William Darity: Racial foundations of income and wealth inequality

Racial Foundations of Public Policy is a fall 2021 virtual speaker series that focuses on the historical roots and impact of race in shaping public policy as both a disciplinary field and as a course of action. The series will bring in renowned scholar-experts from across the country to be in conversation with Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes, director of the Center for Racial Justice at the Ford School of Public Policy. The series is open to all members of the University of Michigan community and the wider public.

Dr. William Darity will join us virtually to discuss the racial foundations of income & wealth and public policy. Dr. William Darity is the Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. Professor Darity’s research focuses on inequality by race, class and ethnicity, stratification economics, schooling and the racial achievement gap, North-South theories of trade and development, skin share and labor market outcomes, the economics of reparations, the Atlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, the history of economics, and the socal psychological effects of exposure to unemployment. Learn more about Dr. Darity here.

Faculty Expert

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes

Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy; Director, Center for Racial Justice; Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Professor of Sociology; Research and Community Impact Fellow, Anti-Racism Collaborative

Watkins-Hayes is an internationally-recognized scholar and expert widely credited for her research at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and human service institutions, with a special focus on HIV/AIDS; poverty; and race, class, and gender studies. Dr. Watkins-Hayes has published three books, numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, and pieces in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Chicago Magazine.

• Center for Racial Justice
• Celeste Watkins-Hayes
• William Darity
• Racial Foundations of Public Policy
• racial justice