Welcome to the Fromm Institute
CONVERSATORY ON RACISM
“However much we are affected by the things of the world, however deeply they may stir and stimulate us, they become human for us only when we can discuss them with our fellows. Whatever cannot become the object of discourse - the truly sublime, the truly horrible or the uncanny - may find human voice through which to sound into the world, but it is not exactly human. We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it, and in the course of speaking of it we learn to be human.”
― Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times
The Fromm Institute invites you to conversations of ideas, views and experiences on the topic of Racism in the United States. Addressing a different aspect of Racism each week, join Fromm Institute Professor Mara Kolesas in a conversation with guest speakers followed by a question and answer period with attendees. Each conversatory is designed to build on the others, however attendance at prior conversatories is not required. All events are free and open to the public, but attendance is limited.
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About the Moderator
Prof. Mara Kolesas
Mara Kolesas is a political theorist whose interests extend from the conceptualization of citizenship, democracy, and multiculturalism to issues of political subjectivity, social identity, and the thought of Hannah Arendt. She received her doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York, and has taught in Argentina, Peru, the US, and Lebanon. Committed to bringing academic insights to practical uses and social endeavors, she has worked as a strategist, institutional analyst, and consultant for organizations such as the University of California and the United Nations.
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When Affirmative Action Was White
November 17, 2020 – Tuesday
1:00pm – 2:30pm with Ira Katznelson
1:00pm – 2:30pm with Ira Katznelson
Ira Katznelson is Columbia University’s Interim Provost, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, and Deputy Director, Columbia World Projects. His 2013 Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time was awarded the Bancroft Prize in History and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award in Political Science. Other books include Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy After Reconstruction (2018; co-authored with David Bateman and John Lapinski), and Liberal Beginnings: A Republic for the Moderns (2008; co-authored with Andreas Kalyvas). Professor Katznelson, a fellow British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, is a former president both of the American Political Science Association and the Social Science Research Council. He earned his BA at Columbia College and his PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, where he served in 2017-18 as Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions. Prior to his arrival at Columbia in 1994, where he also had been an assistant and associate professor, he had taught at the University of Chicago, where he served as chair of the Department of Political Science, and the New School for Social Research, where he was Dean of the Graduate Faculty.
Register for this Conversatory HERE
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
November 17, 2020 – Tuesday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
Othering and Economic Racial Inequality
November 30, 2020 – Monday
10:00am – 11:30am with John Powell
john a. powell is Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously the Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University, and prior to that, the founder and director of the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. John formerly served as the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is a co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, health care, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity-based interventions. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. His latest book is Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
Register for this Conversatory HERE
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
November 30, 2020 – Monday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
November 30, 2020 – Monday
10:00am – 11:30am with John Powell
john a. powell is Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously the Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University, and prior to that, the founder and director of the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. John formerly served as the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is a co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, health care, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity-based interventions. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. His latest book is Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
Register for this Conversatory HERE
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
November 30, 2020 – Monday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
The American Police State
December 7, 2020 – Monday
10:00am – 11:30am with Wadie Said
Wadie Said is a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia University School of Law, where he served as an articles editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina, he was a visiting professor in the Law and Society Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an assistant federal public defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Florida, where he represented one of the defendants in U.S. v. Al-Arian, a complex terrorism conspiracy case. Upon graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to Chief Judge Charles P. Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and as a litigation associate in the New York office of Debevoise and Plimpton, where he helped coordinate the firm's pro bono political asylum program. Professor Said’s scholarship analyzes the challenges inherent in terrorism and national security prosecutions, covering such topics as coercive interrogation, the use of informants, law enforcement discretion and extraterritorial jurisdiction, sentencing, expert evidence, and the ban on providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations. His book, Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions, a comprehensive legal analysis of the criminal terrorist prosecution in the United States, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015, with the paperback edition released in early 2018. He teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, immigration law, and seminars on international human rights law and counterterrorism. Professor Said is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and serves on the Board of Editors of Amerasia Journal, as well as the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on National Security Law.
Register for this Conversatory HERE.
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
December 7, 2020 – Monday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
December 7, 2020 – Monday
10:00am – 11:30am with Wadie Said
Wadie Said is a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia University School of Law, where he served as an articles editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina, he was a visiting professor in the Law and Society Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an assistant federal public defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Florida, where he represented one of the defendants in U.S. v. Al-Arian, a complex terrorism conspiracy case. Upon graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to Chief Judge Charles P. Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and as a litigation associate in the New York office of Debevoise and Plimpton, where he helped coordinate the firm's pro bono political asylum program. Professor Said’s scholarship analyzes the challenges inherent in terrorism and national security prosecutions, covering such topics as coercive interrogation, the use of informants, law enforcement discretion and extraterritorial jurisdiction, sentencing, expert evidence, and the ban on providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations. His book, Crimes of Terror: The Legal and Political Implications of Federal Terrorism Prosecutions, a comprehensive legal analysis of the criminal terrorist prosecution in the United States, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015, with the paperback edition released in early 2018. He teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, immigration law, and seminars on international human rights law and counterterrorism. Professor Said is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and serves on the Board of Editors of Amerasia Journal, as well as the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on National Security Law.
Register for this Conversatory HERE.
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
December 7, 2020 – Monday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
Racial Inequality and Education
December 16, 2020 – Wednesday
1:00pm – 2:30pm with Prudence Carter
Prudence L. Carter is the E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley. Dean Carter’s expertise ranges from issues of youth identity and race, class, and gender, urban poverty, social and cultural inequality, the sociology of education and mixed research methods. Specifically, she examines academic and mobility differences shaped by the effects of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Dean Carter earned a Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University. Before being named Dean at Berkeley, she was the Jacks Family Professor of Education and Professor of Sociology (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dean Carter is an elected a member of the National Academy of Education; the Sociological Research Association; and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the William T. Grant Foundation; and SOAR for Youth.
Register for this Conversatory HERE
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
December 16, 2020 – Wednesday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
December 16, 2020 – Wednesday
1:00pm – 2:30pm with Prudence Carter
Prudence L. Carter is the E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley. Dean Carter’s expertise ranges from issues of youth identity and race, class, and gender, urban poverty, social and cultural inequality, the sociology of education and mixed research methods. Specifically, she examines academic and mobility differences shaped by the effects of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Dean Carter earned a Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University. Before being named Dean at Berkeley, she was the Jacks Family Professor of Education and Professor of Sociology (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dean Carter is an elected a member of the National Academy of Education; the Sociological Research Association; and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the William T. Grant Foundation; and SOAR for Youth.
Register for this Conversatory HERE
Discussion Group (limited to first 25 registrants)
December 16, 2020 – Wednesday
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Register for the Discussion Group HERE
