Departments and Research Centers

Center for Racial Justice

The Center for Racial Justice is an innovative and cross-disciplinary hub in which social/racial justice changemakers, scholars, and students work collaboratively to develop new tools and strategies in the pursuit of racial justice.

Showing 1 - 30 of 150 results
Postdoctoral fellow

Dominique Adams-Santos

Associate Director, Center for Racial Justice
Dr. Adams-Santos is a qualitative researcher who centers questions of sexuality, intimacy, and belonging in the digital era; in particular, how individuals navigate the racial, gender, and sexual politics of digital and urban landscapes in their search for intimacy and community.
Visiting faculty

Atinuke O. Adediran

Visiting Fellow, Center for Racial Justice
Adediran is an associate professor of law at Fordham University School of Law. Her areas of expertise include institutional inequality, race and the law, nonprofits, corporations, and law and social science. She has published articles and essays in leading law review and peer reviewed journals, as well as popular media.
Visiting faculty

Makeda Easter

Visiting Fellow, Center for Racial Justice
Easter is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, KCET, Dance Magazine, Austin Chronicle, Chemical & Engineering News, and more. Her current work features an independent digital publication focused on artists-activists in underreported regions and communities.
Visiting faculty

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Visiting Fellow, Center for Racial Justice
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie. he is a writer and filmmaker currently based in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of We Survived the Night and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and more.
Research faculty

Mara Ostfeld

Associate Faculty Director, Poverty Solutions; Research Director, Center for Racial Justice; Assistant Research Scientist, Ford School; Faculty Associate, Center for Political Studies
Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is the associate faculty director of Poverty Solutions, the research director at the Center for Racial Justice, and an assistant research scientist in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. In…
Core faculty

Paula Lantz

James B. Hudak Professor of Health Policy; Director, BA Programs
A social demographer, Lantz studies the role of public policy in improving population health and reducing social disparities in health. She is currently engaged in research regarding innovative financing approaches for supportive housing among Medicaid beneficiaries, and also on how COVID-19 is exacerbating existing social and health inequalities in the U.S.
Core faculty

Celeste M. Watkins-Hayes

Dean; Director, Center for Racial Justice; Jean E. Fairfax Collegiate Professor of Public Policy; University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Professor of Sociology; Research & 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.
Staff

Lillian Chen

DEI Marketing & Communications Specialist
Lillian Chen is a marketing and communications specialist at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, where she jointly supports the school's DEI work and that of the Center for Racial…
State & Hill

Catalysts for racial justice

May 3, 2023
Three inaugural Center for Racial Justice visiting fellows—Julian Brave NoiseCat, Makeda Easter, and Atinuke (Tinu) O. Adediran—reflect on the work they've pursued during their year at the Ford School. By Lillian Chen and Rebecca Cohen (MPP...
News

We must change hearts to achieve equality - Alemu

Mar 19, 2023
What is the best way to combat racism -- change policies or change hearts? That is the question Matthew Alemu (MPP '09, PhD) contends with in an essay for Bridge Detroit.  "Racism resides where society and policy have yet to tackle it directly,...
News

Poverty Solutions marks impact of action-based research in 2022

Mar 15, 2023
From informing how the U.S. Census estimates populations to reimagining land contracts as a path to homeownership and inspiring state legislation that would aid homeless youths, Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan continued to tackle the...
News

Announcing winter 2023 Ford School events

Jan 11, 2023
 The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...
State & Hill

Meet interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Dec 19, 2022
Distinguished sociologist Celeste Watkins-Hayes works at the intersection of inequality, public policy, and institutions, with a special focus on urban poverty and race, class, and gender studies. She’s particularly interested in the lived...
State & Hill

Diversity, equity, and inclusion highlights

Dec 19, 2022
The University of Michigan is currently in an interim period between its strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with the next plan set to launch in early fall 2023. The Ford School community did not pause, however, and is hard...
News

Making the case for public policy education

Dec 14, 2022
In an event on December 5, 2022, Ford School interim dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes told a group of Capitol Hill staffers and other DC professionals that a public policy education can lead to community impact.  “I'm a firm believer in the idea that...
News

Students find inspiration from racial justice changemakers

Dec 7, 2022
In October 2022, students from the Ford School and members of the greater University of Michigan community gathered together to hear “Racial Justice Changemakers”—social justice leaders, artists, and advocates—share their diverse journeys into...