racial justice

Center for Racial Justice

Racial justice is the systematic fair treatment of people, regardless of racial background, that results in equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone.We seek a world in which people are able to achieve their full potential in life,...

News

Center for Racial Justice welcomes 2024-25 visiting fellows

Sep 26, 2024

The Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes Amanda Alexander, Charlene Carruthers, and Bianca D.M. Wilson as Visiting Fellows for the 2024-25 academic year.The Visiting Fellows Program, a signature initiative of the Center for...

Amanda Alexander, Charlene Carruthers, Bianca Wilson

News

Racial and gender bias in U.S. crime victim compensation programs highlighted in new report

Sep 18, 2024

Significant racial and gender disparities exist in U.S. crime victim compensation programs, revealing Black and Indigenous people as well as survivors of gender-based violence face unique challenges in obtaining financial support, according to a new...

News

Ford School panel examines immigration on the ballot

Sep 17, 2024

The Ford School’s fall event series kicked off with more than 115 people in attendance for Immigration on the Ballot, a panel discussion about the policy landscape and implications for the upcoming election, hosted by the Center for Racial...

mara ostfeld, angela garcía, kristina fullerton rico, william lopez

News

Hassan awarded U-M anti-racism grant

Sep 10, 2024

Ford School assistant professor Yousif Hassan has been chosen for a University of Michigan research grant for his work that explores how AI innovations and data can center social justice and address racial and economic inequalities in African...

News

Hassan named Anti-Racism Research & Community Impact Faculty Fellow

Aug 29, 2024

Ford School assistant professor Yousif Hassan is among six faculty members chosen for Anti-Racism Research & Community Impact Faculty Fellowships. The National Center for Institutional Diversity selected faculty from the University of Michigan’s Ann...

News

Christiana Verdelus named the inaugural winner of the Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize

Jul 9, 2024

Recent graduate Christiana Verdelus (MPP ‘24) has won the inaugural Ali Family Memorial Writing Prize for her work, “Why Michigan's Certificate of Need Law Must be Repealed to Improve Black Maternal Health.”Verdelus’s paper addresses the problem of...

State & Hill

Katherine Michelmore and Natasha Pilkauskas on policy rooted in evidence and facts

Apr 24, 2024

Ford School students take on a variety of different roles after graduation—some do research, some will engage in advocacy, others will become civil servants. As instructors of two of the core research methods courses that our students take, we have...

State & Hill

Demographer Paula Lantz on the challenges of designing public health policy

Apr 24, 2024

The government has a clear role in promoting and assuring the goals of public health—the prevention of illness and injury, prolonging life, and promoting the collective health of the entire population. Achieving these goals cannot be left to the...

News

“It’s a matter of racial equity”: Sandoval (MPP ’24) on the challenges facing Detroit’s ‘heir properties’

Apr 23, 2024

Inheriting a home is one of the main ways that middle- and low-income families preserve wealth across generations. Yet in many cases, family-owned properties are passed on without formal legal proceedings to prove ownership, becoming what are...

News

Students give second chance sentencing a closer look and influence a statewide debate

Apr 23, 2024

Last fall, five Ford School students in the Strategic Public Policy Consulting class launched a research project on a Michigan criminal justice reform bill called the Second Chance Sentencing Act. At the time, no one imagined the students would...

Students standing in a courtroom after a public briefing

News

Highlights from the Dean's Symposium

Apr 21, 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...

News

Stacey Abrams, other policymakers and leading scholars to join Ford School symposium

Mar 12, 2024

The Ford School of Public Policy is happy to announce the Dean’s Symposium, which will take place April 11 and 12 at Weill Hall, with the theme, “Policy Innovation for Our Times.” The two days will feature keynote appearances by voting rights...

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...

Headshots of Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes and Dom Adams-Santos

News

Julian Brave NoiseCat receives Sundance Directing Award for "Sugarcane" Documentary

Feb 1, 2024

Former Center for Racial Justice Fellow Julian Brave NoiseCat, along with co-director Emily Kassie, received the United States Directing Award for the Documentary Sugarcane at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Sugarcane follows an investigation...

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie celebrate for Directing U.S. Documentary “Sugarcane” at the Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony in Park City, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024.

News

Poverty Solutions at U-M grows partnerships in poverty alleviation in 2023

Feb 1, 2024

Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan last year informed the largest-ever increase in state funding for youth homelessness programs, advised federal policymakers on place-based strategies for tackling poverty and laid the groundwork for...

Collage of Poverty Solutions faculty and students

News

Ford school faculty available to weigh in on 2024 elections

Jan 28, 2024

The University of Michigan has published an experts guide to the 2024 elections. Ford School faculty are available to offer insights on relevant issues impacting the elections, including the following: Economics Betsey Stevenson, professor of...

Red, white, and blue balloons and stars with a large white checkmark

News

“Do what makes you come alive, do it with courage” Martin Luther King Jr. panelists discuss his legacy, implications for today’s world

Jan 21, 2024

On Monday, January 15th, hundreds of community members, students, and U-M affiliates filled Hill Auditorium to attend the 38th annual memorial keynote lecture in tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The MLK Symposium, founded in 1987 as a...

MLK keynote speech 2024 at Hill Auditorium

News

Lourdes Rivera hosts eye-opening student session on pregnancy justice

Dec 5, 2023

In November, Pregnancy Justice president Lourdes Rivera delivered the 2023 Omenn-Darling Health Policy Keynote address about the landscape of reproductive rights in the United States. While on campus, the Ford School’s Women & Gender in Public...

Lourdes Rivera in conversation with Paula Lantz

News

Lewis announces Inclusive History Project campus research directors

Nov 7, 2023

Faculty members Camron Michael Amin, James W. Cook, and Lisa M. Lapeyrouse will lead the Inclusive History Project’s research activities spanning the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. IHP is the yearslong project to study, document and...

News

Center for Racial Justice welcomes 2023-24 visiting fellows cohort!

Sep 18, 2023

The Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes Dr. Moya Z. Bailey, Dr. Angela S. García, Dr. Clarence Wardell III, and Diane J. Wright as Visiting Fellows for the 2023-24 academic year. The Visiting Fellows Program, the signature...

Portraits of (top left to right) Clarence Wardell, Moya Bailey, (bottom left to right) Diane Wright and Angela Garcia

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...

Group of PPIA students posing in front of Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy courtyard

News

Next steps for U-M’s Inclusive History Project

Jul 12, 2023

Six foundational values and commitments — independence, collaboration, broad engagement, community relationships, inclusion of all three University of Michigan campuses and Michigan Medicine and material change — will guide the future work of the...

News

Engaged Learning Student Projects Catalog: Preparing Ford School students for leadership

Jun 29, 2023

During the Winter Term 2023, Ford School students were involved in projects with federal, state, county, city, and township governments, school districts, non-profit organizations, and commissions. They worked with the school’s numerous research...

Weill Hall entrance with "Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy" etched into the glass

News

Beatty Blunt honored by Columbus YWCA

May 14, 2023

Ohio Court of Appeals Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt, who will be returning to the Ford School as a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence, was saluted by her hometown YWCA as a 2023 Woman of Achievement. Beatty Blunt, the first Black woman to serve...

In the Media

Young: The list of things to warn Black children about keeps getting longer

May 11, 2023

Alford Young Jr., The New York Times: Black parents contacted by NBC News said they are infused with heightened fear and rage that safe spaces outside the home are shrinking. “This young man was trying to find his siblings,” said Alford Young Jr.,...

News

Racial justice practitioners help policy students apply new skills

May 5, 2023

How do policy professionals apply racial justice in practice? This semester, the Ford School’s Center of Racial Justice hosted a series of workshops to explore different dimensions of justice, from antiracism and global development to community...

News

U-M expert: Change won’t happen overnight to improve race relations

May 4, 2023

It has been a topic that many Black parents in the United States have discussed with their children in recent decades—staying safe from harm or being killed by law enforcement. But in recent months, the conversation now extends to Black youths...

News

U-M report on Detroiters’ opinions of reparations gains traction in media

Apr 18, 2023

The Center for Racial Justice, the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study, and Poverty Solutions released a new report detailing Detroiters’ opinions on reparations and racial inequity in March 2023. Since its release, multiple news outlets picked up...