State & Hill

Welcome, changemakersThe Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes its third cohort of Visiting Fellows: writer, filmmaker, and community organizer Charlene Carruthers; racial justice lawyer, historian, and organizer Amanda Alexander;...

A prescription for equityAs the first city-wide experiment of its kind, Rx Kids provides cash payments for new parents—and new promise for eradicating early childhood poverty. Flint's high child poverty rates came into focus nearly 10 years ago when...

Liz Gerber sees key role for governments in the transition to electric vehiclesThe Biden administration wants electric vehicles (EVs) to comprise fifty percent of new vehicle sales in just six years. This has required massive investment in our...

State & Hill sat down with the Ford School’s new dean to reflect on her scholarship, her mentors, and Gerald Ford State & Hill: Tell us about your intellectual journey to leading the Ford School.Celeste Watkins-Hayes: What you see in my leadership...

Philadelphia Poet Laureate and educator Airea D. Matthews (MPA ’07) returned to the Ford School this fall to discuss her memoir-in-verse with writing instructor Molly Spencer at an event hosted by the Center for Racial Justice. The following day,...

What’s on the barbie? Economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson were on the guest list as the White House hosted a State Dinner for Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October. Skills match More than fifty...

Three inaugural Center for Racial Justice visiting fellows—Julian Brave NoiseCat, Makeda Easter, and Atinuke (Tinu) O. Adediran—reflect on the work they've pursued during their year at the Ford School. By Lillian Chen and Rebecca Cohen (MPP...

Distinguished sociologist Celeste Watkins-Hayes works at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and institutions, with a special focus on urban poverty and race, class, and gender studies. She’s particularly interested in the lived...

The University of Michigan is currently in an interim period between its strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with the next plan set to launch in early fall 2023. The Ford School community did not pause, however, and is hard...

Michael S. Barr’s first term as dean By Laura K. Lee In October 2021, the Regents of the University of Michigan approved Provost Susan M. Collins’ recommendation to reappoint Michael S. Barr as Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Ford School for a...

Since 2001, nearly 100 students have earned a doctoral degree from the Ford School's pioneering joint PhD program. Students receive grounding in their discipline of choice from Michigan's top-ranked social science departments—economics, sociology,...

For 18 months, while the Diag was calm, Weill Hall stood mostly empty, and the Big House was quiet, our community was hard at work to address urgent societal challenges from the pandemic, racial injustice, assaults on democracy, climate change, and...

By Olivia Bradish (BA ‘23) From childhood, sociologist and new associate dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes was interested in social justice. She says she is "grounded in an upbringing where she was acutely aware of the consequences of inequality and the...