Center for Racial Justice

Showing 1 - 30 of 125 results

State & Hill

It’s all about equity

Apr 24, 2024

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

Spotlights, spring 2024

Apr 24, 2024

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...

News

Highlights from the Dean's Symposium

Apr 21, 2024

Two days of panels, chats, and keynotes focused on examining and seeking solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face in Michigan, in the United States, and across the globe. More than 400 students, faculty, staff, and friends attended in...

News

Stacey Abrams, other policymakers and leading scholars to join Ford School symposium

Mar 12, 2024

The Ford School of Public Policy is happy to announce the Dean’s Symposium, which will take place April 11 and 12 at Weill Hall, with the theme, “Policy Innovation for Our Times.” The two days will feature keynote appearances by voting rights...

Stacey Abrams, other policymakers and leading scholars to join Ford School symposium

Publication

Injuries of inequality and the promise of safety nets

Mar 7, 2024

What would a comprehensive strategy for reproductive rights and access look like, borrowing from the lessons from the fight against HIV? This is the question that Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Ford School...

Injuries of inequality and the promise of safety nets

News

Julian Brave NoiseCat receives Sundance Directing Award for "Sugarcane" Documentary

Feb 1, 2024

Former Center for Racial Justice Fellow Julian Brave NoiseCat, along with co-director Emily Kassie, received the United States Directing Award for the Documentary Sugarcane at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Sugarcane follows an investigation...

Julian Brave NoiseCat receives Sundance Directing Award for "Sugarcane" Documentary

News

Flint high school students glimpse college life with 23Express

Jan 16, 2024

Michael Williams describes himself as a “closeted nerd.” Growing up in Flint, Michigan, he felt like he had to disguise his love of learning in order to blend in with his peers. “It wasn’t ‘cool’ to like school,” he explains. “You could be smart,...

Flint high school students glimpse college life with 23Express

State & Hill

The Rules of Attention: A poem by Airea D. Matthews (MPA ’07)

Dec 10, 2023

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,...

The Rules of Attention: A poem by Airea D. Matthews (MPA ’07)

Alumni spotlight

“Tremble with the world”: Airea D. Matthews (MPA ‘07) on using the arts as an avenue for change

Dec 6, 2023

Airea D. Matthews (MPA ‘07) dreamt of being a writer since she was a child. As she got older, she struggled to identify a clear path that turned her dream into reality. “My working-class roots didn’t seem to make space for sustainable possibilities...

“Tremble with the world”: Airea D. Matthews (MPA ‘07) on using the arts as an avenue for change

News

Majority of Flint residents support reparations for Black Americans, CRJ survey shows

Nov 7, 2023

More than half of Flint residents favor reparations for Black Americans, although levels of support vary depending on whether the proposal refers to reparations as a broad concept or specific reparative policies like cash payments or financial...

Majority of Flint residents support reparations for Black Americans, CRJ survey shows

News

Meet our new faculty: Kristina Fullerton Rico

Sep 22, 2023

Kristina Fullerton Rico joins the Ford School as a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice. Her work focuses on the social and emotional impacts of U.S. immigration policies that lead unauthorized immigrants and their families to endure...

Meet our new faculty: Kristina Fullerton Rico

News

Center for Racial Justice welcomes 2023-24 visiting fellows cohort!

Sep 18, 2023

The Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes Dr. Moya Z. Bailey, Dr. Angela S. García, Dr. Clarence Wardell III, and Diane J. Wright as Visiting Fellows for the 2023-24 academic year. The Visiting Fellows Program, the signature...

Center for Racial Justice welcomes 2023-24 visiting fellows cohort!

Publication

Dean Watkins-Hayes salutes her mentor, editing the Speechifying compendium

Aug 30, 2023

Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes is honoring one of her great mentors, Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole — noted Black feminist anthropologist, the first Black female president of Spelman College, former director of the Smithsonian Institution's...

Dean Watkins-Hayes salutes her mentor, editing the Speechifying compendium

News

Meet our new faculty: Mo Torres

Aug 25, 2023

Mo Torres returns to the Ford School (he graduated with his MPP in 2015) as one of six University of Michigan Society of Fellows for a three-year appointment. He will work closely with the Center for Racial Justice. Torres is a historical...

News

The Ford School, LSA, and Wallace House Partner for Public Discourse

Aug 25, 2023

On a Monday evening in late November, throngs of University of Michigan students, faculty, staff, and Ann Arbor residents waited expectantly outside the Michigan Theater to attend the premier showing of the film, “She Said.” The movie chronicles...

The Ford School, LSA, and Wallace House Partner for Public Discourse

News

Inaugural ASPIRE cohort enjoys rewarding summer research experience with the Youth Policy Lab

Aug 24, 2023

Summer 2023 proved to be eventful and rewarding for the inaugural Applied Social Policy Internship and Research Experience (ASPIRE) cohort. The program, a collaboration between the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Spelman College, provided...

Inaugural ASPIRE cohort enjoys rewarding summer research experience with the Youth Policy Lab

News

Ford School welcomes new faculty that bridge research and policy engagement

Aug 21, 2023

A former foreign minister to Mali, a leading educational economist, a tech entrepreneur who explores indigenous technoscience are among the outstanding new faculty that add depth to the Ford School and connect student education, rigorous academic...

Ford School welcomes new faculty that bridge research and policy engagement

News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

Aug 2, 2023

What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society? How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe? These were...

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life

News

CLOSUP and Poverty Solutions to examine Michigan’s approach to criminal justice reform

Jul 20, 2023

In the wake of racial justice movements across the country, the State of Michigan and some of its communities have been implementing new public safety and criminal justice policies. The perspective of Michigan's local government, public safety, and...

CLOSUP and Poverty Solutions to examine Michigan’s approach to criminal justice reform

News

Engaged Learning Student Projects Catalog: Preparing Ford School students for leadership

Jun 29, 2023

During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...

Engaged Learning Student Projects Catalog: Preparing Ford School students for leadership

News

Ford School welcomes PPIA 2023 cohort

Jun 19, 2023

The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...

News

Watkins-Hayes recommended new dean of Ford School

Jun 2, 2023

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes, interim dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a scholar known for her research on the organizational implementation of social policy and societal safety nets, has been recommended as the school’s next Joan...

Watkins-Hayes recommended new dean of Ford School

News

Racial justice practitioners help policy students apply new skills

May 5, 2023

How do policy professionals apply racial justice in practice? This semester, the Ford School’s Center of Racial Justice hosted a series of workshops to explore different dimensions of justice, from antiracism and global development to community...

Racial justice practitioners help policy students apply new skills

State & Hill

Catalysts for racial justice

May 3, 2023

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...

News

U-M report on Detroiters’ opinions of reparations gains traction in media

Apr 18, 2023

The Center for Racial Justice, the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study, and Poverty Solutions released a new report detailing Detroiters’ opinions on reparations and racial inequity in March 2023. Since its release, multiple news outlets picked up...

U-M report on Detroiters’ opinions of reparations gains traction in media

News

Mo Torres to join Ford School as Michigan Society of Fellows scholar

Apr 17, 2023

Sociologist Mo Torres (MPP ‘15) will join the Ford School faculty for a three-year appointment as a postdoctoral scholar with the Michigan Society of Fellows, serving as an assistant professor of public policy and sociology. He will work closely...

News

Detroiters' views on reparations connected to perception of racial wealth gap, other inequality

Mar 29, 2023

Detroiters' perceptions of the racial wealth gap, the legacy of slavery and other forms of racial inequity are strongly connected to their support for reparations and policies that address racial inequity. Overall, 63% of Detroit residents support...

Detroiters' views on reparations connected to perception of racial wealth gap, other inequality

News

We must change hearts to achieve equality - Alemu

Mar 19, 2023

What is the best way to combat racism -- change policies or change hearts? That is the question Matthew Alemu (MPP '09, PhD) contends with in an essay for Bridge Detroit. "Racism resides where society and policy have yet to tackle it directly,...

We must change hearts to achieve equality - Alemu

News

Poverty Solutions marks impact of action-based research in 2022

Mar 15, 2023

From informing how the U.S. Census estimates populations to reimagining land contracts as a path to homeownership and inspiring state legislation that would aid homeless youths, Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan continued to tackle the...

Poverty Solutions marks impact of action-based research in 2022

News

Ford School welcomes local and state elected officials to boost collaborative work

Feb 16, 2023

Elected officials from local, county, and state government came to the Ford School to hear about the potential for collaborations with their offices and the School’s faculty, research centers, and students. Fifteen members of the Michigan State...

Ford School welcomes local and state elected officials to boost collaborative work