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 203 results
Visiting faculty

Atinuke Adediran

Visiting Fellow, Center for Racial Justice
Atinuke (Tinu) Adediran’s 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. Dr. Adediran has…
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.
Staff

Dom Adams-Santos

Managing 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.
Research faculty

Mara Ostfeld

Research Director, Center for Racial Justice; Associate Research Scientist, Ford School; Faculty Associate, Center for Political Studies; Faculty Associate, Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy
Dr. Mara Cecilia Ostfeld is the research director at the Center for Racial Justice, and an associate research scientist in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. In addition, Mara is a faculty lead at the Detroit Metro Area…
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

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.
Staff

Katrina Hamann

DEI Marketing and Communications Specialist
Katrina (they/she) brings experience in community organizing and a dedication to developing accessible communication strategies to advance the Ford School's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts.
News

Highlights from the Dean's Symposium

Apr 12, 2024
Two days of panels, chats, and keynotes focused on examining and seeking solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face in Michigan, in the United States, and across the globe. More than 400 students, faculty, staff, and friends attended in...
Publication

Injuries of inequality and the promise of safety nets

Mar 7, 2024
What would a comprehensive strategy for reproductive rights and access look like, borrowing from the lessons from the fight against HIV? This is the question that Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Ford School...
News

IHP continues with university engagement efforts

Mar 6, 2024
The University of Michigan’s Inclusive History Project is continuing its efforts to engage members of the university community by developing a tri-campus student advisory committee and creating a research and engagement fund.The project is U-M’s...
News

Flint high school students glimpse college life with 23Express

Jan 16, 2024
Michael Williams describes himself as a “closeted nerd.” Growing up in Flint, Michigan, he felt like he had to disguise his love of learning in order to blend in with his peers. “It wasn’t ‘cool’ to like school,” he explains. “You could be smart,...
State & Hill

Our new dean, Celeste Watkins-Hayes

Dec 12, 2023
State & Hill sat down with the Ford School’s new dean to reflect on her scholarship, her mentors, and Gerald Ford   State & Hill: Tell us about your intellectual journey to leading the Ford School. Celeste Watkins-Hayes: What you see in my...
State & Hill

The Rules of Attention: A poem by Airea D. Matthews (MPA ’07)

Dec 10, 2023
Philadelphia Poet Laureate and educator Airea D. Matthews (MPA ’07) returned to the Ford School this fall to discuss her memoir-in-verse with writing instructor Molly Spencer at an event hosted by the Center for Racial Justice. The following day,...
State & Hill

Spotlights, fall 2023

Dec 10, 2023
What’s on the barbie? Economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson were on the guest list as the White House hosted a State Dinner for Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October. Skills match More than fifty...
News

Meet our new faculty: Kristina Fullerton Rico

Sep 22, 2023
Kristina Fullerton Rico joins the Ford School as a Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice. Her work focuses on the social and emotional impacts of U.S. immigration policies that lead unauthorized immigrants and their families to endure...
News

Meet our new faculty: Mo Torres

Aug 25, 2023
Mo Torres returns to the Ford School (he graduated with his MPP in 2015) as one of six University of Michigan Society of Fellows for a three-year appointment. He will work closely with the Center for Racial Justice. Torres is a historical...
News

PPIA students reflect on their summer of study and social life 

Aug 2, 2023
What are the dynamics of inequity in labor markets? How do we determine appropriate categories for people in a multicultural society?  How is the U.S. approach to ethnicity and nationality different from what they are doing in Europe?  These were...
News

Ford School welcomes PPIA 2023 cohort

Jun 19, 2023
The 2023 Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI) has welcomed 23 students from 11 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This year’s cohort will spend seven weeks taking classes, participating in...