The UCLA Luskin Transdisciplinary Speaker Series hosts speakers from across the social sciences whose work on issues of public affairs cuts across disciplinary boundaries. Our hope is to foster an intellectually rigorous and publicly meaningful seminar program that will draw together faculty members from Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning, as well as interested students and engaged members of the community.
Chair: Michael Manville
Faculty Members: Lené Levy-Storm, Carlos Santos, Kelly Turner, Emily Weisburst
2020-2021 Schedule
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
A virtual book talk by Reuben J. Miller, author of “Halfway Home”
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Register
Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison to become part of the 20 million people living with a felony record. Reuben J. Miller, a sociologist studying mass incarceration and former chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, spent years alongside prisoners and former prisoners, as well as their friends and families. His deep understanding of the lifelong repercussions of even a single arrest reveals that life after incarceration can be its own form of prison. Miller’s new book, “Halfway Home,” shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate but to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable and disenfranchised long after they’ve paid their debt to society.
This virtual book talk by Miller will be followed by a brief discussion about the inequities of the U.S. criminal justice system featuring:
Laura Abrams, professor and chair of UCLA Luskin Social Welfare
Amada Armenta Ph.D. sociology ’11, associate professor of urban planning
Isaac Bryan MPP ’18, director of the UCLA Black Policy Project
Michael Mendoza, director of national advocacy for the Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Presented in partnership with the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics
Andrew Zimbalist, Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College and author of “Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup.”
2019-2020 Schedule
Monday, February 24, 2020
Punishment without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal
Alexandra Natapoff, UCI School of Law
Chancellor’s Professor of Law
Joint Appointment in Criminology, Law & Society
Co-Director, Center in Law, Society and Culture
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Monday, March 9, 2020
Race Against Time: Investigative Research to Bring White Supremacists to Justice
Jerry Mitchell, American Investigative Reporter
Founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting
Recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant
Pulitzer Prize finalist
Time: 11:45 am – 1:30 pm
Location: Room 2355, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Postponed until a later date
Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy
Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University
Professor of American Institutions
2019-2020 Radcliffe Institute Fellow
2019 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow
Serves on the steering committee of the Scholars Strategy Network
Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Postponed until a later date
Climate Change and Equity
Jalonne White-Newsome, The Kresge Foundation
Senior Program Officer
Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Room 2343, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Postponed until a later date
Urban Youth, Social Media, and Violent Crime
Forrest Stuart, Stanford University
Associate Professor of Sociology
Director of the Stanford Ethnography Lab
Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Postponed until a later date
Humanitarian Aid to Undocumented Migrants
Scott Warren, Arizona State University
Lecturer in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning
Leading figure in the humanitarian activist group No Más Muertes (No More Deaths)
Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Postponed until a later date
Climate Change Policy
Marshall Burke, Stanford University
Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth System Science
Center Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University
Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research
Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
2018-2019 Schedule
Monday, November 19, 2018
Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life
The inaugural event of the UCLA Luskin Transdisciplinary Speaker Series will explore the experiences and politics of black Americans since 1900, the subject of a new book co-written by Professor Hunter.
Marcus Anthony Hunter
Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences
Associate Professor, Chair of African American Studies, UCLA
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
The De Facto Criminalization of Serious Mental Illness in the United States:
Anthropological/Clinical Perspectives from Los Angeles Streets
Philippe Bourgois
Professor of Anthropology and Director of Center for Social Medicine
Semel Institute of Neuroscience/Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 2343, UCLA Luskin Public Affairs Building
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Race, Science, and Justice
Dorothy Roberts
Director, Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology; Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights; Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 2343, UCLA Public Affairs Building
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Civic Feedbacks: Linking Participation, Organizational Strategy, and Influence over Public Policy
Hahrie Han
Anton Vonk Professor of Political Science
UC Santa Barbara
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Public Affairs Building
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Repugnant to the Whole Idea of a Democratic Society? On the Role of Philanthropy
Professor of Political Science, Director of the McCoy Center for Ethics in Society
Co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Public Affairs Building
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Demographic and Geographic Variation in Drug, Alcohol, and Suicide Mortality in the U.S.
Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, Associate Professor of Sociology
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Time: 3:30 – 5 pm
Location: Room 5391, UCLA Public Affairs Building
