Dean’s Forum on Race & Public Policy: Political Participation and Voting Access | April 19, 2024 12:00 PM-1:00 PM PT
During this election year, we are constantly reminded of the importance of voting and other acts of political participation. This election comes at a time when racial and ethnic disparities in voting and participation persist. The election system is under scrutiny and federal protections against racialized Adisenfranchisement, such as the Voting Rights Act, have been invalidated by Supreme Court. This Dean’s Forum will probe the national historic and contemporary dynamics around the most basic of our rights as citizens in a democracy. Understanding these matters is critical if we are to strengthen institutions of democracy nationally and to continue Washington State’s leading work around election administration integrity.
Action step: Please RSVP, here.
Spring 2024 lineup of speakers for the Evans School Research Seminar Series.
Spring 2024 Schedule:
**Coffee/Tea and refreshments will be available at Wednesday Seminar sessions.
**All are welcome and encouraged to join!
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 – 11:30 – 12:30, Parrington Hall 360
Dr. Bethany Gordon, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington
Dr. Gordon specializes in applications of behavioral science and psychology to improve design processes for a more equitable built environment. Her research also focuses on climate justice and addressing designer positionality (i.e., framing assumptions, stakeholder perspective-taking) in large-scale infrastructure design. Dr. Gordon’s work aims to increase knowledge about how individuals or teams: 1) conceptualize collective identities in increasingly diverse spaces, 2) can overcome the environmental cues that restrict inclinations for equitable and resilient decision-making, and 3), can leverage climate adaptation to remediate past harms enacted by the built environment.
Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 – 11:30 – 12:30pm, Parrington 360
Dr. James M. Thomas, Department of Sociology, University of Mississippi
Dr. Thomas’s research has been driven by questions within two interrelated fields of inquiry: histories of race and racism, and contemporary practices of race and racism. He employs a variety of interpretive methods to illuminate how meanings of race and racism arise within certain socio-cultural contexts, and how social actors reproduce and contest those meanings in everyday practices and encounters. Dr. Thomas has examined how institutions of higher learning implement diversity initiatives and where these efforts fall short. His most recent project examineswhiteness amongst individuals in the American South. This new project seeks to bring into sharp relief the ambivalence, discomfort, and reflections around whiteness that are broadly missing in the sociological study of whiteness.
This session is co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology
There will be opportunities to meet with Dr. Thomas during his visit.
