discussion will cover the state of democracy and the role and responsibility of the press in a democratic society, as well as how Tapper’s experience of being an anchor and correspondent informs his craft of writing fiction.
Tapper’s newly released book, “All the Demons Are Here,” will be available for purchase at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program.
This event is presented by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in partnership with the Wallace House Center for Journalists, and U-M Democracy & Debate. Co-sponsored by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan.
Thank you to our media partners at Detroit Public Television (DPTV).
Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press
A special event featuring CNN anchor and Chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”
CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined the network in January 2013. Tapper currently anchors a two-hour weekday program, The Lead with Jake Tapper, which debuted in March 2013. He has hosted CNN’s Sunday morning show, State of the Union, since June 2015. In April 2021, he became the lead anchor for CNN for Washington, D.C. events.
This is a non-ticketed event and is free and open to the public. Registrations are not required but allow us to send you event updates and reminders. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
About the series: Democracy in Crisis
In Spring 2022, the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Wallace House Center for Journalists, and Democracy & Debate launched the series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press,” launched a series featuring award-winning journalists to share their insights into the forces threatening and protecting American democratic structures and systems. The series - which will continue into the 2023-24 academic year - also explores the current state of journalism and the role of the press in upholding democratic institutions.
Are you passionate about:
- Criminal Justice Reform
- Voting Rights
- Equity in Democracy
Democracy is a Verb, are you ready to:
- Step into the shoes of a senator - no experience required
- Grapple with the complexities of democracy in action
- Explore the implications of different state policies on voting rights
The Democracy Restoration Act:
Students from across the Big Ten are invited to participate in this virtual policy simulation on a bill that aims to establish a federal mandate that restores voting rights to all individuals upon their release from incarceration in an attempt to address the disparities in felony disenfranchisement laws across the nation. – the Democracy Restoration Act of 2023 (S. 1667).
Making a Difference Together:
Worried you won’t understand policy talk? Unclear about a policy simulation? Don’t be! This is a learning experience for everyone, and democracy thrives when diverse backgrounds participate. You will have the opportunity to play the role of a senator working to move a bill out of committee. This event is for anyone who’s curious about how policies are created and want to have a say in shaping the future.
Guided by Experts:
Led by University of Michigan’s Elisabeth Gerber, the Jack L. Walker, Jr. Professor of Public Policy and director of the Program in Practical Policy Engagement at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, this event will allow students to come together and engage in the process of creating legislation.
Gain Recognition:
Students who complete the policy simulation will receive a digital badge that recognizes their participation and skills developed in this learning experience.
Shape Democracy - Join Us:
We encourage U-M students from all areas of study to participate! To take part in this event, please fill out the form below by DATE. Questions? Contact Catherine Carver (cmccurra@umich.edu).
The Honorable Shalanda H. Baker is the Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy and Secretarial Advisor on Equity. Prior to her Senate confirmation, she served as the Nation’s first-ever Deputy Director for Energy Justice. Before joining the Biden-Harris Administration, she was a Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University.
Moderated by Liesl Eichler Clark, Director, Sustainability Climate Action Engagement
Women’s rights have been at the forefront of policy conversations over the past few decades, especially recently. Join P3E for a discussion of policy perspectives on women’s rights issues with Christie Baer, Center on Finance, Law & Policy Assistant Director; Mara Ostfeld, Associate Faculty Director, Poverty Solutions; Research Director, Center for Racial Justice; Assistant Research Scientist, Ford School; and Faculty Associate, Center for Political Studies; Tonya Burns, Flint city councilmember; and Missy Stults, Sustainability and Innovations Director for the City of Ann Arbor. By sharing the experiences and knowledge gained throughout their journeys, our panelists aim to inspire hope and action for the future of public policy for American women.
CREES Noon Lecture
In Russia and the Baltic states, competing ideologies of sovereignty have defined their positions in international relations and towards the war in Ukraine. I discuss how Russia’s sovereign ideologies of a great power and Lithuania’s as its victim were mutually constitutive after the collapse of the USSR. After 2014, the Baltics’ radical politics of sovereignty, grounded in its history of occupation and resistance against the USSR/Russia, has become a framework to imagine the imminent war and, after 2022, the future of Europe with its center in the East.
This lecture will be presented in person in 555 Weiser Hall and on Zoom. Webinar registration required at http://myumi.ch/NmNMq
Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press
Democracy & Debate, in collaboration with Wallace House Center for Journalists and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, presents CNN Chris Wallace and Governor Gretchen Whitmer as part of the continuing series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.” Join this hour-long special event with Mr. Wallace and Governor Whitmer as they discuss politics, public service, the media, and the state of our democracy, with opening remarks by the University of Michigan President Santa Ono.
Tickets and waitlist
Tickets are required for this event. Tickets were first released to University of Michigan students and friends of Wallace House, and are now all claimed.
Interested attendees are encouraged to sign up for the waitlist here to receive information on seat openings.
The event will also be live-streamed here.
CREES Noon Lecture
In Russia and the Baltic states, competing ideologies of sovereignty have defined their positions in international relations and towards the war in Ukraine. Neringa Klumbytė, associate professor of anthropology and Russian and post-Soviet studies at Miami University, discusses how Russia’s sovereign ideologies of a great power and Lithuania’s as its victim were mutually constitutive after the collapse of the USSR. After 2014, the Baltics’ radical politics of sovereignty, grounded in its history of occupation and resistance against the USSR/Russia, has become a framework to imagine the imminent war and, after 2022, the future of Europe with its center in the East.
As an 18th century sugar plantation turned historic site, Whitney Plantation welcomes thousands of visitors annually to discuss the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendants on Louisiana plantations and the legacies of slavery that still impact our communities today. For many of the staff, this unique work becomes personal. During this interactive presentation, Director of Education Amber Mitchell will discuss how her journey as a descendant and public historian combine to create experiences that encourage learners to listen, think, communicate, and activate.
This session is sponsored by Rackham’s Mellon Public Engagement and the Humanities program and is open to all students on campus interested in the topic.
Registration is required at https://myumi.ch/Gk1Gn.
Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press
Wallace House Presents journalist and educator Jelani Cobb,in conversation with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, as part of the continuing series: “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press.”
Cobb’s talk looks at the historic challenges to democracy that centered around race, the impact of the media, and how this frames and informs the current moment.
About the series: Democracy in Crisis
In Spring 2022, Democracy & Debate, the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Wallace House launched the series “Democracy in Crisis: Views from the Press,” hosting four award-winning journalists to share their insights into the forces threatening and protecting American democratic structures and systems. The series - which will continue into the 2022-23 academic year - also explores the current state of journalism and the role of the press in upholding democratic institutions.
This in-person event will also be live-streamed. A video recording will also be available on our website after the event.
This event is presented in partnership with U-M Democracy & Debate, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Wallace House.
Join us for a screening and discussion of the film While at War (Mientras Dure La Guerra). Set in the first months of the Spanish Civil War, this riveting and timely drama from acclaimed writer-director Alejandro Amenábar tracks the country’s slide into nearly four decades of fascism under dictator Francisco Franco.
Julián Casanova is professor of contemporary history at the University of Zaragoza and visiting professor at the Central European University of Vienna. He has authored and co-authored important books on the history of Spain, the Spanish Civil War, and Franco’s Spain which were published, in English, by Routledge, Cambridge University Press, and I.B. Tauris. His latest book, Indomitable Violence: A History of Twentieth-Century Europe, was published in 2020, with a remarkable impact and several editions, and will be translated by Princeton University Press. In addition to his scholarship, Casanova is a frequent contributor to the Spanish newspaper El País, and serves as a historical consultant in the television and film industry, both in documentaries and TV series and films. He is in residence at the University of Michigan for the 2022-23 academic year as the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia Distinguished Fellow.
Shelley Sang-Hee Lee (American Studies, Brown) discusses her latest book Koreatown, Los Angeles: Immigration, Race & the ‘American Dream.’
Beginning with the early development of LA’s Koreatown and culminating with the 1992 Los Angeles riots and their aftermath, Lee demonstrates how Korean Americans’ lives were shaped by patterns of racial segregation and urban poverty, and legacies of anti-Asian racism and orientalism. Koreatown, Los Angeles tells the story of an American ethnic community often equated with socioeconomic achievement and assimilation, but whose experiences as racial minorities and immigrant outsiders illuminate key economic and cultural developments in the United States since 1965.
A festival-style concert with the five finalists of the Songs for Democracy student competition at historic Hill Auditorium. Come hear University of Michigan’s amazing talents and vote for your favorite song for democracy! Angela Harrelson, aunt of George Floyd and author of Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd’s Murder Changed The World, will open the concert, and the Michigan Fanfare Band will kick off the music. Emceed by renowned executive artist Mike Ellison and WDET host and Detroit legend, Ann Delisi, this free evening of music will delight and inspire you to make a difference!
(First 200 students in the door get a free Democracy & Debate “Democracy is a Verb” t-shirt or tote bag!)
Sponsored by University of Michigan’s Democracy & Debate and the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, with support from the Digital Media Commons Studios at the Duderstadt Center.
The Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes Angela Harrelson to the Ford School of Public Policy and the University of Michigan for the Masterclass in Activism. Angela Harrelson is the aunt of George Floyd, a Caretaker of the George Floyd Global Memorial that commemorates the site of George Floyd’s murder, the co-chair of the memorial’s board of directors, and the author of Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd’s Murder Changed The World. Joined in conversation by Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes, the interim dean of Ford School and founding director of the Center for Racial Justice, Ms. Harrelson will share her experience with tragedy, her path to racial justice activism, the organic growth of the memorial as a site of international outpouring of commemoration, and the power of community activism to preserve history and propel change.
Titus Kaphar is an artist whose paintings, sculptures, and installations examine the history of representation by transforming its styles and mediums with formal innovations to emphasize the physicality and dimensionality of the canvas and materials themselves. His work, Flay (James Madison), is the centerpiece of Unsettling Histories: Legacies of Slavery and Colonalism, UMMA’s reinstallation of our gallery of eighteenth century European and American art. Through the acts of shredding, cutting, shrouding, tarring, erasing, breaking and nailing, Kaphar’s portrait of James Madison sheds light on unspoken truths in our country’s history, examining how histories have been rewritten, distorted, reimagined, and understood.
Titus’s talk is presented in partnership with The University of Michigan Museum of Art as part of the 2023 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium and is supported by the U‑M Arts Initiative, U‑M Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and U‑M Democracy & Debate. Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio
Please join us for a WCED lecture featuring Basak Gemici, a political sociologist whose research focuses on regime change, authoritarian populism, and conflict in everyday life using feminist research practice.
The last two decades mark a continuous growth of authoritarian populism globally. What effects does authoritarian populism have on daily interactions? How do historically vulnerable social groups experience and respond to these effects? This presentation will explain how people negotiate the boundary-shifting effects of authoritarian populism in daily life and the mechanisms of intensifying civilian disciplinary actions in step with institutionalized authoritarian populism and formal state repression, focusing on Turkey.
This lecture will be presented in person in 555 Weiser Hall and on Zoom. Webinar registration required at http://myumi.ch/P1eGq
Join STAMPS for a final event to celebrate the powerful work of MacArthur Genius Awardee LaToya Ruby Frazier, who collaborated with artists and activists Shea Cobb, Amber Hasan and their families documenting, from 2016 — 2021, how they coped with one of the most devastating man-made ecological crises in the US, the Flint Water Crisis.
“The Water Remembers” is a performance by Flint-based artist collective, The Sister Tour. This special event is a performative ethnographic experience that reframes and illuminates the spiritual and physical connections (and at times complicated relationships) between Black Women and Water. The performance features: Shea Cobb aka Phiresis, Zion Brown, Amber Hasan, Os’Zaria Terry-Dye, London Spearman, Ashlynn Spearman, Niecole Middleton aka Big Juicy, Oliser Terry-Dye, and DeShano Demps Jr.
The event will be followed by a post-performance conversation with the performers and a reception with light refreshments.
Flint Is Family In Three Acts is a multi-part exhibition by renowned artist LaToya Ruby Frazier. For five years, Frazier researched and collaborated with two poets, activists, mothers and residents of Flint, Michigan, Shea Cobb and Amber Hasan, as they endured one of the most devastating ecological crises in U.S. history. Resulting in a monumental oeuvre of photographs, video, and texts Frazier developed Flint Is Family In Three Acts (2016−2021) to advocate for access to clean and safe drinking water for all regardless of race, religion and economic status. The series records stories of surviving and thriving, especially within racialized and marginalized neighborhoods in Flint, to ensure that they remained visible in national debates concerning environmental justice. Drawing inspiration from the urgency in Frazier’s work, which also sheds light on building equitable and inclusive futures, Stamps Gallery, part of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, initiated a partnership with the Flint Institute of Arts and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University to bring this important exhibition together for the first time in Michigan. As co-presenters of this landmark exhibition, our goal is to offer a creative pedagogical platform that reaches broader audiences across Michigan and beyond — Flint is Family: Act I(2016−2017) will take place at the Flint Institute of Arts, Act II (2017−2019) at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and Act III (2019) at Stamps Gallery. The exhibition served as a catalyst to bring three disparate institutions together to deepen our understanding of individual and institutional agency in advocating for equity, transparency and environmental justice in our respective communities, while also highlighting the role of the artist as an agent for enacting positive social change.
Curated by Srimoyee Mitra, Tracee Glab, and Steven L. Bridges with the assistance of Jennifer Junkermeier-Khan, Rachel Winter, and Rachael Holstege.
Stamps Gallery launched Respond/Resist/Rethink in the fall 2020 to kick off the fall semester with student work paired with the work of leading artists exhibiting at the Gallery. In this semester’s exhibition, students responded to the prompt: The care, sustainability, and access to free and clean water is arguably one of the most urgent and challenging issues of our time. “What can you do to spread awareness of water issues and conservation measures?”
Water is the lifeblood of civilizations, the center of cities, the foundation of creation stories and the connective tissue of culture. Water is a life force, without it humanity will cease to exist. Fresh water is necessary for the survival of all living organisms on Earth. The human body is made up of over 60% water and humanity cannot survive without it. Water is a vital life source that holds (and generates) power. It is nourishing, quenching, and refreshing but has also been commodified, polluted, and politicized.
From the Standing Rock, Leech Lake and Fond du Lac reservations, to the straits of Mackinac where oil pipelines threaten important waterways, to the polluted Mississippi River and drying Colorado River Basin, to water shutoffs in Detroit, PFAs in Ann Arbor, and the Flint Water crisis (to name just a few), ensuring access to clean water (and the sustainable ecologies it supports) is an ongoing struggle that requires intersectional, intergenerational, and collective knowledge sharing, discussion and action to protect.
Please join us for the Martin Luther King Jr. Colloquium featuring journalist jarret hill.
jarrett hill is an award-winning journalist, writer, and an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. He currently serves as President of the National Association of Black Journalists’ of Los Angeles (NABJLA). As a leader at NABJLA, jarrett has advocated for journalists in commercial and public media as well as on the state level. He’s reported on and worked for more effective diversity, equity, & inclusion strategies, fair treatment of Black journalists, and making a better environment at work for journalists and communications professionals.
jarrett co-hosts FANTI from Maximum Fun with Tre’vell Anderson, chosen as one of Apple Podcasts’ “Best of 2020.” The show covers pop culture and politics with an intersectional, nuanced eye. Also with Anderson, their book, “Historically Black Phrases” (2023, Penguin Random House’s Ten Speed Press), is “the ultimate love letter to Black language and people.”
hill will speak from the lens of the book in Historically Black Phrases: Musings on The Black Church’s Influence on Black Language & Popular Culture. hill will consider Dr. King’s use of language to influence the Civil Rights movement, paired with how the Black church has influenced Black people and, in turn, broader popular culture.
in 2016, jarrett made international headlines after breaking the story of Michelle Obama’s speech being plagiarized by Melania Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He was named later that year to the 2016 Ebony Power 100. jarrett’s contributed to MSNBC, NBC News, CNN, NPR and others, and has bylines in the New York Times, Variety, and many others.
Join Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt and Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes for a conversation at the intersection of law, policy, and the criminal justice system.
As a 10th District Court of Appeals Judge for the State of Ohio, Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt will offer her perspective on what policymakers need to know about the criminal justice system.
Judge Beatty Blunt will offer firsthand knowledge about the criminal justice system, focusing on the inner workings of the local and national court systems, as well as the role of a judge as both a policy implementer and policy interpreter. Together, Dean Watkins-Hayes and Judge Beatty Blunt will discuss how social context–including race, gender, poverty, and education–shapes criminal justice pathways and outcomes.
According to pundits and some scholars, the American public is deeply split into rival camps that intensely dislike each other and their political views. Many liberals don’t understand conservatives and project their worst images on them; many conservatives act similarly. Social media can sometimes seem like a war zone. Political intolerance and extremism seem rife among Americans.
However, much of this reporting misses the larger reality that most Americans do not live at the political extremes. Analyzing support for political tolerance over time, public opinion trends point to what some will view as a surprising finding. In line with Inglehart’s social modernization theory, political tolerance has steadily increased over the past forty years, including during the early years of the Trump administration. This untold story suggests a reassessment of the American public and the potential for democratic renewal.
Besides upending international norms and causing immense suffering, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also heightened the communication freeze between Russian and American diplomats. In fact, all levels of communication between Moscow and Washington – official, professional, and people-to-people – have stalled at this point. Public opinion surveys represent one of the few remaining ways for policymakers, journalists, experts, and the interested public to stay informed about attitudes in Russia today. The joint public opinion research project started by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center in 2017 provides critical information about public perceptions of central elements of the bilateral relationship and global affairs more broadly. The two most recent rounds of the survey, conducted in the United States and Russia in March and November 2022, focus on the war in Ukraine. This presentation will unpack the results of these surveys, with a specific focus on which narratives about the conflict are having the most influence on public perception, what paths to a resolution of the conflict each public might see as acceptable, and how opinion has evolved over the past year. The talk will also look to the future, touching on the threats that both publics sense going forward, and the views of younger generations of Russians and Americans.
The talk will feature Stepan Goncharov, Head of Applied Research Department, Levada Center; Dina Smeltz (MA REES ’92), Senior Fellow for Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; and Denis Volkov, Director, Levada Center.
For this hybrid lecture, Dina Smeltz will be on campus with Denis Volkov and Stepan Goncharov participating remotely. Attendees can join us in person in 555 Weiser Hall or on Zoom at https://myumi.ch/pZQxj
When the university fails, who steps up? Join the students of History 294/Amcult 301 for a historical campus walking tour about UMich student activism on Tuesday, December 6th at 1:00PM on the front steps of the Michigan Union. “Paths of Protest” disrupts university narratives of progress and instead centers students as the agents of change on campus. This hour-long tour includes stops at ten different historical campus sites, and free hot chocolate will be served afterwards.
Register to attend here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccGRMfOF43IN-4QfctFjWLxzIQtGExzSYhzLY5DFgNoYV9dg/viewform
2022 CMENAS Fall Colloquium: Higher Education & Reformation across the MENA: A Geopolitical Exploration
In the current context of globalization, social scientists have examined the mechanisms by which organizational practices are transferred when transnational corporations establish subsidiaries in other countries. Comparatively little work, however, has been done on the challenges of transplanting, from one cultural and political context to another, an institution of higher education or a particular model for how higher education should be practiced. The talk will focus on the political, economic, and cultural challenges of exporting the “American model of education” to the Arab States of the Gulf.
In recent years, China’s human rights practices have been the subject of mounting international attention and concern. Crackdowns on protesters, the situation in Xinjiang, and other developments have raised questions about international actors’ willingness and ability to address human rights issues within China. This virtual panel will examine China’s relationship with the global human rights system. Three noted experts - Sarah M. Brooks, Rosemary Foot, and Rana Siu Inboden - will share insights drawn from academic study, civil society engagement, and diplomatic practice. They will discuss how China advances its objectives relating to human rights within international forums, examining how China promotes its ideas and seeks to shape the institutional design of bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Security Council, and the Chinese-led South-South Forum on Human Rights. They will analyze how China has sought to constrain these and other key human rights institutions and mechanisms and the practical effects of its efforts on human rights behavior, and share insights about the challenges and opportunities for diplomacy and for civil society engagement to address China’s human rights practices and those of other authoritarian states.
Michigan’s new approach to redistricting by an independent citizens commission has now come full circle, from signature gathering for the statewide ballot initiative in 2018, to strong statewide support in that fall’s election, creation of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, their work drawing new districts with extraordinary input from Michigan citizens, and now the new districts being used for the first time in the 2022 elections.
Join us for a final webinar in our redistricting series, to look back at this consequential change in state policy and to review how this new approach played out this fall, including its impacts on races and election outcomes, and how it compares to experiences in other states. We’ll hear from an expert panel covering these and related issues, including their reactions to audience questions.
Moderator: Matt Grossmann, Director, Institute for Public Policy and Social Research of Political Science at Michigan State University
Panelists
- Moon Duchin, MGMG Redistricting lab
- Zach Gorchow, Executive Editor and Publisher at Gongwer News Service Michigan
- Nancy Wang, Executive Director, Voters Not Politicians
This virtual event is hosted by the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, Voters Not Politicians (VNP), and Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR), with support from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
The viewing link will be emailed to registrants one day before the event.
Join the Donia Human Rights Center for a panel discussion moderated by Omolade Adunbi, director of the African Studies Center at the University of Michigan.
In February 2023, Nigerians will elect new representatives including a new president. This election would mark Nigeria’s 24 years of a post-military authoritarian multi-party democracy. Nigeria transitioned to democracy in May 1999 after several decades of military rule. Since the transition to Democracy, the country has been bedeviled with challenges of insecurity as result of Islamist insurgency in the Northeast, oil insurgency in the Niger Delta, Biafra separatist in the East and agitation for fiscal federalism in the West. Many of these challenges have resulted in gross violations of human rights and erosion of democratic institutions. At the same time, the elections in 2023 gives a new generation of voters, mainly youths, a hope of heralding a new era of political and economic reforms that could help strengthen democratic institutions in the country. Therefore, this panel brings together experts on elections, democracy and human rights to interrogate the future of democratic practices in Nigeria. This panel will examine the prospects for 2023 elections. Will the surge in new voter registration orchestrated by youths through social media platforms herald a new political era in Nigeria? Will the election be a return to the status quo? Will questions of human rights shape electioneering campaigns? Will violence play a role in the election? And, most fundamentally, will these elections reflect the will of the Nigerian electorate, or will ethnicity and religion play an outsized role in Nigerians’ electoral choices?
Panelists:
- Idayat Hassan, Executive Director, Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja, Nigeria
- Ebenezer Obadare, Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC
- Anne Pitcher, Professor, Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies and Political Science, University of Michigan
The Clements Bookworm: Author Conversation with Michael Witgen
Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America
Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining thousands of acres of their homeland in what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Their success rested partly on their roles as sellers of natural resources and buyers of trade goods, which made them key players in the political economy of plunder that drove white settlement and U.S. development in the Old Northwest. But, as Michael Witgen demonstrates, the credit for Native persistence rested with the Anishannabeg themselves. Outnumbering white settlers well into the nineteenth century, they leveraged their political savvy to advance a dual citizenship that enabled mixed-race tribal members to lay claim to a place in U.S. civil society.
This event is part of Native American Heritage Month at U-M: https://mesa.umich.edu/native-american-heritage
Free; registration required at http://myumi.ch/gjgzR.
This virtual event, hosted by the Housing Solutions for Health Equity initiative, brings together three eminent housing researchers and activists to discuss eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Alexa Eisenberg, Tonya Myers Phillips, and Dr. Margaret Dewar will discuss trends in eviction filings and outcomes since the onset of the pandemic and related policy changes in Detroit, using a novel eviction court process dataset. The pandemic period has shown that new levels of eviction prevention are attainable when policymakers treat eviction like a public health crisis rather than a property dispute. Yet even with unprecedented eviction prevention measures in place, major policy and enforcement gaps reinforced the power imbalance between landlords and tenants and contributed to thousands of unjust and avoidable evictions. As eviction filings return to pre-pandemic levels and rents across the U.S. soar to new highs, elected officials, housing advocates, and organizers can learn from and act upon evidence from Detroit to promote housing and health justice, during the pandemic and beyond.
Leaders from North America and Europe will explore approaches to industrial heartland economic renewal in order to address one of the root causes of the polarizing politics undermining Western democracies and the transatlantic alliance.
Industrial regions—historically their countries’ economic powerhouses during the 20th century and the foundation for the middle class on both sides of the Atlantic—have undergone significant economic restructuring over the past several decades, leading to fractured communities and the rise of populist politics. This event will be a working discussion with leaders, managers and experts on community and economic development from North America, the UK and Europe, exchanging insights and ideas around advancing place-focused economic development policies and approaches. The event is one of a number of transatlantic learning exchanges being conducted as part of the Transforming Industrial Heartlands Initiative—a partnership of governments and leading policy organizations in North America and Europe.
Join us for a Real World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions talk featuring Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld. Dr. Ostfeld serves as the Associate Faculty Director of Poverty Solutions, an Assistant Research Scientist in the Ford School of Public Policy and a faculty lead at the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study. She is an expert in survey research and the analysis of public opinion, with a particular focus on the relationship between race, gender, media and political attitudes. Her recent book (co-authored with Nicole Yadon), Skin Color, Power and Politics in America, explores the historical significance of skin color in America, both within and between ethnoracial groups, as well as its evolving relationship with political identities. During national elections, Mara also works as an analyst at NBC and Telemundo.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
Racial Foundations of Public Policy is a speaker series that focuses on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy as both a disciplinary field and as a course of action. Through it, we bring in renowned scholar-experts from across the country to be in conversation with Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, the founding director of the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School of Public Policy. The series is open to all members of the University of Michigan community and the wider public.
About the Speaker
John N. Robinson III, Ph.D., studies the racial underpinnings of money and markets, with emphasis on housing and credit policies. His award-winning work examines how the rise of finance is reshaping place-based inequalities within and around American cities. His current book project explores the ongoing rise of the affordable housing industry in the US and its intersections with racial and economic inequality. A secondary project investigates the politics of race, punishment and municipal debt in suburban areas. His work appears or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Socio-Economic Review, Politics and Society, Law and Social Inquiry, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Housing Policy Debate, and has earned recognition from the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the Ford Foundation, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, and the Paris Institute for Political Studies.
This event will be presented virtually, with a community watch party available in Weill Hall’s Betty Ford Auditorium.
Join the Michigan Community Scholars and other community members for a screening of the documentary film The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.
In this documentary, filmmaker Abigail Disney looks at America’s dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. As a way to imagine a more equitable future, Disney uses her family’s story to explore how this systemic injustice took hold.
The U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies in collaboration with the College for Creative Studies presents this guest lecture featuring Professor David W. Robinson-Morris.
David W. Robinson-Morris, Ph.D. is an author, philosopher, social justice and human rights advocate-activist, educator, philanthropist, community organizer, DEI practitioner, and administrator.
Dr. Robinson-Morris is the Founder & Chief Reimaginelutionary at The REImaginelution, LLC, a strategic consulting firm working at the intersections of imagination, policy, practice, and prophetic hope to radically reimagine diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) toward racial justice and systemic transformation by engendering freedom of the human spirit; and catalyzing the power of the imagination to reweave organizations, systems, and the world toward collective healing and liberation.
Concurrently, Dr. Robinson-Morris serves as the Executive Director in service to The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), a global community of contemplative practitioners and scholars whose goal is the ongoing development of racial, social, economic, and environmental justice and the advancement of human flourishing within society and higher education, more specifically.
David holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Research with a dual concentration in Higher Education Administration and Curriculum Theory, and an Education Specialist (Ed. S.) Certificate in Educational Leadership with a focus on applied research, measurement, and evaluation both from Louisiana State University (LSU).
Please register in advance for this lecture. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In preparation for Election Day on Nov. 8, all U-M community members are invited to vote on the music that will be played that day from campus’ two carillon towers.
The most-voted-for music in the “For Whom the Bell Polls” project will be played Nov. 8 in two 30-minute recitals: Burton Memorial Tower on Central Campus at noon, and Lurie Tower on North Campus at 1:30 p.m.
This effort is being organized by Carson Landry, a carillon graduate student in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, in partnership with the campuswide get-out-the-vote initiative, Turn Up Turn Out, to increase student voter engagement.
Along with submitting song requests, campus community members are encouraged to make an Election Day voting plan.
Penny Stamps Speaker Series
Studio Safar is a design agency and publisher with offices in Beirut and, now, Tiohtia:ke (Montréal). Evoked by its name, the studio is concerned with notions of communication across cultural and linguistic barriers. Projects span different media and design frameworks such as communication strategies, publications, visual identities, exhibitions and sets, and websites. Most of the work services the extended cultural sector, and is engaged in social and political discourse.
Design is inherently political— it shapes our cities, our homes, bodies, and minds. It curates, connects, arranges, and defines. And, perhaps above all, it carries the power to shape our responses to challenges big and small, local and global, short and long term. This talk comes from an urge to decolonize visual culture from decades of European and American hegemony.
In partnership with Flint Magazine and Riverbank Arts, with support from The Office of Research and Economic Development and the Chancellor’s Office at The University of Michigan – Flint.
Series presenting partners: Detroit Public Television and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.
An interview with the author “The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America”
Author, Senate commentator, and former Hill staffer Ira Shapiro joins congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call, Chris Marquette, for a discussion on Shapiro’s new book, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, our current political climate, and the state of democracy in these fractious times.
About the Speakers
Ira Shapiro spent the first half of his 45 year Washington career as a Senate staffer and Clinton administration trade ambassador before writing a series of books about the Senate which William A. Galston, Brookings scholar, calls an “epic trilogy.” Mr. Shapiro’s current book is The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America. Robert B. Reich said: “Ira Shapiro holds Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate accountable for their deliberate and catastrophic failure to stop Donald Trump even when American lives and American democracy were at stake. A gripping narrative and a must-read.” Ira’s first book, The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis (2012), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Richard A. Baker, Senate Historian emeritus, described it as “a historically and politically artistic work of great brilliance.” Ira’s second book, Broken: Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country? (2018), also received critical acclaim. Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State, called it “an unflinching account…which takes a wider lens to describe how dysfunction in the Senate helped open the door to Donald Trump.”
Chris Marquette is a congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call, where he covers the U.S. Capitol Police, the Jan. 6 select committee, ethics investigations and House Republicans. He uncovered a disturbing pattern of Capitol Police officer misconduct in which accused officers received light punishments from top department officials. Marquette has also covered financial regulation in Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before joining CQ Roll Call, he covered education and government for Hearst newspapers in Connecticut. Marquette began his career at the Picayune Item in Mississippi. He is currently a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.
Sponsors
This event is hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and co-sponsored by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan’s Alumni Education program and U-M Democracy & Debate.
On October 14, UMMA offers the return of their Feel Good Friday with a focus on civic engagement. Artist Philippa Hughes has brought together artists for an intersection of artistic practice and policy. The evening includes special musical performances by University of Michigan students and musician Mike Ellison with D-Love to celebrate voting and civic engagement.
Please join us for a Real World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions talk featuring attorneys Eli Savit and Victoria Burton-Harris.
Eli Savit serves as the elected Prosecuting Attorney for Washtenaw County. He formerly served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was a civil-rights and public-interest attorney, and started his career as a public-school teacher. Most recently, Eli served as the City of Detroit’s senior legal counsel, where he led criminal-justice reform work for Michigan’s largest city. Eli continues to teach at the University of Michigan as a Lecturer with the Law School.
Victoria Burton-Harris serves as the Chief Assistant Prosecutor for Washtenaw County. In 2014, she opened a private firm in the heart of downtown Detroit specializing in family law and criminal defense at the state and federal trial court level. Her passion for justice and equality has led to her involvement with several grassroots organizations as a legal adviser. She also serves on various boards and committees. Burton-Harris currently sits on the Coalition for Police Transparency & Accountability, National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Board of Directors for the National Lawyers Guild Michigan chapter and the Board of Directors for Covenant House Michigan, a youth homeless shelter where she developed a mentoring program for residents. Burton-Harris teaches at the University of Michigan as a Lecturer with the Law School.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
The Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the American Academy of Diplomacy will co-host a discussion with four former ambassadors on the global implications of the war in Ukraine. Ambassador Susan Elliott will consider the war’s implications for NATO and the future of Europe, including whether NATO’s new unity and strength will hold and what the future security architecture of Europe will look like. Ambassador Robert Cekuta will discuss implications for Central Asia and Russia’s “near abroad,” discussing how the war relates to Russia’s imperial history, what it means for the former states of the Soviet Union, and the economic and energy questions it raises. Ambassador Richard Boucher will discuss implications for Asia, including China’s position in this evolving world and how the war in Ukraine will change China’s calculus for Taiwan. Ambassador Ronald Neumann will moderate the panel and provide a perspective on implications for the Middle East.
This event is free and open to the public; registration is available here.
Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century
Join a conversation between Jeffrey Minear, counselor to Chief Justice John Roberts, and the Hon. Jeffrey Sutton, chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, about the constitutional roles and responsibilities of the U.S. federal courts to the American government and its democratic institutions. Mark West, Dean of the Michigan Law School, will deliver opening remarks.
This event is sponsored by the Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century. Students and members of the Big Ten community will have an opportunity to ask the speakers questions regarding judicial branch governance. Email your questions to Professor Stephanie Newbold(stephanie.newbold@rutgers.edu) by September 30.
Sponsored by the Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century, Democracy & Debate, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and U-M Law.
You’re invited to the upcoming Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series
The social climate of our country has many of us asking questions about voting, personal pathways to careers in democracy, and the impact of intersectionality on our perspectives and participation. This month’s Trotter Distinguished Leaders Series event provides an opportunity for students to unpack these questions and more. This event, Democracy & Debate, will feature Erin Byrnes, Purvi Patel, and Rev. Nelson Pierce, Jr. We will be joined by moderator Neeraja Aravamudan as we explore ways to continue to increase healthy discourse from the political and public service sectors both nationally and globally. This event will be hosted Tuesday, October 11, 2022 from 5:30pm - 7:00pm in Trotter Multicultural Center’s Multipurpose Room.
Join us at the Dude from 12:00-8:30 pm on October 9 for the Songs for Democracy Hackathon, a special event featuring guest artist Mike Ellison. Students will have the opportunity to work on their entries for the Songs for Democracy collaborative competition, with the chance of winning a $3,000 grand prize. At 7:30 pm, Mike Ellison will be joined by artist, activist, and lecturer Deidre D.S. SENSE Smith for a live performance. Ellison, Smith, and other experts will also be available throughout the event to provide guidance for students as they craft their entries. Lunch and dinner will be provided!
Register for the event here.
Schedule
12:00 - registration and lunch food (Dude)
1:00 - opening meeting with expectations for day
1:30 - Hackathon activities (Dude)
6:30 - dinner (Dude)
7:30 - 8:30 - First drafts concert with special performance by Mike Ellison and Deidre D.S. SENSE Smith
Please join us for a Real World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions event featuring Dr. Louise Seamster, Assistant Professor in Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and Nonresident Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Seamster studies race and economic inequality, particularly in cities, and writes about racial politics and urban development, emergency financial management, debt, and the myth of racial progress. One line of her research examines racial disparities in debt and debt markets, including “predatory inclusion” in student debt, and the different meaning of debt for black and white families. She has published in Contexts, Sociological Theory, Du Bois Review, Social Currents, Environment, and Planning A: Society and Space, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on the Judicial System.
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Voting Access.
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy program (STPP) is honored to discuss technology, surveillance and civil liberties with Kade Crockford, the director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Kade works on issues at the intersection of technology and civil rights and civil liberties, focusing on how systems of surveillance and control impact not just the society in general but their primary targets—people of color, Muslims, immigrants, and dissidents. Recently, Kade led the ACLU of Massachusetts’ “Press Pause on Face Surveillance” campaign, which has thus far won the passage of a state law regulating police use of facial recognition, and eight municipal bans on government use of face surveillance technology, including in Massachusetts’ four largest cities.
Co-sponsors: Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC); Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse; Arab and Muslim American Studies; and Science, Technology & Society program.
The Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century, in partnership with Northwestern University, invites you to participate in the Big Ten Friends & Family Climate Change Discussion Project.
Do you know someone whose beliefs about climate change are nearly opposite to your own?
If so, you are both invited to participate together in a 4-week research program about opinions on climate change.
You are key to moving toward an improved national conversation on climate change!
Select participants will receive a free, best-selling e-book, and ALL participants will receive a Tango gift card for EACH WEEK they participate – with weekly opportunities to win more!
Enrollment is limited, and only pairs of participants will be eligible for the program. To ensure your spot, contact your potential partner today!
For more information and to enroll, please contact Professor Mary McGrath mary.mcgrath@northwestern.edu
Distinguished Lecture in Musicology
SMTD presents distinguished musicolist Dr. Kevin Bartig of Michigan State University as he presents his work on music critic Olin Downs and his role in shaping a nationalist agenda for American music. In 1929 and 1932, the long-serving and influential New York Times music critic Olin Downes embarked on extended tours of the Soviet Union. During these visits, Downes attended performances, evaluated new compositions, and consulted with cultural bureaucrats on the state of Soviet musical culture. As the first prominent US music critic to visit the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution, Downes understood that his first-hand observer status bestowed a transnationally constructed authority that allowed him to make big and often highly tendentious claims about what he saw and heard. These claims were not simply pro- or anti-Bolshevik reactions but were in fact intertwined with a much deeper agenda: Downes’s desire to foster a middlebrow, national art music at home in the United States. This chapter of Downes’s career is crucial to understanding both how the Soviet experiment shaped discourse around American music and how US opinion on Soviet culture took shape during the interwar years.
Please join us for a discussion of the diplomacy between the United States, key NATO allies, and Russia surrounding the war in Ukraine. Genevieve Zubrzycki, University of Michigan Professor of sociology,will moderate an armchair conversation with three noted experts: former Polish Ambassador to Russia Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun. They will examine key Western interests at stake, the evolution of U.S. and NATO approaches to Russia, and evident Russian aims in Ukraine and the surrounding region. They will also discuss the road ahead, identifying realistic goals for diplomacy in the months and years ahead and ways to pursue those objectives most effectively.
Co-sponsors: International Policy Center; Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies (CREES).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Campaign Finance.
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Gun Violence Prevention.
Lunch for Democracy offers nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
Penny Stamps Speaker Series
Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn based artist working primarily in oil painting, public art and multimedia installations. Her work is rooted in community engagement and the public sphere. She makes site specific work that considers how people, particularly women, queer folks, and Black and brown people, experience race and gender within their surrounding environments – from the sidewalk to retail stores, and from church to college campuses.
Fazlalizadeh will discuss her methodology and cover her most well known works such as Stop Telling Women to Smile, the international street art series addressing gender based street harassment, and America is Black, a series of portrait and text pieces that explore and amplify the stories of non-White people in the United States.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on the Politics of Abortion.
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Supply Chains - Where Your Products Come From.
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
SMTD+CWPS, a new partnership between the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Center for World Performance Studies will present an interactive performance that weaves together live original music, dance, video projection and original artwork. Part performance, meditation, and ritual, Ancestral Haiku explores Black Ancestry, the Middle Passage, and engages the work of poet/scholar Mursalata Muhammad. Detroit jazz legend Marion Hayden and Legacy join dance artist and U-M faculty Robin Wilson, with artwork and video installation by M. Saffell Gardner.
Ancestral Haiku also considers spiritual restitution as a way to alleviate spiritual suffering and begin the process of community healing. In particular, the use of buttons in visual media, soundscape and as interactive objects reflect West African religious practices carried over to African-American slave culture. Seen as objects of ritual and meaning, buttons connect the ancestral world with our own.
Seating is limited. To reserve your seat in advance, please complete the following form: https://forms.gle/mLt2CFEBgUMGtLci9
Commemorating Constitution Day
University of Michigan Law, with the Office of the Provost, commemorates Constitution Day with an event featuring Hon. J. Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig served for nearly fifteen years as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The open letter circulated by Vice President Pence on January 6, 2021, quoted Judge Luttig’s assertion that “[t]he only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the Electoral College votes as they have been cast,” and not “to alter in any way the votes that have been cast, either by rejecting certain votes or otherwise.” On June 16, 2022, Judge Luttig testified before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, to the effect that President Trump and his allies had “instigated” a war on democracy. He was also one of the authors of LOST NOT STOLEN: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, issued in July 2022.
This event is free and open to the public. Join in person in Jeffries Hall room 1225 or online at: https://umich.zoom.us/j/93360607078
Earthfest celebrates sustainability initiatives across U-M and the surrounding communities, while providing an inclusive platform to educate and engage the campus community on opportunities to support sustainability and environmental justice on campus and in our daily lives.
Earthfest is organized by representatives from the Office of Campus Sustainability, School for Environment and Sustainability, Student Life Sustainability, and Graham Sustainability Institute.
In the wake of repeated tragedies and the firearm violence that has plagued our nation, the University of Michigan community is grappling with what can be done. There is an urgent need to address the firearm injury epidemic in America, and its social, economic, and public health impacts. Join for a conversation around firearm violence, and policies that can help prevent it. Four leading experts in firearm violence will offer their insights, then come together for a panel conversation on the big picture policy implications of and potential solutions for firearm violence.
Presenters
- Daniel Webster, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
- Sonali Rajan,Columbia University
- Rod K. Brunson, University of Maryland
- April Zeoli, University of Michigan
- Moderated by: Luke Shaefer, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Ford School; Director, U-M Poverty Solutions
Sponsors: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in partnership with the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, with support from the U-M Center for Racial Justice and Poverty Solutions.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on the Politics of Abortion
Dinners for Democracy are nonpartisan presentations and small group discussions on topics important to students. Participants can expect to gain:
- A deeper knowledge of the issue and an opportunity to discuss your thoughts
- Information about how your vote in local offices can affect the issue
- Additional resources you can use to learn more
- Free food! Virtual attendees receive a $15 gift card as a thank you for participating. You’ll have an opportunity to select from a list of restaurants/stores at the end of the event. You are welcome to participate in as many dinners as you like, though gift cards are limited to one per student per topic.
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia Distinguished Lecture
Lech Wałęsa – former president of Poland and Nobel laureate – will speak at University of Michigan on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the global impact of the war. The first democratically elected leader of Poland since 1926 and the first ever Polish leader elected by popular vote, Wałęsa remains a seminal figure of the late twentieth century. He co-founded and led the Solidarity, the movement that that gave rise to the first democratic elections in Poland in 1989, spurred the fall of communism in Poland, and contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.
This event is presented by the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia with support from U-M Democracy & Debate 2022-23, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Weiser Diplomacy Center, the International Institute, U-M Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and the Copernicus Center for Polish Studies.
The tumult of the first years of this decade – a global pandemic, an unprecedented presidential election, movements for social and racial justice, impacts of climate change, pressures on urban infrastructure – has played out in our nation’s cities and thrust the challenges and opportunities for mayors and their leadership into the spotlight. This special virtual event brings together four mayors from major cities across the states of the Big Ten in a discussion about how leadership at the city level shapes our national approaches to some of the most pressing issues of the day.
Participating Mayors
- Mike Duggan, Mayor of Detroit, MI
- Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago, IL
- Aftab Pureval, Mayor of Cincinnati, OH
- Bruce Teague, Mayor of Iowa City, IA
Welcoming Remarks
- Jonathan Massey, Dean, Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan
- Christopher Taylor, Mayor of Ann Arbor, MI
Moderated by Paul Helmke, Director, Civic Leaders Center, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University and former Mayor of Fort Wayne, IN
This virtual event will have a live watch party for the University of Michigan community in the Art & Architecture Building (2000 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor), Classroom 1360. Portions of the event will be filmed and live streamed from the watch party. All are welcome to attend. Click here to register.
Sponsored by
- Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century
- Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, University of Michigan
- Democracy & Debate 2022-’23, University of Michigan
- Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
- Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Michigan
Special thanks to our colleagues from the following Big Ten partners:
- College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, Chicago
- Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
- School of Planning and Public Affairs, University of Iowa
- Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
- John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University
The University of Michigan’s Alyssa Donovan and Rutgers University’s Ethan Block lead an organized collaborative discussion with students across the Big Ten on preventing gun violence in America.
The recent string of mass shootings has once again captured the American public’s attention about gun violence in our country. Each time these tragedies occur, we see passionate pleas for regulation of guns and the raising of familiar questions about the role mental health, social media, socio-economic factors, race, and current policy play in escalating violence. Join this student-led conversation with students from the Big Ten schools to discuss what can be done to prevent gun violence.
What does the Russian attack on Ukraine, and the response of the Ukrainian people and the global community mean for democracy at home and abroad? How might the current crisis in Ukraine and its possible trajectories impact today’s students of higher education?
Join students and community members from across the Big Ten Conference for a live virtual conversation Ukraine: Implications for Democracy in the U.S. and Globally, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH). The event is sponsored by the Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century and moderated by Dr. Nancy Gallagher, Director of the Center for International Security Studies at Maryland, and Dr. Charles Wise, Founding Director of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Students will have an opportunity to submit questions to Senators Cardin and Portman both before the event and after the roundtable discussion.
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Elaine McLoughlin-Overholt at 614-247-6369 or mcloughlin-overholt.1@osu.edu.
Registration Link: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nbyhs2vOSjC7rbIdOknfAA
4th Annual Vandenberg Lecture
Join us for a special pair of discussions on foreign policy priorities and global challenges with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). Sen. Coons will discuss the foreign and domestic policy implications of the war in Ukraine. Next, Secretary Blinken will participate in a moderated conversation on 21st century diplomacy. Both conversations will be facilitated by Ford School Dean Michael Barr at the Ford School’s fourth annual Vandenberg Lecture.
In partnership with the Big Ten Collaboration: Democracy in the 21st Century, the Humphrey School and the Swain Climate Policy Fund welcome climate scientist and communicator Dr. Katharine Hayhoe for a virtual event April 12 at 4 p.m. CDT.
Katharine is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor of Public Policy and Public Law in the Dept. of Political Science at Texas Tech University. She is also the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.
The North American Colloquium (NAC) is a partnership between the Autonomous National University of Mexico, University of Toronto, and University of Michigan. Each year, the NAC brings together policymakers and academic experts to discuss issues of critical importance to all three countries. This year, the NAC’s theme is how to respond to rising nationalist extremism in North America. On April 8, the NAC partners will convene a virtual conference on that theme.
Social media influencer activity on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn are now pivotal to social influence in societies around the world, as the ecology of the public sphere gets increasingly crafted, amplified, or negated by what happens online. This is as true, or more so in the Global South, where social media has often served as the gateway for entry into the online realm for millions of technology users with little or no prior experience. The resulting world is one in which the boundaries between the physical and the virtual has fundamentally reshaped power equations between the citizens and the state, their culture, and their communities.
This symposium at the University of Michigan is focused on social media influencers, and brings a host of leaders, artistes, journalists, activists, commentators, and scholars from two of the fastest growing Internet-using regions of the world to discuss how they interact online, what drives their activities and
Join us for a special conversation with U.S. Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) with Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr to discuss the role of public service and collaboration beyond party lines to protect democracy under threat.
In this period in which our institutions fundamental to democracy have experienced continuous unprecedented attack, what paths forward will lead to collective action to preserve and strengthen our democratic systems?
This event is part of the Ford School’s Conversations Across Difference series, supporting our commitment to facilitating public discourse that is nonpartisan, evidence-based, and inclusive. Speakers bridge partisan, ideological, and identity gaps, and provide constructive debate on policy issues that affect our communities, nation, and the world.
This Masterclass in Activism brings together in conversation Dorothy Roberts and Celeste Watkins-Hayes, director of the Center for Racial Justice. Through the Masterclass in Activism, the Center for Racial Justice hosts noted activists and thought leaders who have made significant marks on the policy landscape.
In her new book Torn Apart, award-winning scholar Dorothy Roberts exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change. In conversation with Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Professor Roberts will share more on her book, and her belief that the only way to stop the destruction caused by family policing is to abolish the child welfare system and liberate Black communities.
This virtual event will have a live watch party in Weill Hall, Room 1110. A free copy of Professor Roberts’ book, Torn Apart, will be provided for attendees at the viewing party on a first-come first-serve basis. Attendance at this watch party is limited to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. All attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.
Pulitzer Prize winning historian, journalist and commentator Anne Applebaum delivers the keynote lecture of the Spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series, in conversation with Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr.
All in-person attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.
The event will also be livestreamed for those who choose not to attend in-person. The livestream will appear on this page the day of the event, registration optional.
Democracy & Debate presents Emmy® award winning producer and multi-faceted artist, Mike Ellison with Detroit percussionist and producer D-Love for a live performance and interactive discussion: Song for Democracy.
Born in Ethiopia and raised in Reston, Virginia, Ellison fully realized himself as an interdisciplinary artist in Detroit. His music and spoken word draw from myriad life and cultural influences - and are imbued with the musical landscape and traditions of his birth country. His song “Ethiopia: Everything Will be Alright” became a national hit in Ethiopia in 2004 and his most recent music video “WEY FIKIR (Alleh)” addresses the war in Ethiopia raging for over a year through the lens of love and a romance.
Mike’s artistic expression moves beyond the realm of music. His acting credits span film, theater and television with recent appearances on 50 Cent’s STARZ series BMF and NBC’s Chicago Fire.
Driven by the power of art to inspire, inform and provoke dialogue, Mike’s music and words address a range of issues from social justice and civil rights, to the importance of community and collaboration. Join us for an exciting evening as Mike Ellison uses live performance, music and multimedia with Detroit percussionist and producer D-Love to engage with Song For Democracy.
Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, will be in conversation with Jonathan Hanson, political scientist and lecturer in statistics at the Ford School as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
This virtual event will have a live watch party in Weill Hall, Room 1110. A free copy of Sarah Kendzior’s book, Hiding in Plain Sight, will be provided for attendees at the viewing party on a first-come first-serve basis. Attendance at this watch party is limited to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. All attendees will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue screening before entering the building, and masks are required. Registration is required to attend.
Proponents of liberal education argue that it provides essential preparation for students to become skilled in the arts of democracy. Evaluating the case that liberal education prepares graduates for democratic engagement requires evidence-based findings that reveal how liberal education produces these salutary effects. In this session, researchers will share new findings from the College and Beyond II research study at the University of Michigan that illuminate liberal education’s links to long-term political engagement. Michael Barr, Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Anne Curzan, Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, will discuss the implications of these findings and the ways that undergraduate education prepares students for participatory democracy.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Women’s Economy (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Exclusionary Zoning and Racial Justice (and dinner).
Women make up over 50% of the state’s population, but just 16% of Michigan’s local chief administrative officers. The Michigan Municipal League’s 16/50 Project is transforming this leadership gap – getting more women seated in the municipal top spot in Michigan communities.
Join the 16/50 Project for an interactive panel experience to meet the force of women leading communities in Michigan, engage with local government challenges, and learn more about the municipal management profession.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on the Future of the Great Lakes (and dinner).
Join for a U-M Democracy & Debate signature event featuring Governor Jeb Bush in conversation with Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr.
In this period in which our institutions fundamental to democracy have experienced continuous unprecedented attack, what paths can members of political parties take to preserve and strengthen our democratic systems? At a moment in which the Republican party seems divided by differing views on the threats to democracy, what does the future hold for the shape of the party? Please join us for a special conversation to discuss the role of public service in these extraordinary times.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, plunging the entire country into war and sending shockwaves across the world. With casualties mounting and tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the country, the need for dialogue and de-escalation have never been higher.
Attendees can expect to hear from a diverse group of experts on the current situation in Ukraine, touching on topics such as:
- The history and motivations behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The development of the situation over the past four weeks
- The global response to the invasion, including provision of supplies to Ukraine, sanctions placed on Russia, and humanitarian efforts
- Effects on the global economy
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Voting Access (and dinner).
There are many ways to impact public policy at the local, state or federal level. While the most obvious way is to be elected to public office, this event will explore how individuals can impact policy by being appointed to advisory boards and commissions specifically focusing on Ann Arbor as an example.
Board and commission members serve in an advisory role to help to direct policy by making suggestions and recommendations to their local elected policymakers and government management. This system of commissions is intended to be representative of, and responsive to, the communities they serve.
Join us for Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Barton Gellman in conversation with Michigan Law Professor from Practice Barbara McQuade, as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Medicaid Expansion (and dinner).
The study of water ethics and justice is inherently without boundaries; it moves among various connected disciplines, such as philosophy, law, history, engineering, and geography. This event brings together academic professionals, policy experts, other practitioners, and the general public to discuss this most pressing issue. The transdisciplinary nature of water justice requires study that intersects ethical, scientific, cultural, and justice-related themes and concerns which are reflected in the presentations and discussions of this conference. Our opportune location at the US-Canada border lends itself to vibrant study of water ethics, justice, governance, and management in each respective country, as well as between them. Further, this event brings together professionals to discuss these water issues in the face of climate change and the implications for cross-border/transboundary water governance; hence, the speakers are from Canada and the US (with the majority from the US-Canada border region in Michigan and southwestern Ontario).
Dates and Location: Over two-half days March 22-23 at the Michigan Union (and, most likely, online in a hybrid format to accommodate COVID-19 issues).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Women’s Health (and dinner).
Join STPP for a panel discussion on the role of universities and public policy in cultivating socially responsible engineers.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Women’s Economy (and dinner).
One of the Grand Challenges of Social Work practice is to reduce the harm caused by extreme economic inequality. From housing, employment, internet access, to healthcare - economic inequality is pervasive, and affects how we participate in the policial, social, and economic spheres.
How do benefit programs like the Child Tax Credit, housing vouchers, etc., impact extreme economic inequality? Does Universal Basic Incomes (UBI) work, and how does it help? What other forms of assistance are needed?
Join us for a discussion with scholars and activists on how labor and economic inequality and social service programs work and affect our lives. This session will be moderated by Dr. Trina Shanks, Professor of Social Work and Founding Director of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-being at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Speakers include Reverend Joan C. Ross, Director of the North End Woodward Community Coalition (NEWCC), among others.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Education Policy (and dinner).
This roundtable will bring together experts in international politics, Central Asia, US-China relations, and Europe to discuss how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has upended the global economy and political order far beyond the boundaries of the conflict itself. We will discuss the invasion’s impact on US-China relations, global energy markets and security, European politics, and much more.
Panelists:
John D. Ciorciari, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director, International Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy Center, University of Michigan
Pauline Jones, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum, University of Michigan
Evan S. Medeiros, Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies and the Cling Family Senior Fellow in US-China Relations, Georgetown University
Maria Popova, Jean Monnet Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University
Moderated by Mary Gallagher, International Institute Director, University of Michigan
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Climate Change and Wealth Inequality (and dinner).
Faculty and experts will provide information about the war in Ukraine. University of Michigan students and community are invited to join the discussion. The teach-in will be presented as a Zoom meeting, allowing for Q&A following each presentation. Please sign in here: https://myumi.ch/n8VNR
9:30 Ronald G. Suny, William H. Sewell, Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and professor of political science, U-M
“Lessons from History: Ukraine and Russia”
10:00 Ambassador Daniel Fried, Weiser Family Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council
“Stuck in the Middle: Ukraine and U.S. Diplomacy in Eastern Europe before Putin’s War”
10:30 Yevgenia Albats, Russian journalist, political scientist, author, radio host, and former visiting professor, U-M
“Killing the Messenger: The War in Ukraine and Putin’s Repression of Russian Media”
11:00 Yuri Zhukov, associate professor of political science and research associate professor with the Center for Political Studies, U-M
“Russian Military Scenarios and Strategies”
11:30 Brian Porter-Szűcs, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History, U-M
“A New Refugee Crisis: Poles Respond”
12:00 Jessica Zychowicz (PhD Slavic ‘15), director of the Fulbright Program in Ukraine and Institute of International Education Kyiv Office
“Academic Leaders in Wartime: The Past and Future of Fulbright Ukraine”
12:30 Mikhail Krutikov, professor and chair, Slavic Languages and Literatures (SLL), U-M; Benjamin Paloff, professor of SLL and of comparative literature, and CREES Director, U-M; and Svitlana Rogovyk, lecturer and language program coordinator, SLL, U-M
“Conclusions”
Moderator: Geneviève Zubrzycki, professor of sociology and WCEE Director, U-M
The teach-in will be presented as a Zoom meeting, allowing for Q&A following each presentation. Please sign in here: https://myumi.ch/n8VNR
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Climate Change and Wealth Inequality (and dinner).
Facilitated by faculty discussant Joshua Basseches, this session focuses on policy within and beyond environmental justice as it intersects with issues of social justice.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Education Policy (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on the Future of the Great Lakes (and dinner).
Join us to hear from TIME National Political Correspondent Molly Ball in conversation with longtime political writer Craig Gilbert to kick off the Spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
20th Peter M. Wege Lecture
Join us for an engaging conversation about climate action and social justice with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. A marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native, Johnson is the co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for costal cities, as well as co-creator of the Spotify/Gimlet podcast, ‘How to Save a Planet,’ which focuses on climate solutions. The event will be moderated by SEAS assistant professor Sara Hughes and will include a live Q&A with students. Please RSVP.
Sponsors: The Wege Foundation; Center for Sustainable Systems; U-M Democracy & Debate; The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Janice Charach Gallery: Environmentally Speaking
Each year, TEDxUofM hosts a conference at the Power Center for Performing Arts and invites UofM alum, faculty, students and other community members to give a TEDx talk to our audiences. This year, we have 8 speakers and a few student group performances, as well as many activities for the audience to engage with. Our theme this year is SHATTERPROOF, and each of our speakers and activities have unique and fascinating interpretations that are sure to be extremely thought-provoking.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on exclusionary zoning and racial justice (and dinner).
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in elected office are powerful and pave the way for other underrepresented communities to join the political process. Join us as we discuss running for elected office as a BIPOC individual, how to become a candidate, representation and identity, and hear from several BIPOC candidates and elected officials who will be joining us as panelists. Speakers TBD.
This session will be co-sponsored by New American Leaders (NAL), an organization dedicated to increasing the diversity of our elected officials by recruiting and training candidates of color to run for office and manage campaigns. NAL President, Ghida Dagher, will co-moderate this session.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Gender and Climate (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on voting access (and dinner).
Food Literacy for All is a community-academic partnership course based at the University of Michigan. Structured as an evening lecture series, Food Literacy for All features different guest speakers each week to address challenges and opportunities of diverse food systems. Food Literacy for All is free and open to the public.
Join us for a conversation between Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ford School Dean Michael S. Barr, as they discuss Senator Warren’s distinguished career as a public servant, perspectives on poverty and inequality in the United States, and her work to create a more just and equitable economic system.
This event is free and open to the public. University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff are invited to come together for a watch party in Weill Hall.
Hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and co-sponsored by Poverty Solutions and Democracy & Debate.
Facilitated by faculty discussant Ann Chih Lin, this session focuses on the impact of immigration reform policies as part of a larger struggle to advance racial justice.
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on racial justice and the judicial system (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on Gender and Climate (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on voting access (and dinner).
Students - join Turn Up Turnout throughout the semester for an hour of peer-led instruction and discussion and free food! This session provides an educational discussion on racial justice and the judicial system (and dinner).
The MUSE Organizing Committee* cordially invites our colleagues at the University of Michigan from Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses to participate in the 2022 Michigan University-wide Sustainability and Environment (MUSE) Conference, February 2-4, 2022. While the 2022 MUSE Conference is expected to be an in-person event, we may pivot to an online format according to any changes in public health guidelines.
The annual flagship event of the MUSE Initiative, the MUSE Conference provides a unique venue for sharing research, building new connections, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among all members of the University of Michigan community who are engaged in a broad range of sustainability and environment-related research. We welcome the involvement of U-M undergraduate and graduate students, as well as University leadership, faculty, and research fellows from all disciplines, including those in arts, humanities, engineering, and natural and social sciences.
With the theme of this year, Sustainability and Environment After Catastrophe, MUSE would like to explore resolutions to current global challenges, such as climate change and the pandemic, and envision together ways to begin rebuilding during and beyond catastrophe. To this end, we welcome proposals addressing the following questions, but not necessarily limited to:
- What defines catastrophe, and who gets to decide?
- How can we assess existing systems’ vulnerabilities to catastrophe?
- How can pre-catastrophe planning and post-catastrophe response better inform each other?
- How can stakeholders cooperate (socially, politically, economically, technologically, or institutionally) to increase their capacity to adapt to catastrophe?
- What is the role of sustainability research in ensuring just and inclusive recoveries from catastrophe?
The heyday of the human rights movement—the 1990s—is well behind us. At its peak, the human rights movement was the most captivating ideology of its time. It punctuated public discourse with a rhetorical command rarely seen, even in the more repressive states. But the power of the movement today is a but a pale shadow of itself. Some argue that the age of human rights is over. Yet that is hyperbole. It is clear, however, that for its many successes, the human rights corpus has met with many failures. It began as part of the colonial project of Empire, wittingly and unwittingly. Its deficits include its cultural illegitimacy in many places around the world, including the West; its inability to address economic privation; the movement’s impotence as material for liberating the globe of racism and related inequities, especially for peoples of Black African descent; and its glaring normative incompleteness. Are these problems fatal to the future of human rights movement? Is it doomed to go the way of previous dominant ideologies? Where can it go from here to achieve its fundamental and still critical purposes?
Theater, music, storytelling, poetry, and other art forms have a powerful way of connecting with individuals, relaying social issues and oppression in a way that enables others to envision themselves experiencing it - allowing for more empathy and understanding. Join us in talking to local artists, scholars, and activists who have used the arts to fight injustice and achieve social change. Speakers include Satori Shakoor, renowned storyteller, actress, and founder of Detroit’s The Secret Society Of Twisted Storytellers; and Gary Anderson, Producing Artistic Director of the Plowshares Theatre Company. This session will be moderated by Dr. Rogério Pinto, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation of the School of Social Work, and Professor of Theater and Drama of the School of Music, Theater & Dance. Dr. Pinto spearheads the School of Social Work’s Art-Based Social Justice Collect.
Undoing Racism is a community collective of students, staff, and faculty in the School of Social Work dedicated to fighting white supremacy at the individual, school, and structural levels.
This workgroup was established in 2019 after students, staff, and faculty took part in the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond Undoing Racism© workshops. Since then, the Undoing Racism workgroup has been working to implement the People’s Institute anti-racist community organizing model – recognizing that community organizing within our school is critical to move toward an anti-racist and anti-oppressive program to bring along all members of the community.
The Undoing Racism workgroup also emphasizes the role that white members of our community must take on to dismantle and undo white supremacist structures that benefit and maintain power for white people. Our work has largely been focused on building collective community – a fundamental step in the People’s Institute organizing model. Our dialogue and strategic planning to advance towards an anti-racist and anti-oppressive program and school community must begin with building relationships and strengthening community bonds to engage in internal and external anti-racism work.
College and Beyond II: Virtual Colloquium Series
Advocates of liberal education argue that it has a positive effect on both individual achievement and the public good, so that its benefits accrue not only to graduates but to their local communities and the broader society that they help to shape. In 2021-22 the College and Beyond II Public Colloquium Series is exploring the links between liberal education and its outcomes, with a particular focus on democratic engagement. What is the role of liberal education in sustaining a democratic society? Can particular features of undergraduate education be linked to how likely graduates are to vote, to volunteer, and to engage in activism, both in college and beyond?
Throughout the year, researchers and leaders of projects focused on better understanding and increasing democratic engagement will discuss ongoing efforts and new initiatives. Seminars in Winter 2022 will further explore the enduring impact of liberal education by featuring research conducted with the College and Beyond II dataset, which contains rich data about students’ experiences in and beyond college and will open to researchers in June 2022.
Join us for a conversation on deploying science, technology, and data for the public good, with Kumar Garg, senior managing director at Schmidt Futures and former assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program.
This event is being pre-recorded on the morning of January 26, and will be released on January 26 at 4pm Eastern. Watch this event on YouTube.
Recent years’ events—the COVID pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and ongoing and new racial justice movements—have highlighted the need to address long-standing systems of oppression that continue to disadvantage and harm communities of color. The historical legacy and current systems of racism continue to plague and negatively impact the health and wholeness of our society, and these recent events have spurred increased awareness and commitments across organizations and institutions to adopt anti-racist strategies to dismantle oppressive and unjust systems.
Research and scholarship is one way that higher education institutions like University of Michigan have played critical roles in informing the numerous and complex ways that racism operates in our society. This work has contributed to the development of innovative, evidence based interventions and actions to reduce and eliminate racism and its impacts — at systemic, institutional, and interpersonal levels.
As the global community continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, issues of sustainability and development remain as critical to wellbeing as ever. Indeed, the experience of the pandemic only brings home how progress on such sustainability and development goals as ecosystem conservation, greater equality and justice, stronger institutions, and transformative actions are necessary to improve our common future. The Sustainability and Development Initiative at the University of Michigan is excited to announce a call for abstracts for the 3rd Sustainability and Development Conference. The SDC will be held virtually, January 24-28, 2022. The virtual gathering will capitalize on the enhanced ability to connect global colleagues and aims to revive, establish, and sustain knowledge production, sharing, and collaboration around sustainability and development.
In addition to parallel paper presentation sessions, the event will feature debate style plenary events, skill/tool-based workshops, journal editor roundtable conversations, a poster gallery, and opportunities for informal conversations and networking.
Penny Stamps Speaker Series
We’re starting the Winter 2022 series virtually with a selection of favorite presentations from the archives. This Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series event originally took place on September 11, 2014.
This archival presentation of content never before shared online will be available for a 4‑week limited period, from Friday, January 21 — Friday, February 17, 2022 as part of the 2022 U‑M MLK Symposium and the Democracy & Debate 2021-‘22 programming.
An award-winning actress, playwright, and teacher, Anna Deavere Smith uses her singular brand of theatre to highlight issues of community, character, and diversity in America. Based on her recent one-woman show Let Me Down Easy, this lecture/performance will combine stories of her creative journey with insights into the fragility and resilience of the human body and spirit.
CLOSUP LECTURE SERIES, POLICY TALKS @ THE FORD SCHOOL
Michigan has brand new electoral maps designed through an innovative new process, and the state’s politics will never be the same. This webinar will analyze and evaluate Michigan’s new redistricting approach and new maps. The discussion will offer a national perspective, comparing Michigan’s new approach of an independent citizens redistricting commission with approaches in other states. Will Michigan’s new model inspire reform in other states?
U-M Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium Event
In honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., join us for an important discussion between University of Michigan Ford School Dean Michael Barr and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves on working to revive the economy while combating the racist systems embedded within it. Associate Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, director of the Center for Racial Justice, will give welcoming remarks.
Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Series
Facilitated by faculty discussant Bill Bynum this session focuses on the role of policy to advance economic opportunity for disenfranchised populations. Come join us to help foster dialogue on important issues of U.S. public policy. Sessions are facilitated by faculty discussants. This is an opportunity for students to hear from faculty outside of the classroom. Students are encouraged, though not required, to attend as many sessions as possible.
January 6, 2022, marks the one-year anniversary of the assault on the U.S. Capitol by those protesting the results of the presidential election.
To examine the events surrounding the election and to consider its long-term consequences, Detroit Public TV is presenting a one-hour special that evening at 8 pm Eastern, “Election 20/20: Detroit to D.C.” The centerpiece of the program is a video created in collaboration with the Detroit Free Press focusing on election night and the vote count over the next few days, as the nation’s eyes turned on Detroit and weary poll workers faced angry protestors pounding on windows of the city’s major convention center trying to disrupt the process.
It was a scene with rare precedent in American history, and it set the stage in many ways for the violence of January 6. During the election count, Detroit Free reporters and video journalists provided unparalleled coverage of these events, and they tell a harrowing, startling story in this video of democracy on the verge of chaos.
The DPTV special also includes interviews with Rep. Brenda Lawrence and Rep. Fred Upton, who were both inside the Capitol that day and who provide their own eyewitness account of events.
Finally, Dean Michael Barr of the U-M Ford School of Public Policy and Detroit Free Press Editor and Vice President Peter Bhatia provide a thoughtful analysis of the issues posed by the election and its aftermath – the rampant spread of misinformation, the ongoing attacks on the credibility of the electoral system, the importance of a trusted media to a healthy democracy and what this all means to our nation going forward.
Moderated by Christy McDonald, the managing editor and anchor of DPTV’s “One Detroit” news team.
This expert panel will help us to understand how systems of racism and sexism support and maintain each other, discuss recent efforts to grapple with these issues at Michigan, frame them within a broader theoretical and political context and then provide suggestions on how to move from intention to action and how to enact structural change that is transformational and sustainable.
Panelists:\
- Elizabeth Cole, Faculty Associate Director, National Center for Institutional Diversity; Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Psychology, and Afroamerican and African Studies\
- Elizabeth González, Education & Training Program Manager, Spectrum Center\
- SaraEllen Strongman, Assistant Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies\
- Ruby C. Tapia, Chair, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies; Associate Professor, English Language & Literature and Women’s and Gender Studies
Moderator: Anna Kirkland, Director, Institute for Research on Women and Gender; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies; Political Science, Sociology, and Health Management & Policy (by courtesy)
EJ Lunchtime Lecture Series
Georgia State University School of Public Health professor Dr. Christina Hempfill Fuller will present a lecture titled, “Seeing the forest and the trees: Rectifying air pollution injustice with green infrastructure.”
This in-person event is open to current University of Michigan students, faculty, and staff. Doors open at 3:30 pm, registration and check-in is required. U-M COVID related health policies will be followed including wearing masks and checking of the ResponsiBLUE app.
Location:
1120 Weill Hall, Anneberg Auditorium
735 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
The Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the American Academy of Diplomacy will co-host a discussion on China and the challenges facing the U.S.-China relationship. These challenges include managing disputes in areas such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea; addressing developments in Hong Kong and Xinjiang; and navigating tensions over economic issues related to cybersecurity, intellectual property, and transparency in trade. Bilateral relations also occur in a shifting geostrategic landscape as China strengthens its continental linkages through the Belt and Road Initiative while the United States refocuses on its vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
An expert panel will explore elements of this relationship:
Speakers
- David Shear, Senior adviser at McLarty Associates, a global strategic advisory firm. Chairman of the National Association of Japan-America Societies
- Craig Allen, sixth President of the United States-China Business Council (USCBC), a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization representing over 200 American companies doing business with China
- Ambassador Sylvia Stanfield, U.S. Ambassador to Brunei Darussalam from 1999-2002 and a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service
- Moderator Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, Retired 41- year career U.S. Foreign Service, current Senior Vice President of the Middle East Institute
Please join us for this panel discussion about the profound effects of COVID-19 on the state of education in Michigan. Research from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University has looked at shifts in enrollment numbers, indicators of student achievement, and qualitative effects on students and families. Eighteen months into the pandemic, what measurable effects have we seen, what are the long-term implications, and what lessons can be learned from this unique set of challenges?
Speakers
- Delsa Chapman, Michigan Department of Education Deputy Superintendent of Educator, Student, and School Support
- Sarah Lenhoff, WSU Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
- Kevin Stange, U-M Professor of Public Policy
- Katharine Strunk, MSU Professor of Education
Moderator Ron French, Bridge Michigan Senior Writer and Associate Editor
Join us for a talk on global vaccine equity and health justice with Fatima Hassan, human rights lawyer, social justice activist, and the founder of the Health Justice Initiative in South Africa; and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
The growing use of algorithms is increasing concerns that they may discriminate, but mitigating bias requires designers to take account of protected characteristics. If they do so, are those efforts a form of discrimination? Put concretely, if model builders take race into account to prevent bias against blacks, have they engaged in discrimination against whites? Some scholars assume so, and seek to justify those practices as valid forms of affirmative action. This Article argues that they are starting the analysis in the wrong place. Rather than assuming disparate treatment has occurred, we should first ask whether race-aware strategies constitute discrimination at all. Despite rhetoric about colorblindness, some forms of race-consciousness are widely accepted as lawful. Because creating an algorithm is a complex, multi-step process involving many choices, tradeoffs and judgment calls, designers might take race into account in many different ways, not all of which entail disparate treatment against whites. Only if a strategy constitutes disparate treatment is it necessary to consider whether it is justifiable under affirmative action doctrine. This difference in approach matters, because affirmative action programs bear a heavy burden of justification. Treating all race-aware algorithms as forms of disparate treatment reinforces the false notion that leveling the playing field for disadvantaged groups disrupts the entitlements of a previously-advantaged group. It also mistakenly suggests that, prior to considering race, algorithms are neutral processes that uncover objective truth about merit or desert, rather than properly understanding them as human constructs reflecting the choices of their creators.
MIDAS Seminar Series
The growing use of algorithms is increasing concerns that they may discriminate, but mitigating bias requires designers to take account of protected characteristics. If they do so, are those efforts a form of discrimination? Put concretely, if model builders take race into account to prevent bias against blacks, have they engaged in discrimination against whites? Some scholars assume so, and seek to justify those practices as valid forms of affirmative action. This Article argues that they are starting the analysis in the wrong place. Rather than assuming disparate treatment has occurred, we should first ask whether race-aware strategies constitute discrimination at all. Despite rhetoric about colorblindness, some forms of race-consciousness are widely accepted as lawful. Because creating an algorithm is a complex, multi-step process involving many choices, tradeoffs and judgment calls, designers might take race into account in many different ways, not all of which entail disparate treatment against whites. Only if a strategy constitutes disparate treatment is it necessary to consider whether it is justifiable under affirmative action doctrine. This difference in approach matters, because affirmative action programs bear a heavy burden of justification. Treating all race-aware algorithms as forms of disparate treatment reinforces the false notion that leveling the playing field for disadvantaged groups disrupts the entitlements of a previously-advantaged group. It also mistakenly suggests that, prior to considering race, algorithms are neutral processes that uncover objective truth about merit or desert, rather than properly understanding them as human constructs reflecting the choices of their creators.
Penny Stamps Speaker Series
The debate about restitution and the ethics of Western museums’ owning African artworks collected during the era of colonization has never been more in the public eye. Most well-known, perhaps, are the “Benin bronzes,” artistic and royal heirlooms made since the 13th century by highly specialized metalworkers in the Kingdom of Benin (now southern Nigeria). In 1897, British forces sacked the capital of this prosperous kingdom. They tore sculptures and plaques from the palace walls, and took them back to Europe, where the looted treasures were sold to museums and private collectors. The royal court of Benin, Nigerian officials, and high-profile scholars such as Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu (Princeton) have been demanding their return for decades. Increasingly, museums based in the Global North have been listening to these calls for repatriation, and some have pledged to return works from their collections. To provide a new home for the repatriated works, plans for a new Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA), are currently in development with world renowned architect Sir David Adjaye leading the building design project.
On the occasion of Wish You Were Here: African Art & Restitution, a public investigation into our own collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), Sir David Adjaye and Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu will discuss their current and recent projects that address how works of art may re-enter the societies they were torn away from. Laura De Becker, Interim Chief Curator and the Helmut and Candis Stern Curator of African Art at UMMA, will introduce the event.
CLOSUP Lecture Series
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission will be meeting on University of Michigan’s campus during the expected final 45-day period for public comment before they vote to adopt final district maps in Michigan.
Plan to attend and have your say which maps you want them to adopt!
College and Beyond II: The Outcomes of Liberal Education Colloquium Series
The Discussion Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research teaches instructors how to design and implement high quality discussion in their university classrooms. The speakers will explain the features of the course, why and how they created it, and the research that has informed the process. They will explain why students must “learn to discuss”—learn the skills of discussion—and “discuss to learn”—engage in discussion to learn key concepts and grapple with important issues.
Speakers:
Diana Hess, Dean and Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lynn Glueck, Program Director, The Discussion Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Timothy McKay (Moderator), Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Physics, Astronomy, Education, University of Michigan
In 2021-22 the College and Beyond II Public Colloquium Series will explore the links between liberal education and its outcomes, with a particular focus on democratic engagement. This fall, researchers and leaders of projects focused on better understanding and increasing civic and political engagement will discuss ongoing efforts and new initiatives. In winter 2022, seminars will feature research on the enduring impact of liberal education conducted with the College and Beyond II dataset, which contains rich data about students’ experiences in and beyond college and will open to researchers in June 2022.
Visit the College and Beyond II: Outcomes of a Liberal Arts Education Colloquium Series website for more information on this and all upcoming events: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/liberalarts
Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Series
Facilitated by faculty discussant Abdul El-Sayed, a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School, this session focuses on health equity, why it matters, and the role of policy in creating equitable outcomes.
Racial Foundations of Public Policy Series
Join Jennifer Lee, the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University, in conversation with the Director of the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School of Public Policy, Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes.
Jennifer Lee is the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University, and Past President of the Eastern Sociological Society. An award-winning author of four books, most recently of The Asian American Achievement Paradox, she is this year’s recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to the Field Award from the American Sociological Association’s Asia and Asian American Section. Her wide-ranging research addresses morally urgent questions about the implications of contemporary U.S. immigration—particularly Asian immigration—on the native-born population. She has studied this from a variety of analytical lenses, including immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic conflict, intermarriage and multiracial identification, educational opportunities and outcomes, and, most recently, affirmative action and the rise in anti-Asian hate. She is a Board Member of the Obama Presidency Oral History, a Trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation, and a Senior Researcher at AAPI Data, which recently received a $10 million grant to study anti-Asian discrimination and hate. Committed to public engagement, she is a Contributor for The Brookings Institution, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and a variety of other outlets. Earlier this year, she was invited by the Biden-Harris Administration to present her research on xenophobia, discrimination and anti-Asian hate to COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.Learn more about Dr. Lee here.
ISR Insights Speaker Series
Social media have been repeatedly shown to harbor white supremacist networks, enabling far-right extremists to find one another, recruit and radicalize new members, and normalize their hate. In order to address the problem of white supremacist speech on social media, platforms must first be able to identify it.
In this talk, Libby Hemphill will present research to understand what white supremacist speech looks like, especially how it’s different from general or commonplace speech, and to determine whether white supremacists try to adapt to avoid detection from social media platforms’ current content moderation systems.
College and Beyond II: The Outcomes of Liberal Education Colloquium Series
The 2020 election saw record-breaking turnout, and college and university students were no exception. In this session, Nancy Thomas, director of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, will discuss findings from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), as well as the conflicting forces at play in 2020—pandemic-driven social distancing, a backlash against President Trump, a national reckoning over racial injustice, defiance around voter access, new efforts by institutional leaders and faculty, and effective student organizing—and what it all means for democratic learning across disciplines, healthy political campus climates, and planning for the 2022 election and beyond.
Zoom – Registration Required: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f5XhPfX4RdOCsvvEUD3MBw
Opening Event Speakers:
Nancy Thomas, Director, Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University
Vincent Hutchings (discussant), Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Hanes Walton, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Research Professor, Institute for Social Research; University of Michigan
Dave Waterhouse (discussant), Interim Co-Director, The Edward Ginsberg Center, University of Michigan
Susan Jekielek (moderator), Associate Research Scientist, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan
In 2021-22 the College and Beyond II Public Colloquium Series will explore the links between liberal education and its outcomes, with a particular focus on democratic engagement. This fall, researchers and leaders of projects focused on better understanding and increasing civic and political engagement will discuss ongoing efforts and new initiatives. In winter 2022, seminars will feature research on the enduring impact of liberal education conducted with the College and Beyond II dataset, which contains rich data about students’ experiences in and beyond college and will open to researchers in June 2022.
Visit the College and Beyond II: Outcomes of a Liberal Arts Education Colloquium Series website for more information on this and all upcoming events: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/liberalarts
Racial Foundations of Public Policy Series
Dr. Rucker Johnson—a labor economist who specializes in the economics of education—will join Dr. Celeste-Watkins-Hayes in conversation as part of a virtual series on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy.
The Racial Foundations of Public Policy series focuses on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy as both a disciplinary field and as a course of action. The series will bring in renowned scholar-experts from across the country to be in conversation with Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes, director of the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School of Public Policy. The series is open to all members of the University of Michigan community and the wider public.
Join Student Life for a film screening and discussion of Me, The “Other.” This film reveals the inner and outer lives of people living on the frontlines of prejudice by asking the questions we don’t discuss in classrooms, workplaces and social places. From three colleges in one Michigan county come the narratives of 12 students whose lives are shaped by being the “other” and whose struggles and triumphs reveal the resilience of the human spirit. The students share their personal journeys through mental illness, suicidal thoughts, loss of a loved one, substance abuse, racism, Islamophobia, gender dysphoria, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status differences, sexual assault, physical illness, religion and spirituality, immigration, DACA and deportation. Please join for an in-person or virtual viewing and post-film discussion. Film screening 6-7:30pm and discussion 7:30-8:30pm. REGISTER HERE
Turn Up Turn Out, in collaboration with the Center for Racial Justice, would like to invite you to “Dinner for Democracy.” The virtual event will be a question-and-answer style panel with Eli Savit, Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney; Victoria Burton-Harris, Washtenaw County Chief Assistant; Dr. Jeremiah Wade Olsen, professor at UM-Flint; and Alyshia Dyer (MPP/MSW’22), former Washtenaw County Deputy Sheriff.
The members of this panel will contribute to our discussion following Dr. Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve’s conversation on the Racial foundations of criminal justice policy with their own unique expertise on the subject. Throughout this event, students will learn about the intersection between criminal justice and racial discrimination and will walk away with knowledge of how they can impact criminal justice policy that is relevant to our University of Michigan communities.
The Program in Practical Policy Engagement (P3E) invites the University of Michigan Community to learn about Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), which is on the ballot in Ann Arbor in the upcoming November 2nd election.
The Ann Arbor City Charter Amendment reads: “Shall the Charter be amended to provide that the Mayor and City Council members are to be nominated and elected by a Ranked Choice Voting method when it is authorized by State Law?”
Mandy Mitchell (MPP ‘22), will present her research on the likely impacts of adopting RCV, undertaking as a P3E research fellow with the Michigan Consensus Policy Project. MCCP, a bipartisan working group of former state officials, seeks to identify nonpartisan solutions to the state’s most pressing issues. Register with this link.
Racial segregation pervades the American stage and screen musical from its origins to the present. And while the black-cast musical is usually named as such, the necessary complement on the other side of the color line—the white-cast musical—is typically granted the unmodified moniker “the musical.” (Eliding race in this way is, of course, a classic expression of whiteness.) This talk names the white-cast musical as such by identifying aesthetic, structural, and industrial forms of whiteness in the output of two major figures: Fred Astaire and Stephen Sondheim. Drawing on forthcoming work on both men, Dr. Todd Decker uses a variety of methods to identify and describe Astaire’s and Sondheim’s distinct and particular types of whiteness. Adding precision to this inquiry, he draws on digital humanities methods that quantify the extent to which whiteness dominates the history of the American musical.
Todd Decker (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2007) is the Paul Tietjens Professor of Music, American Culture Studies, and Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Watch via Zoom (link forthcoming)
Free and open to all - online only
As part of the Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Series, Ambassador Susan Page and Javed Ali, former senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, facilitate a conversation on the need for diversity in one of the nation’s oldest government agencies. Registration required.
The Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Series, open to the U-M community, is designed to foster dialogue on important issues of U.S. public policy with practitioners in session facilitated by faculty discussants.
Join the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the School of Public Health for a discussion on global public health and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic response with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. Dean F. DuBois Bowman of the School of Public Health will moderate the conversation.
How can you and your students impact the community we live in? Please join City of Ann Arbor staff to learn about ways to engage with the city and play a role in decision-making processes. Staff will share current city engagement practices and opportunities in addition to what is in the works. City staff would also like to hear from you on ways the city might better connect with University employees and students.
This session builds on the Ginsberg Center’s ongoing civic engagement work, by paying special attention to the ways faculty, staff, and students can promote community change through the Policy & Governance Pathway, one of six pathways to civic engagement & community change
Presenters:
- Kayla Coleman, Interim Solid Waste Manager and Community Engagement Specialist
- Galen Hardy, Office of Sustainability and Innovations Community Engagement Specialist
- Heather Seyfarth, AICP, Special Planning Projects Manager and Community Engagement Specialist
In 2018 Michigan voters approved a Constitutional amendment to change how redistricting is done in the state, removing the process from the purview of the state legislature and placing it in the hands of a new Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC). The amendment also prescribes priorities the ICRC must address when drawing new district maps, placing the concept of “communities of interest” (COIs) near the top of the list.
While COIs have been a part of redistricting in other states, this is a new concept in Michigan, and is not yet widely understood. This webinar will help educate stakeholders about COIs: what they are, the role they will play in Michigan’s new redistricting process, and how they can strategize and engage effectively in that process.
The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), the Program in Practical Policy Engagement, Detroit Public TV, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Voters Not Politicians, the citizen-led grassroots organization that spearheaded the effort to pass the amendment.
January 29 - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Eric Foner
In Conversation
Pausing for a moment of post inaugural reflection, following one of our nation’s most contentious presidential elections, this conversation brings together filmmaker, scholar, journalist and cultural critic, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with prominent historian Eric Foner to contemplate how a divided nation comes together. The two will discuss Reconstruction, the all-too-brief period following the Civil War when the United States made its first effort to become an interracial democracy. The period saw the Constitution rewritten to incorporate the ideal of racial equality, but ended as a result of a violent backlash that erased many of the gains that had been made, with consequences we still confront as a nation. The program will also preview Gates most recent project, The Black Church, which will premiere on PBS in February.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Professor Gates is an author and filmmaker whose work includes Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, winner of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and the related books, Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow, with Tonya Bolden, and 2019 New York Times Notable Book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. Gates’ groundbreaking genealogy series, Finding Your Roots, is now in its sixth season on PBS and has been called “one of the deepest and wisest series ever on television,” leveraging “the inherent entertainment capacity of the medium to educate millions of Americans about the histories and cultures of our nation and the world.” Gates is the recipient of an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, an NAACP image award, an MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” and in 1998 he was the first African American to receive the National Humanities Medal. Gates was named to Time’s 25 Most Influential Americans list in 1997, to Ebony’s Power 150 list in 2009, and to Ebony’s Power 100 list in 2010 and 2012.
Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, is one of this country’s most prominent historians. Professor Foner’s publications have concentrated on the intersections of intellectual, political and social history, and the history of American race relations. One of his best-known books includes Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, winner of the Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His latest book is The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution . Foner has also been the co-curator, with Olivia Mahoney, of two prize-winning exhibitions on American history: A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln, which opened at the Chicago Historical Society in 1990, and America’s Reconstruction: People and Politics After the Civil War, which opened at the Virginia Historical Society in 1995 and traveled to several other locations.
Lynette Clemetson is the Director of Wallace House, Knight-Wallace Fellowships and the Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan. A longtime journalist, she was a correspondent for Newsweek magazine in the U.S. and Asia, a national correspondent for The New York Times, and senior director of strategy and new initiatives at NPR. Wallace House works to sustain and elevate the careers of journalists, foster civic engagement, and uphold the role of a free press in democratic society.
This event is part of the Democracy & Debate theme semester with support from Wallace House and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It is also part of the 2021 U-M Reverend Martin Luther King Junior Symposium.
Join us for an interdisciplinary group of U-M experts in conversation on our new Vice-President, Kamala Harris. This discussion, one of the final events of the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester, marks the historic results of the 2020 election season. As the Theme Semester concludes, a new administration will take office under extraordinary circumstances. While this election season has wrought charges of voter suppression, claims of irregularities, and violence in the service of vastly unproven assertions of fraud, for this event we place our primary focus on Kamala Harris, who will make history on Inauguration Day, January 20th. She has broken barriers in American politics and will serve in office during a moment marked by a global pandemic and economic hardship, as well as by an upswing in nativist sentiments, racism, and a politics of exclusion. Harris brings a wealth of experience — as a former US Senator and state’s attorney general — and a cluster of identities — as a Black woman and a woman of South Asian descent, a daughter of immigrants, a graduate of a historically Black university, a mother within a blended family — to a role that she will inevitably reframe in the years to come. With an introduction by Provost Susan Collins, Edward M. Gramlich Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, professor of economics, and former dean of the Ford School (2007-17), the panel will feature: Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Editor of the Global Black History section of Public Books; Ian Shin, Assistant Professor of History and American Culture (Asian/Pacfic Islander Studies); Angela X. Ocampo, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Faculty Associate, Center for Political Studies and Latina/o Studies; Michelle May-Curry, PhD Candidate, American Culture; and closing remarks by Jasmine Williams, a senior in the Ross School of Business and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Beta Eta (UM) chapter. Ruby C. Tapia, Department Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies and Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and English Language and Literature, will moderate. This panel promises a rich discussion on the diverse histories that intersect in this moment, as well as its meanings for the communities Harris embodies and for the nation as a whole.
Sponsored by the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester; Departments of Women’s & Gender Studies and Afroamerican & African Studies in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; the Institute for Research on Women and Gender; the National Pan Hellenic Council - University of Michigan Chapter; and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated- Beta Eta Chapter.
Public monuments, public spaces, and museums shape the shared understanding of our nation’s history. From the removal of Jim Crow-era statues of Confederate leaders in cities across the country to the opening of the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL, a dramatic shift in our perceptions and ideas about the complex heritage of our monuments and museums has occurred over the last five years. More recently, the country has considered the role of monuments and the narratives they perpetuate with much greater focus and intensity in light of the protest movements for social justice and against systemic racism that swept the nation in summer of 2020. In honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, join us for an important discussion with four national experts on the power that monuments and public spaces assert in creating our nation’s stories. Mitch Landrieu, former Mayor of New Orleans; Earl Lewis, founding director of University of Michigan’s Center for Social Solutions; and Kristin Hass, Associate Professor of American Culture, will discuss the crucial role practice and policy play today in shaping our nation’s legacies, in a conversation moderated by Christina Olsen, director of the University of Michigan’s Museum of Art.
President-elect Biden’s first announcements of nominations for his cabinet – Janet Yellen as Secretary of Treasury, Anthony Blinken as Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor – signal the incoming administration’s immediate focus on economic and foreign policy. What is the significance of Biden’s choice of nominees and what does their selection tell us about the direction his administration might take? Join Linda Tesar, Professor of Economics, and Ambassador Susan D. Page, Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the Ford School and Professor of Practice at the Law School, for a lively, wide-ranging discussion on the upcoming challenges in economic and foreign policy in the domestic and international sphere.
View the video HERE
Senator Mitt Romney recently signaled that a likely candidate for bipartisan agreement with a Biden Administration could be an expanded and fully refundable child tax credit. What would this mean for families, especially those with low income? In this talk Professor Shaefer will chart the journey of recent calls to expand the child tax credit and the rising popularity of the child allowance among poverty scholars, in Congress, and in the Biden Administration. Professor Shaefer will discuss the questions of principle and practicality in this journey, as well as the expected impacts on child poverty were it to become law.
Click HERE to read an article in the Wall Street Journal for context.
Using dance, drag, drama, and documentary elements, A Beautiful Country chronicles 150 years of Asian-American immigration history. Miss Visa Denied, a transgender drag queen and performer, is the narrator who guides the audience through the turbulent history of Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese people coming to America. Heartfelt testimonials and the dramatization of some highly vibrant and egregious pieces of propaganda showcase the provocative events that have shaped this history. Addressing issues of race, gender, and appropriation, this play examines the fundamental questions surrounding the immigrant experience, including what it means to be an American.
This production was filmed over two weeks in the Arthur Miller Theatre and various remote locations according to the School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s approved safety plan. All safety protocols for the performing arts to prevent the spread of Covid 19 were observed. The production will receive its premiere on Facebook and be available for one week on YouTube beginning on Wednesday, December 2nd.
View the video HERE
The Weiser Diplomacy Center is partnering with the American Academy of Diplomacy to bring seasoned U.S. diplomats to Ford School and discuss the future of U.S. foreign policy after the presidential election 2020. We invite students and the community to join us in conversation with Ambassador Ron Neumann, program moderator, with Ambassador Dawn Liberi, Ambassador Hugo Llorens, and Ambassador Alexander Vershbow.
View the video HERE
The event will feature speaker Javed Ali, former Senior Director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and Towsley Policymaker in Residence, and our very own Ravi Pendse, U-M Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, as the event moderator. Join us for an insightful discussion centered on the intersection of cybersecurity, technology, and government and its role within the campus community, presidential elections, and more. Our guests will also be sharing about their unique career paths into their respective fields.
View the video HERE
Associate Dean Luke Shaefer will moderate a conversation with Ford School faculty members Shobita Parthasarathy, John Ciorciari, and Justin Wolfers about the 2020 Presidential election and policy priorities of the next presidential term. This event is sponsored by the Ford School and co-sponsored in conjunction with the University of Michigan Club of Washington, D.C. It is also part of the Alumni Association’s Going Global Virtual Event Series.
View the video HERE
Please join us on November 19th to discuss the cross-section of climate change and social justice. Like COVID-19, climate change will hit communities of color and the poor the hardest. UM has a societal responsibility to be responsive to this issue. Please join us as Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist and other panelists discuss this pivotal issue.
View the video HERE
Free and open to the public.
Join us for a discussion on election campaigns, both in 2020 and beyond. The discussion will include Katie Packer Beeson, former deputy campaign manager for the Romney/Ryan campaign in 2012 and founding partner of Burning Glass Consulting, and Greg Schultz, general election strategist and senior advisor for the 2020 Biden campaign. Broderick Johnson, current Towsley Policymaker in Residence and former assistant to the President and cabinet secretary during the Obama Administration, will moderate the discussion.
View the video HERE
Women make up over 50% of the state’s population, but just 16% of Michigan’s local chief administrative officers. The Michigan Municipal League’s 16/50 Project is transforming this leadership gap – we’re getting more women seated in the municipal top spot in Michigan communities.
Join the 16/50 Project for an interactive panel experience to meet the force of women leading communities in Michigan, engage with local government challenges, and learn more about the municipal management profession.
Learn more HERE
View the video HERE
The presidential transition is currently dominating the news cycle. What exactly is the role and function of a presidential transition team? How are transition teams selected? How do they determine the policy of a new incoming administration? How can the public have a voice in the process? Join Kenneth Lowande, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, and Chantelle Renn, Special Advisor, Transition and Management at the Center for Presidential Transition, for an informative conversation about this process crucial to the foundation of an incoming administration.
View the video HERE
Join us for a virtual conversation co-hosted by the Gulf International Forum featuring Dr. Dania Thafer, Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum (GIF), Abbas Khadim, Director of Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council and General Anthony C. Zinni, former United States Marine Corps general in conversation with Ambassador Patrick Theros.
View the video HERE
There is much talk, especially in recent years, about the urban-rural divide: the idea that people from urban and rural places think fundamentally differently about a whole range of policy issues, and about governance itself. This semester, Ford School students have been analyzing data from previous iterations of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), a survey of Michigan local government officials conducted annually since 2008 by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), to identify where there are and—importantly—are not differences along the urban-rural continuum.
View the video HERE
The Ford School of Public Policy is proud to announce the Public Policy and Institutional Discrimination Discussion Series. The series, open to U-M students, faculty, and staff, is designed to foster dialogue on important issues of U.S. public policy. Sessions are facilitated by faculty discussants. Students are encouraged, though not required, to attend as many sessions as possible.
This discussion will be with Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, assistant professor of political science, assistant professor of public policy by courtesy.
View the video HERE
In this virtual non-partisan space, students will have the opportunity to collectively reflect on their U.S. Presidential Election experiences with staff across Student Life. We warmly welcome all students and their political perspectives. During this time, students will have the opportunity to engage in large and small groups. Small breakout groups will focus on several topics such as self-care, being an International Student in a U.S. Presidential Election, how to remain civically engaged, and more.
There is no video available for this event.
Presenters: Co-editors Jessica Namakkal (Duke), Mark Bray (Rutgers), Eric Roubinek (UNC Asheville) and Giulia Riccò (University of Michigan)
Respondents: Federico Finchelstein (The New School); Victoria de Grazia (Columbia University)
Contributors to this issue of Radical History Review study histories of fascism and antifascism after 1945 to show how fascist ideology continues to circulate and be opposed transnationally despite its supposed death at the end of World War II. The essays cover the use of fascism in the 1970s construction of the Latinx Left, the connection between antifascism and anti-imperialism in 1960s Italian Communist internationalism, post-dictatorship Argentina and the transhistorical alliance between Las Madres and travestí activism, cultures of antifascism in contemporary Japan, and the British radical right’s attempted alliance with Qathafi’s Libya. The issue also includes a discussion about teaching fascism through fiction in the age of Trump, a reflection on the practices of archiving and displaying antifascist objects to various publics, and reviews of recent works on antifascism, punk music, and the Rock Against Racism movement. Please RSVP to ? for the Zoom link and password. This event is sponsored by the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester.
There is no video available for this event.
How will the post-election season impact your student organization? Spend time with Ginsberg Center team to process your own reactions to the election, and develop strategies to lead your student organization in inclusive and supportive ways. This drop-in session will take place twice in the weeks following the November 3rd election.
There is no video available for this event.
Please join the Voices for Carbon Neutrality (VCN) on November 11 to learn about successful public private partnerships in the past two years for funding carbon neutrality at the University of Michigan. While carbon neutrality is often framed as competing with other priorities for resources, proven financing models can provide resources to UM to both fund carbon neutrality and other priorities at the same time.
View the video HERE
With Professors Vincent Hutchings, University of Michigan Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies, and Margo Schlanger, University of Michigan Law School
As the democratic process of the 2020 election continues to unfold across the country, all eyes are on the state of Georgia. Due to the narrow margin of votes between the two presidential candidates, on Friday, November 6, Georgia’s Secretary of State declared a recount would be necessary. Moreover, Georgia’s mandate that a candidate cannot be declared victor without winning 50% of the vote has resulted in both of the races for the U.S. Senate being subject to a run-off between the two candidates that received the most votes. First-term Senator David Perdue (R-GA) will face Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff, and Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), appointed to the Senate last year, will run against Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock. The events in Georgia are garnering national attention, as the balance and control of the United States Senate hinge on the results of these two races. Please join two U-M experts for a lively conversation as they discuss the historic elections in Georgia and answer questions you might have about their implications on the national level.
View the video HERE
This expert panel will examine the many facets of presidential power in both democracies and autocracies, with speakers offering diverse perspectives on American and comparative cases.
Moderator: Allen Hicken, Professor of Political Science, U-M
Panelists: Julia Azari, Associate Professor of Political Science, Marquette University; William Howell, Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics, University of Chicago; Kenneth Lowande, Assistant Professor of Political Science, U-M; Anne Meng, Assistant Professor of Politics, University of Virginia; Ken Opalo, Assistant Professor, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
View the video HERE
Join the Center for Campus Involvement to learn about free speech and your student organization. Joined by Kelly Cruz, Associate General Counsel & Jack Bernard, Associate General Counsel, you will learn about the tenants of free speech specifically connected to your student organization as well as resources across campus.
There is no video available for this event.
This workshop will explore the intersections of health & well-being and activism & social justice for student organizations. You will learn strategies and tools to care for yourself and your organization while working for social change.
There is no video available for this event.
Please join us for a post-election discussion on the impact of the next administration’s policy plans and their business impact on trade and immigration. Edward Alden, Senior Fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations, along with Norm Bishara, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, will discuss changes to immigration policy and how that is impacting certain business sectors and what we can expect regarding post-election trade policy.
Learn more about Norm Bishara and Edward Alden HERE
Join this event via Zoom HERE
How will the post-election season impact your student organization? Spend time with Ginsberg Center team to process your own reactions to the election, and develop strategies to lead your student organization in inclusive and supportive ways. This drop-in session will take place twice in the weeks following the November 3rd election.
There is no video available for this event.
This webinar is an opportunity to hear from in-house LSA experts about what happened on election day, where things stand in the days immediately following, and what the longer-term impacts might be. The panel discussion will be moderated by Matthew Countryman, Chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Associate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, American Culture, and History, and faculty panelists include:
Jenna Bednar Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Edie N. Goldenberg Endowed Director of the Michigan in Washington Program
Deborah Beim Assistant Professor of Political Science
Angela Dillard Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican & African Studies, History, and in the Residential College
Vincent Hutchings Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Hanes Walton, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies
There is no video available for this event.
Holding a civil, productive conversation with individuals who may not agree with you is always a challenge. This year, it seems to be an even bigger challenge, but it is still an important skill to continuously improve. Political or personal values conversations are an important part of civil discourse, especially if each party is willing to listen and connect with mutual respect and a goal to seek common ground. This session will provide a framework for better conversations around very complicated and potentially emotional topics.
There is no video available for this event.
Historically, election results were not declared on the night of Election Day. Indeed, it’s only been in the last 40 years, with the advent of television news, that organizations have “called” the election on the night of voting, and that “call” is not an official result. All votes have to be counted, the Electoral College process needs to unfold, and, at times, as we saw in 2000, the results might be contested in the courts.
What does it mean to contest the results of a presidential election in the courts? How could such a process end up in the Supreme Court, and what are the implications of such a possibility with the new composition of the Supreme Court? Join two experts in the litigation of election results – Law Professors Samuel Bagenstos and Ellen Katz – for a lively discussion that will provide background and context to such an outcome in presidential elections.
View the Conversation HERE
The night before the 2020 General Election, let’s gather for a virtual dance party with music, PSAs and special guest appearances to celebrate democratic engagement across the partisan divide. Featuring performances by local favorite Sabbatical Bob, Kektus, Nova Zaii with Kultur Grenade, and the legendary Detroit-based techno-wizards Inner City.
For those that voted early and for those headed to the polls on November 3rd – push your furniture aside, keep socially-distanced, and remember we’re all Wolverines on the virtual dance floor.
Sponsors include Democracy & Debate Theme Semester, the Residential College, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, UMMA, the Ginsberg Center, and MUSIC Matters.
This event is free and open to all members of the U-M community and the general public. Check out myumi.ch/O4DVE for the band schedule a week before the show and for the YouTube Live event stream on November 2, 9:00pm to midnight.
View the dance party HERE
At 8 pm EDT on Sunday, November 1st, WeListen will be hosting an interactive primer on the upcoming Election Night. It will include discussion and activities in predictions, close races around the country, polls, vote-by-mail, and more. We hope to see you there to talk all things Election Night!
Nusrat Durrani is a pioneering media executive and award-winning creative renowned for cutting-edge work in television, film, digital and social media. For two decades, Nusrat kept MTV at the forefront of the cultural conversation by boldly tackling themes related to pop culture, race, color, gender, sexual identity, and representation in programming he produced in provocative new formats. Nusrat’s ground-breaking documentary series “Rebel Music” about young activists around the world fighting oppression won accolades with the Obama White House, and preempted the current Black Lives Matter movement. “Madly,” his electrifying omnibus of unusual love stories by leading directors, won a best actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival. His latest work in film and photography explores the loss, disconnection, challenges and pleasures experienced by small town folks around the world and in the American heartland.
This Penny Stamps Speaker Series event includes a screening of Durrani’s newest film, An American Prayer. The film chronicles the magic, loss, and reincarnation of the American Dream told through the stories and incantations of its citizens.
View the video HERE
The Martin Luther King-led Birmingham and Selma campaigns resulted in iconic photographic images that to this day signify “the civil rights movement”: typically those images feature empowered, active whites and victimized, powerless blacks. The events of August 11th and 12th during Charlottesville’s “Summer of Hate” have also produced a group of iconic images that the mass media relies on to signify the violent and emboldened racist hatred of the “Unite the Right” rally and its aftermath. In analyzing and comparing the most frequently circulated photographs, I want to suggest a similarity in the narrative that these frequently circulated photos tend to tell about the struggle for racial justice. A photo of the terrorist car attack that killed Heather Heyer won the Pulitzer Prize. Why? What is this horrifically chaotic, violent, almost visually incomprehensible photo communicating? Why is this image reproduced over and over again? How is it thematically and visually similar to iconic images from the civil rights era? How and why does it matter that our photographic record encourages us to remember key events around race and white supremacy in particular ways?
Event Landing Page HERE
There is no video available for this event.
Join us for a panel discussion featuring Jack Kalavritinos of APCO and Storme Sixeas of Deloitte Tax LLP. Moderated by Norm Bishara, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at the Ross School of Business.
Learn more about our moderator and panelists here
There is no video available for this event.
With Election Day quickly approaching, Trotter Multicultural Center is beyond excited to present Civic Engagement & the Power of Speechwriting: Reflections from Former Presidential Speechwriters, a continuation of our beloved Trotter Distinguished Leadership Series, on October 29th (Thursday) from 5:30-7:00 PM. Hear from speechwriters, Sarah Hurwitz and John McConnell, as they discuss their experiences speechwriting for the Bush and Obama administration, as well as the role of speechwriting within civic engagement. The event will be moderated by Aaron Kall, U-M Director of Debate.
View the video HERE
With the election almost upon us, two sets of issues are foremost on voters’ minds – counting votes and how and results – or contested results – might be determined and covered by the media. Join four U-M Experts for a lightning round of conversation, followed by individual breakout rooms with a chance to ask your questions. Edie Goldenberg, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, and founder of Turn up Turnout will discuss absentee ballots and voter fraud; Rob Mickey, Associate Professor of Political Science will address voter suppression; Jenna Bednar, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science will give a quick primer on the Electoral College and implications for election 2020, and Robert Yoon, Associate Director of Wallace House and lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media, will share his expertise on media covering elections.
Join composer Lisa Bielawa as she unveils her new, broadly participatory musical work Voters’ Broadcast in its entirety for the first time onlinein this virtual event hosted by University Musical Society President Matthew VanBesien, and co-presented by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Kaufman Music Center in New York.
What’s on your playlist? How does music change us and the world around us? In the last five decades, popular music has played a prominent role in social change, protest, and the demand for equality for all. From Jimi Hendrix “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, Marvin Gaye’s seminal “What’s Going On,” Bruce Springstein’s “Born in the USA,” and Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” artists for years have used music to shine light on disparities in our country. While these calls, at times misunderstood, have seeped into the national consciousness, the use of this music – from the homogonzied industry itself and pop culture – has often not addressed the very social issues that drove its creation. Join us for a discussion about music and social justice with four extraordinary people who have dedicated their careers to the power of music to make change. Ken Fischer, President Emeritus of the University Musical Society, will introduce Ismael Ahmed, founder of the Concert of Colors; Brandon Victor Dixon, Broadway performer whose roles include Aaron Burr; Mike Ellison, Detroit musician; and Louise Toppin, Professor of Voice in the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre and vocal artist. Detroit notable and WDET music host, Ann Delisi will moderate the conversation, discussing music, playlists, and social change.
Special feature – students, suggest your contributions to a playlist for social change! We’re compiling the Democracy & Debate Social Justice playlist on Spotify, and we want your voice to be heard! Enter your suggestions here.
View the video HERE
The virtual DEI Summit provides an opportunity for the University to highlight the progress we’ve made over the previous year, the changes we’re experiencing across campus, and the opportunities of continued engagement with our community.
This year’s theme, Arts+Social Change: Building an Anti-Racist World through the Arts, provides a time and space for the campus community to come together to demonstrate a collective commitment to anti-racism that this moment in our history compels. During the fall term Democracy & Debate theme semester, the DEI Summit will focus on the arts as a vehicle for social change and provides an opportunity for curricular integration and connection. Both the theme semester and the Summit confirm our civic engagement values and demonstrate the power of each voice – both at the ballot box and through creative expression.
View the recorded video HERE
Dr. Martha Jones will discuss the role of Black women in the civil rights and voting rights movements and the ongoing struggle for voting rights for different populations, in an event that kicks off theIn Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women’s political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons CEW+ Advocacy Symposium (“Creating Change Through Introspection, Dialogue & Action”).
View the video HERE
The Ford School and the Weiser Diplomacy Center invite all University of Michigan students to join us for an event entitled Foreign Policy and the Presidential Election with Ambassador Susan Page and Associate Professor John Ciorciari directly following the Presidential Debate on October 22 at 10:30pm.
There is no video available for this event.
Troy, Alabama. Selma. Nashville. Washington, DC. John Lewis’ journey bore witness to the trials and tribulations of the civil rights movement. Please join us for an important conversation on the biographic documentary about the life of this legendary civil rights pioneer, activist, and congressman, John Lewis: Good Trouble. Moderated by Robert M. Sellers, Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, the panel includes Jim Burnstein, Director of of the Screenwriting Program; Sydney Carr, graduate student in Public Policy and Political Science and president of Students of Color of Rackham; Edie Goldenberg, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science and founder of the voting advocacy group Turn Up Turnout; and Riana Anderson, Assistant Professor of Public Health and founder of EMBRace (Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race).
Sponsored by: The Democracy & Debate Theme Semester and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, The University of Michigan.
Watch the recording on Zoom HERE
Please join us for a virtual seminar with Dr. Babajide Ololajulo, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Dr. Patrick Cobbinah, Urban Planning Academic in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, in conversation with Justine M. Davis, LSA Collegiate Fellow in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan.
There is no video available for this event.
From partisan politics to diversity shortfalls in U.S. newsrooms, what does it mean for the reporters on the ground? Hear from two of America’s most prominent Latinx journalists on the value of representation and objectivity in this hyper-partisan moment. Join our conversation with CBS News contributor, Maria Elena Salinas and Fox News national correspondent, Bryan Llenas.
View the recorded video on Zoom HERE
The University Musical Society (UMS), in partnership with the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Democracy & Debate Theme Semester, is thrilled to announce that Daily Show star Trevor Noah will join the U-M community for a casual and interactive conversation on this pivotal moment that reflects both adversity and possibility.
This is a virtual event for the UMS and U-M community
There is no video available for this event.
What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States? The Constitution does not define who gets to be a citizen, or what citizenship means. Rather, citizenship has been defined over time, often through struggle and activism by people who were denied the full rights of citizenship. The U-M Clements Library in partnership with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences will host a virtual panel discussion featuring Derrick Spires of Cornell University (author of The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States) and Martha Jones of Johns Hopkins University (author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America and Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All). The conversation will be moderated by Ben Vinson III, Provost of Case Western Reserve University.
View the video HERE
Thinking about the upcoming election? Looking for fun (COVID-safe) ways to spend time with friends or make new ones? Host or join one of the many SparkVotes parties that will take place on October 17th - just 17 days before the election. Each party will gather on Zoom to compete in a series of party games - trivia, a song challenge, scavenger hunt, and more. The voting-themed games are non-partisan, fun, and will leave you feeling more prepared for the upcoming election. Plus, all participants will have the chance to win great prizes! Learn more about becoming a party host on our website.
There is no video available for this event.
Philippa P.B. Hughes is a Social Sculptor and Creative Strategist who produces art-fueled projects that spark humanizing and authentic conversations across political, social, and cultural divides. She is an evangelist for dismantling the polarization industrial complex one conversation at a time. Hughes has designed and produced hundreds of creative activations since 2007 for curious folks to engage with art and one another in unconventional and meaningful ways. She leads CuriosityConnects.us, a partner in Looking For America a national series inviting politically diverse guests to break bread and talk to each other face-to-face using art as a starting point for relationship-building conversations. Hughes has engineered numerous public-private collaborations that have been funded by the Kresge Foundation, New American Economy, Center for Inclusion & Belonging, and the DC Office of Planning. She has served as a commissioner on the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities among numerous other boards throughout Washington, D.C., where she is based. Hughes has spoken at TEDxAmericanUniversity, Creative Placemaking Week 2018 in Amsterdam, Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit, TomTom Festival, Smart Growth America’s Intersections. Her work has been featured by CNN, PBS Newshour, CityLab, The Washington Post, among numerous other media outlets. Her formal training took place at the University of Virginia, which launched her into a six-year legal career that ended with the Washington City Paper declaring 2007 “The Year of Philippa.” Deep curiosity about the world and the people in it provided the education that mattered most.
In partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art, this event is part of the Democracy & Debate theme semester.
View the video HERE
Join us for a discussion with David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee and former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. John Ciorciari, Ford School Associate Professor and Director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center, will moderate the discussion.
View the video HERE
Join composer Lisa Bielawa as she unveils the second of three parts of her new, broadly participatory musical work Voters’ Broadcast in this virtual event hosted by University Musical Society President Matthew VanBesien, and co-presented by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Kaufman Music Center in New York.
Panel discussion with:
StephanieChang, member of the State House of Representatives and co-founder and past president of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote-Michigan; Dessa Cosma, Executive Director of Detroit Disability Power; Reverend Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP and leader of voting rights campaigns, including Take Your Souls to the Polls and Proposal 3; Matthew L.M. Fletcher, law professor and director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University, as well as an appellate judge for numerous tribal courts. Moderated by Michael Steinberg, Professor from Practice, UM Law School, former legal director, Michigan ACLU.
Organized by Women and Gender Studies, The Ford School, LSA Sponsored by: The entire Suffrage 2020 Collaboration and the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester
View the video HERE
Join us for a conversation about covering the campaign trail with two senior political reporters, Jane Coaston of Vox and Daniel Strauss of The Guardian. Paula Lantz, associate dean of the Ford School and James Hudak Professor of Health Policy will moderate the conversation. The panelists will discuss what it’s like to be a political reporter during an election season and what they think are the key political and policy issues at play in the upcoming Presidential election.
View this video HERE
This event is open to all University of Michigan students. Please register here.
About the speakers:
Jason Carter is the Chairman of the Carter Center Board of Trustees and a partner at the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, LLP in Atlanta, Georgia, where he represents clients in high stakes business litigation. As the grandson of the Carter Center’s founders, Jason has been involved with the Center’s programs for 20 years, working to advance peace and health across the globe. Prior to becoming Chairman of the Board, he oversaw the Center’s strategic planning and participated in the Center’s programs in Liberia, Egypt, Myanmar, and the West Bank/Gaza. Aside from the Center, he combines a successful litigation practice with a strong commitment to public service. From 2010-2015 he served in the Georgia State Senate. In 2014, Jason was the Democratic Nominee for Governor of Georgia, receiving more than 1.1 million votes in a race that garnered substantial national attention. He previously served for more than two years in the United States Peace Corps in South Africa where he worked in schools to assist with their transition out of Apartheid. Jason has been named to Georgia Trend’s list of the 100 Most Influential Georgians, and has consistently been recognized as a “Super Lawyer” in Atlanta Magazine, a listing of the top attorneys in Georgia. Jason has received numerous other awards for his legal work and community service, including the Anti-Defamation League’s Stuart Eizenstat Award. In addition to his work at the Carter Center, Mr. Carter serves on the boards of a number of civic organizations in the Atlanta area, including Hands on Atlanta, and the Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence. Jason attended Duke University, and the University of Georgia School of Law. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Kate, and their two sons, Henry and Thomas.
Ms. Fern Narcis Scope is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill and St. Augustine campuses. An Attorney -at-law by profession, Ms. Narcis was admitted to the Bar in 2004. Her wide and varied experience includes positions as Legal Counsel/Corporate Secretary at several State Enterprises and Legal Officer at one of Trinidad and Tobago’s Government Ministries. Ms. Narcis has also lectured extensively in the field of law at the Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies. Ms. Narcis joined the Elections and Boundaries Commission of Trinidad and Tobago as its Senior Legal Officer and Secretary to the Board of Commissioners in April, 2010. She possesses a comprehensive knowledge of the Laws of Trinidad and Tobago, Public Corporate Governance, Public/ Administrative Law; and Governmental procedures and practices. She is married and has one daughter.
This event is part of the Seminar Series on Supporting Democracy, organized by the Weiser Diplomacy Center and co-sponsored by the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies for UM’s “Democracy and Debate” theme semester.
View the video HERE
This event, sponsored by UMSuffrage2020 & the Ford School of Public Policy, will bring together these two Secretaries in conversation on voter turnout and voter access in Michigan and Ohio:
View the conversation HERE
Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts will read from his most recent collection, Felon, and discuss the ways in which incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people are left out of conversations about Democracy. This event will be an opportunity to consider the intersections between free speech, disenfranchisement, and mass incarceration. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A. Co-sponsored by the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester, the Prison Creative Arts Project, and the Michigan Quarterly Review.
To order the Fall 2020 special issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review guest edited by Reginald Dwayne Betts visit https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/
View the video on its Democracy Café toolkit
This is a monumental year in our political history, with the upcoming election in November having the power to address various human and civil rights issues. Join us for a special virtual discussion sponsored by the Democracy & Debate initiative on the power of your vote, how voting can combat supremacy and hate, the logistics of voting during a pandemic, and voter suppression. This session will feature special guests including Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Inclusion, Equity and Social Responsibility Partner at Honigman LLP and member of the Detroit NAACP, Attorney Khaliah Spencer. This session will be moderated by long-time voting justice advocate and Executive Director of Detroit Action, Branden Snyder. School of Social Work students will also have the ability to ask panelists questions about voting and voting rights.
Attending this session counts for field credit. Please document your attendance and contact your field faculty supervisor for information
View the recording HERE
The federal deficit has reached historic levels in recent years, even before Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) in March 2020. Join us for a conversation with Lawrence H. Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury, and Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, on whether the growing federal deficit is sustainable for the United States economy. Betsey Stevenson, professor of economics and public policy, will moderate the discussion.
View the video HERE
Amongst the list of concerns about elections this November is the impact of foreign influence. The scale and sophistication of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 elections have been well documented and perhaps its most effective efforts centered on the use of numerous social media platforms to promote then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the expense of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and also to foment and heighten social and political divisions within the United States. Recently, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned Russia, China and Iran are all taking measures to influence the November elections, although using a separate set of tactics and techniques and with different goals and aims.
Professor Thomas Rid and former Special Advisor for Cyberspace Advisor Richard Clarke will bring their decades of experience on foreign influence and cyber security to discuss best practices, policies, and approaches to prevent or limit the impact of any such efforts.
View the Zoom recording here
Join members of the Department of Afroamerican & African Studies (DAAS) community as they explore the meanings and implications of Wilkerson’s work. This live, virtual conversation will occur as a community engagement opportunity following the Penny Stamps Speakers Series Event Ken Burns & Isbael Wilkerson: In Conversation on Friday, October 2nd at 8pm, more info: pennystampsevents.org.
Panelists: Earl Lewis (DAAS/History/Center for Social Solutions) Aliyah Kahn (DAAS/English: Works on Afro-Carribean) Karyn Lacy (DAAS/Sociology: Works on Black Middle Class) Magda Zabrowski (DAAS/American Studies) Damani Partridge (DAAS/Anthro: Works on Afro-Europe. Germany and Ideologies of Diversity) Renee Pitter (DAAS Alum, Currently Research Program Manager for the Center for Sexuality and Health Disparities, UM School of Nursing.)
Introduction by Matthew Countryman
View the video HERE
Isabel Wilkerson, a journalist and the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2016 “for championing the stories of an unsung history.” Her book The Warmth of Other Suns won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and her new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, has been chosen for Oprah’s Book Club.
“This work shows that the term racism may be insufficient in our current era. We need new language, a new framework for understanding our divisions and how we got to where we are. Caste gives us this language. Caste allows us to see ourselves through a different lens and the chance to work toward healing from the wounds of artificial hierarchy. We must first see it to begin to resolve it.”
Told through intimate personal narratives and deeply researched history, Wilkerson examines the ties between the American caste system and those in India and Nazi Germany, and points to ways America can move beyond our artificial and destructive human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; Jackie Robinson; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson; The Vietnam War; The Central Park Five; and Country Music.
Wynton Marsalis has called Ken “a master of timing, and of knowing the sweet spot of a story, of how to ask questions to get to the basic human feeling and to draw out the true spirit of a given subject.” Future film projects include Hemingway, Muhammad Ali, The Holocaust and the United States, Benjamin Franklin, The American Buffalo, Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, LBJ & the Great Society, and Emancipation to Exodus, among others.
Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations; and in September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
View the video HERE
In a Democracy & Debate Signature Event held on September 30, 2020, this panel brought together U.S. mayors from across the country for a conversation that explored the agency of mayors in matters of national significance. Participants include Mayors Jacob Frey (Minneapolis, MN), Lori Lightfoot (Chicago, IL), Libby Schaaf (Oakland, CA), and Michael Tubbs (Stockton, CA).
View the video HERE
Since speaking out about his wrongful arrest and the consequences for academic freedom, Xiaoxing Xi was awarded the 2020 Andrei Sakharov Prize of the American Physical Society, which is awarded biannually to human rights advocates in the physics community.
Hosted by the LSA Physics Department, Indigo: The LSA Asian and Asian-American Faculty Alliance, and the U-M Association of Chinese Professors (ACP).
View the video HERE
Join composer Lisa Bielawa as she unveils the first of three parts of her new, broadly participatory musical work Voters’ Broadcast in this virtual event hosted by University Musical Society President Matthew VanBesien, and co-presented by University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Kaufman Music Center in New York. Matt Albert, chair of the Department of Chamber Music at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan; Maria Torres Melgares, saxophonist and student at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan; and Oriana Hawley, violist and student at Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School, will also speak about their experiences participating in Voters’ Broadcast.
Please join us as we commemorate the passage of the 19th amendment and welcome Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Anita Earls. Justice Earls is an African-American civil rights attorney, educator, and founder of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ). Her lecture will examine the fight for women’s suffrage in light of her experiences in voting rights mobilization in the South and bridge past and present struggles for voting rights. Organized by Political Science, the Law School, LSA.
Sponsored by: The entire Suffrage 2020 Collaboration and the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester
View the video HERE
The Edward Ginsberg Center, in partnership with University of Michigan Museum of Art, warmly invite you and your colleagues to join us for our biennial event.
The Ginsberg Center’s Dewey Series recognizes the enduring legacy of philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey, who taught at U of M in the 1890’s and, later, went on to found the New School for Social Research. Chief among Dewey’s enduring ideas were that experience is the means through which we come to understand and connect with the world around us and that universal education is the key to democracy.
This year’s theme is inspired by William James’ 1906 Essay, ‘The Moral Equivalent of War.’ While some of James’ assertions are cause for critique, his primary observation that we need to focus on building our shared public life remains more important than ever.
View the Dialogue Deck that we developed for and used during this session available HERE
There is no video available for this event.
Join us for a virtual discussion with Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland, about his new book, Still Standing. Barry Rabe, J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School and Arthur Thurnau Professor of Environmental Policy, will moderate the discussion.
View the video HERE