Racial Foundations of Public Policy: Housing

Racial Foundations of Public Policy is a 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. Through it, we bring in renowned scholar-experts from across the country to be in conversation with Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes, the founding 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.

This event will be presented virtually, with a community watch party available in Weill Hall's Betty Ford Auditorium. 

About the speaker

John N. Robinson III, Ph.D., studies the racial underpinnings of money and markets, with emphasis on housing and credit policies. His award-winning work examines how the rise of finance is reshaping place-based inequalities within and around American cities. His current book project explores the ongoing rise of the affordable housing industry in the US and its intersections with racial and economic inequality. A secondary project investigates the politics of race, punishment and municipal debt in suburban areas. His work appears or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Socio-Economic Review, Politics and Society, Law and Social Inquiry, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Housing Policy Debate, and has earned recognition from the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the Ford Foundation, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, and the Paris Institute for Political Studies.

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 on HIV/AIDS; urban poverty; social policy; and racial, class, and gender inequality. Her work illuminates social problems of great interest to scholars, communities, and policymakers. She works at the intersection of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy. Her work analyzes the impact of the HIV epidemic on women and the growth of the HIV safety net.

• housing
• affordable housing
• John Robinson
• Celeste Watkins-Hayes
• Center for Racial Justice
• racial justice
• race and inequality
• housing