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Haas Institute co-organizing series of events to mark slavery anniversary in the US


The Haas Institute and other campus partners have announced plans to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery in the US with a series of events spotlighting African American history. The initiative, backed by the Chancellor's office, is being launched in line with the passage of the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, a federal measure to “acknowledge the impact that slavery and laws that enforced racial discrimination had on the United States.” Events will kick off starting Aug. 30 with a daylong symposium featuring a number of speakers, including UC Berkeley Professor Stephanie Jones-Rogers. Learn more about this initiative here.

Polish scholar Agata Lisiak discusses migration and gentrification in Europe in new podcast interview


This week we released a new episode of Who Belongs? featuring an interview with Agata Lisiak, a professor of migration studies at Bard College Berlin. The interview discusses her work on Eastern European migration to Western Europe, the experiences of migrant mothers in particular, and the relationship between gentrification and language in European cities. Have a listen or read a transcript here, and find all our episodes of Who Belongs? here.

Researcher Mahasin Mujahid examines social determinants in major rural health study


Headshot of research Mahasin S. MujahidDr. Mahasin Mujahid, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Haas Institute faculty member, is playing a key role in a six-year, $21.4 million study probing the causes of the disproportionately poor health outcomes of people from rural communities in the southern United States. She is serving as the principal investigator of the social determinants core in the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) study, which involves 50 researchers from 16 institutions. Read more about the study here.
Image shows head shots of the 10 summer fellows
Meet our 2019 Summer Fellows. The summer fellowship program is a three-month-long paid internship where fellows are paired with a lead researcher and work on projects related to our wide range of programs and projects. Meet our 2019 cohort here.

Media 

Othering & Belonging Recap in Nonprofit Quarterly. Our recent Othering & Belonging conference was the subject of a new feature article in The Nonprofit Quarterly. "At the event, presenters did not shy away from the vital need to promote economic and political change, but undergirding the discussions was the notion that for economic and political changes to stick, those changes needed to be linked to a positive cultural vision—one rooted in a community where all belonged," the article reads. Read it here.
Reforming anti-tax Prop 13 is a racial justice issue. A new blog post from staff researcher EJ Toppin examines the history behind California's Proposition 13, which he writes led to the "abject starvation of government revenue and the severe scaling back of the programs and services paid for by that revenue." With an amendment to Prop 13 on the ballot in 2020, understanding "how it resulted not only in exacerbating inequality, but in some ways welcomed it...helps underscore the urgency of its reform." Read the blog post.
The troubling elimination of Puerto Rican public schools. Our researchers Eli Moore and Dalia Yedidia penned a new piece about the impact on communities of the closure of hundreds of schools in Puerto Rico in the past few years, based on their recent site visit there. "Schools in Puerto Rico are essential community centers: they serve as shelters during hurricanes, become voting centers during elections, and provide a place of connection where parents and neighbors build trusting relationships with each other." Read their story.

Global Justice director Elsadig Elsheikh was interviewed on CNN about the violence in Sudan against pro-democracy protesters and ideas for responses. "What I think the international community could be doing is fighting with the Sudanese people for real democratic change by not recognizing the legitimacy of this military council, Elsheikh said. Read the story.
Assistant Director Stephen Menendian gave a keynote talk in April at a fair housing conference in San Rafael on residential racial segregation. Menendian explained that the fundamental problem with segregation is not that it separates people from each other, but that it separates people from resources. Watch the talk here.
Researcher EJ Toppin participated in a panel discussion on the issue of reparations at the same fair housing conference last April. Toppin addressed the resistance among white people to reparations and explained how the issue must be framed much larger than economics and the extreme wealth gaps between Black and white Americans. Watch a recording of the discussion.
In May, Director john a. powell participated in a panel on race that included Congresswoman Barbara Lee and experts from the Black Repertory Group Theater in Berkeley.
Stephen Menendian and faculty cluster member Lisa Garcia Bedolla also participated in a panel on race this past April, which included Congresswoman Karen Bass, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, and others at Diablo Valley College.
A new book on school segregation, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works, by affiliated faculty member Rucker Johnson has been covered extensively in the media, including in interviews here and here. "If you just try to throw money at it and accept concentrated poverty, that doesn’t affect the quality of the educational opportunity," Johnson says. "If we just focus on redistributing money but in very segregated classrooms, then we don’t really see impacts."
A new report on monitoring educational equity co-edited by faculty cluster member Christopher Edley, Jr. was highlighted in Science Daily. "We imagine public education to be America's great engine of upward mobility and, ultimately, equality," Edley is quoted as saying.

Announcements & Jobs

Applications Open for New policy Fellowship On Examining Bias. The Haas Institute just launched a new two-week fellowship for policymakers about how biases may influence their work and how that awareness can help tailor equity-based policies. The Social Inclusion Policy Fellowship, created with UC Berkeley's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project and the Our Three Winners Foundation, will host 10 fellows on UC Berkeley’s campus this summer. Deadline to apply is June 30. Learn more about the fellowship here.
We're seeking an administrative assistant. Learn more about the role here.
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