We at the Social Justice Institute strive to be forward thinking in our inquiries as well as our actions. We wholeheartedly believe that to get an idea of where to go next, we must keep in mind where we have been. With that in mind, here are some of the events that SJI has sponsored and that continue to influence our thinking and guide our work.
To view photos and videos from past events, please visit our media page.
To see what is in store for the coming weeks and months, head to the upcoming events page.
- 2022-2023 Events
- 2021-2022 Events
- 2020-2021 Events
- 2019-2020 Events
- 2018-2019 Events
- 2017-2018 Events
- 2010-2017 Events
2024-2025 Events
Social Justice Institute Intergenerational Think Tank
October 24-26, 2024
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
The Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University will host its Biennial Intergenerational Think Tank from October 24 - 26, 2024. Our theme is "Coalition Building: We Are Better and Stronger Together." The convening begins on Thursday, October 24th with a short film screening of Black Beauty and panel discussion. Then, please join us at Rid-All Green Partnership on Friday, October 25th for an All-Community Reception. We conclude on Saturday, October 26th in conversation with local and national thought-leaders as we explore the current state of the struggle. Marc Lamont Hill, our keynote speaker, and panelists will poignantly provide insights on a myriad of topics including human rights, community organizing, and education. The discussions will examine the nexus between power, race, class, political repression, and war through multiple lenses. We hope you will join us!
Panel conversations with national and local social justice thought leaders to include:
Charisse Burden-Stelly, Nicole M. Crawford, Noel Cummings, Marcus Anthony Hunter, Gregory C. Hutchings Jr., Darrell D. Jackson, Keith LaMar, Amari McGee, Pete Moore, Shereen Naser, Erika K. Wilson & more.
Schedule of Events
Thursday, October 24th Screening of Black Beauty and Panel Discussion 5:30 - 7:00 pm
CWRU School of Law (11075 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44106)
5:30 pm Welcome
5:45 pm Film Screening of Black Beauty
Directed by and featuring activist Elle Moxley, Black Beauty is a visual diary that traces Elle’s story in her own words—as she reconnects with loved ones from the past, recalls her coming of age experience as a woman from the Midwest, and reflects on her journey as a movement leader and founding strategic partner of the global movement Black Lives Matter.
6:15 pm Moderated Panel Discussion and Q & A
Moderator: Avery Ware, Director of the CWRU LGBT Center
Panelists: Amari McGee and Noel Cummings
Friday, October 25th, All-Community Reception, 6:00 - 9:00 pm, Doors open at 6 pm.
Rid-All Green Partnership (8129 Otter Dr, Cleveland, Ohio 44104)
Saturday, October 26th, Panel Discussions and Keynote Address, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
2nd Floor Ballroom, Tinkham Veale University Center (TVUC) (11038 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH 44106)
9 am Panel Discussion: "Lest We Forget: We Remember What We Cannot See"
Moderator: Cynthia Connolly,
Panelists: Nicole M. Crawford & Darrell D. Jackson, Keith LaMar and Pete Moore
10:45 am Panel Discussion: "Seventy Years Later: What Brown Cannot Do"
Moderator: Habeebah Grimes
Panelists: Gregory C. Hutchings Jr., Amari McGee and Erika K. Wilson
12:30 pm Luncheon Keynote Address by Marc Lamont Hill
2:15 pm Panel Discussion: "The Beautiful Struggle"
Moderator: Ayesha Bell Hardaway
Panelists: Charisse Burden-Stelly, Marcus Anthony Hunter, Shereen Naser and Robin Beth Schaer
2023-2024 Events
Community Police Commission
Panel Discussion and Community Q & A
"Police Surveillance and Safety in your Neighborhood"
Professor Ayesha Bell Hardaway, Director of the Social Justice Institute, moderated the CPC's panel discussion.
Thursday, May 3
6:00-8:00 pm
New Sardis Primitive Baptist Church
3474 E 147th St
Cleveland, OH 44120
Spring 2024 Social Justice Institute R+R (Research and Refreshments)
What does it mean to engage in social justice related research? CWRU faculty, staff, and students, and Cleveland community members brought their lunches and joined us in spring 2024 for talks from campus and community leaders on how social justice is central to their work. Drinks and desserts were provided; Q+A following each presentation.
Friday, April 5, 12:30 - 2:00pm
Moot Courtroom A59
CWRU School of Law
11075 East Blvd
"Winston Willis a Memoir"
Aundra Willis Carrasco, freelance writer, essayist, and memoirist
"After becoming a self-made millionaire at the age of 28, Winston seized the hidden opportunity presented by riot-induced white flight and wisely invested in commercial real estate. Making sweeping purchases of numerous abandoned properties, he transformed the previously crime-ridden area and made something out of nothing. A widely successful urban paradise, and a brilliant symbol of Black prosperity. But in doing so, he unwittingly triggered racial resentment and made enemies of politically powerful individuals and the corrupt local judiciary. "
This talk detailed the buried history of Winston Willis's empire on Cleveland's east side in the 1960s and 1970s, and the battle for reparations and lost capital that continues to the present day. You can watch the recording of this presentation here.
Wednesday, March 27, 12:30 - 2:00pm
Room A65
CWRU School of Law
11075 East Blvd
"Youth in Transition: From Juvenile Courts to Adult Systems"
Jill Yang, PhD, MSW, Postdoctoral Scholar, Social Justice Institute
This talk presented a comprehensive exploration of the treatment of Cuyahoga County youth in the juvenile and adult justice systems. The research examines the impact of incarcerating juveniles in the adult system, with a focus on the current policy, disparities in race, gender, age, and sentence length. The presentation delved into the bindover process as well as other proceedings that can lead to youth experience incarceration in adult facilities. Understanding these disparities is crucial for advocating for fair and equitable treatment of all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Black Political Prisoners: Perspective on Historical and Current Repression
Presented by the CWRU NLG Chapter, the Social Justice Law Center at CWRU, and the Social Justice Institute.
Photography Exhibit by Donald Black, Jr. at Kelvin Smith Library, September-November
The Social Justice Institute and Kelvin Smith Library sponsored "Uncontained: They Wanna See Me Fall," a photography exhibit by local photographer and activist, Donald Black, Jr.
Featuring 20 photographs, this exhibit was informed by Mr. Black's experience with the evolution of bike riding in Cleveland. This body of work focuses on the freedom of creative expression for Black men and boys riding pedal and dirt bikes. Black sees beautiful and necessary innocent rage being expressed by riders as he captures them popping wheelies and building bonds through bikes. There is a high risk when expressing yourself freely and uncontained as a Black rider, often seen as a threat, disobedience, ruthlessness and danger. Even so, these riders carry on and demonstrate the power of being yourself and being free.
This exhibit was available September 21 - November 17 at Kelvin Smith Library's 2nd floor gallery. We provided three opportunities to hear from the artist about his work:
- Thursday, September 21: Opening reception for the community
- Tuesday, October 10: Lunch for students
- Wednesday, November 15: Closing reception for the community
Law and Democracy in a 'Post-Racial' America
As part of our R+R (Research + Refreshments) series, Professor of Law Atiba Ellis discussed how social justice informs his research and work when it comes to examining and teaching law and democracy.
Wednesday, October 25
4:00-5:00 pm
Cleveland Public Library, Harvey Rice branch, 11535 Shaker Blvd.
Atiba Ellis, JD, CWRU Professor of Law
"Law and Democracy in a 'Post-Racial' America"
A Conversation with with Wesley Lowery
A conversation about racial progress and white supremacy with Shaker Heights native Wesley Lowery.
Thursday, October 12, 2023 | 5:30 pm
Amasa Stone Chapel at CWRU | 10949 Euclid Ave.
Many in the nation cheered the election of Barack Obama and the significance it meant for racial progress in the U.S. But as Lowery explains in American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress, Obama’s election also led to increased instances of racial violence. He draws a direct line between the rise of white power in America and the election of Donald Trump. Utilizing his background and skills as a journalist, Lowery analyzes the effects of white supremacy through a historical and present day lens–all while searching for a way forward.
Lowery is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who previously worked for The Washington Post. He is currently a contributing editor at The Marshall Project and a journalist-in-residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York.
2022-2023 Events
Spring 2023 Social Justice Institute R+R (Research and Refreshments)
What does it mean to engage in social justice related research? CWRU faculty, staff, and students, and Cleveland community members brought their lunches and joined us three Wednesdays in spring 2023 for talks from campus and community leaders on how social justice is central to their work. Drinks and desserts were provided; Q+A following each presentation.
Wednesday, February 1, 11:45a-1:15p
"Families of Juveniles with Life Sentences"
Jill Yang, PhD, MSW, Postdoctoral Scholar, Social Justice Institute
Wednesday, March 1, 11:45a-1:15p
"The Superhero Project: Recognition and Representation"
Lisa Kollins, Founder and Executive Director, The Superhero Project; Former Administrator and Current Leadership Team Member, Social Justice Institute
Wednesday, April 5, 11:45a-1:15p
“Art for Movement: Culture and Cultural Organizing for Racial Equity"
Amanda D. King, JD [Co-Founder, Shooting Without Bullets; conceptual artist, social justice advocate, and educator; LAW '17; 2022 FRONT Art Futures Fellow]
Bridging the Divide in Greater University Circle: Lessons from South Africa
Thursday, January 26 | 3:30-5:00 pm | Mandel Center Room 115
Roelf Meyer and Mohamed Bhabha, two key leaders in the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa, will speak to our Greater University Circle institutions and community to share their lessons learned and discuss how to bridge divides toward greater democracy and stronger communities. This discussion was co-led by Mark Chupp (Co-Director, CWRU Social Justice Institute; Director, CWRU Community Innovation Network) and Neighbor to Neighbor community advocate Barbara Wilcher-Norton. Co-sponsored by the Social Justice Institute, CWRU Local Government and Community Relations, the Community Innovation Network, Beyond Conflict, Civic Genius, and YOUnify.
2022 Social Justice Institute Think Tank
“A Balm for What Ails Us: Respect. Renew. Reimagine.”
On October 27-29, 2022, we held a special convening of social justice leaders at Case Western Reserve University. Our Think Tank was centered around the theme of “A Balm for What Ails Us: Respect. Renew. Reimagine.” Our goal was to provide space for envisioning what liberation looks like for communities historically and currently marginalized by oppressive systems. We cannot envision until we have healed, and we cannot heal until we have acknowledged our history. Our ambition was to foster conversations and reignite passion for social justice across the Cleveland community.
All events were free and open to the public, held at CWRU’s Tinkham Veale University Center at 11038 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH 44106.
Recordings of all portions of the event are available here.
Social Justice R+R: "Reproductive Rights and Justice in a Post-Roe World
Thursday, September 15, 12:00 pm, Crawford Hall A-13
Our first Fall 2022 R+R featured Jessie Hill, JD [Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, School of Law; Judge Ben C. Green Professor of Law, School of Law; Social Justice Institute Leadership Team].
2021-2022 Events
Research Lunch: "Healthcare Lapses Among Sexual and Gender Minorities"
April 20, 2022, 12:00 pm, Crawford Hall A-13 / Virtual via Zoom
The last of our spring 2022 Social Justice Research Lunch Series featured Dana Prince, PhD (Assistant Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences) and Braveheart Gillani (Doctoral Student, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences; Instructor, SJUS 100).
Research Lunch: "1492 & the Beginning of Planetary Injustice"
March 23, 2022, 12:00 pm, Crawford Hall A-13 / Virtual via Zoom
The second of our spring 2022 Social Justice Research Lunch Series featured Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, PhD of CWRU (Professor of Philosophy; Senior Research Fellow, Earth System Governance Project, Universiteit Utrecht).
Liberation Lab: a social justice teach-in on abolition and environmental justice
March 19, 2022, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm, Virtual
Organized by the InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF) and co-sponsored by SJI, the Liberation Lab brought together high school and college students and people of all ages to learn about critical human rights issues. We focused on topics like grief, empathy, apathy, popular education, mutual aid, direct action, and, of course, liberation. Together, we learned about critical human rights issues and explored our role.
Research Lunch: "Who are Black Girls? An Intersectional Herstory of Feminism"
Wednesday, February 9, 12:00 pm, Crawford Hall A-13 / Virtual via Zoom
The first of our spring 2022 Social Justice Research Lunch Series featured Dr. Shemariah Arki of Kent State University (Assistant Professor, Africana Studies; Director, Center for Pan African Culture; Founder and Program Director, Ellipsis Institute for Womxn of Color in the Academy).
2021 Annual State of Nonviolence
Thursday, December 2, 7:00 pm, Virtual via Zoom
SJI co-sponsored the 2021 Annual State of Nonviolence, hosted by the Cleveland Nonviolence Network, featuring Andrew J. Bacevich, Ph.D., President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston Universit. Professor Bacevich will discussed how the United States war in Afghanistan demonstrated the inefficacy of military force to achieve stability and/or foreign policy goals, and explored nonviolent, non-militaristic alternative means of conflict resolution in the international arena.
Nonviolence works; war doesn't.
A Conversation with Attorney Fred Gray
Friday, October 29, 10:00 am, CWRU School of Law / livestream
Attorney Fred Gray (LAW, '54) returned to the Case Western Reserve University School of Law to share details of his career's pursuit for racial justice with area students. Attorney Gray also signed copies of his book, Bus Ride to Justice. Gray is a civil rights attorney, preacher and activist who still practices law in Alabama and served as Member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1971–2015.
Activism and Social Justice at CWRU
Friday, October 22, 2021, 3:00 pm, virtual
Part I: Hear from CWRU alumni who were part of sit-in on Euclid Avenue in 1970 protesting the ongoing Vietnam War. The sit-in erupted into chaos as news broke of the killing of students by Ohio National Guard at nearby Kent State University. The KSU students were also protesting the war. The alumni will share their recollections from that day and also share parallels to the state of current activism in the United States.
Part II: Learn more about CWRU's Social Justice Institute from its Co-Directors Ayesha Bell Hardaway, JD, and Mark Chupp, PhD. They will share Institute's history and how it is presently involved in local, state and national matters. The co-directors will also take questions from the audience.
Racial Justice, Restorative Justice and Social Transformation
Thursday, October 14, 2021, 5:30 pm, Linsalata Alumni Center
Fania E. Davis, a leading national voice on restorative justice, led a community conversation that included a review of restorative justice fundamentals and an exploration of present-day critical issues at the intersections of restorative justice, racial justice and healing.
ACLU Civic Action Tuesdays: A Conversation with the Social Justice Institute
September 7, 2021, virtual
Cash bail, also known as money bond, effectively creates a two-tiered system of justice in which people who can afford their release go home to their families, and those without financial resources are forced to unnecessarily suffer behind bars. Rather than promoting public safety, this system enables some people to buy their release, regardless of the threat they may pose. This event will discuss how bail reform is needed to end the practice of wealth-based detention, bring Ohio’s courts into compliance with the United States Constitution, save public funds and promote public safety.
The Social Justice Institute and ACLU of Ohio hosted a critical conversation on the devastating impacts of cash bail and mass incarceration, including:
- The devastating impacts of cash bail and mass incarceration
- The fiscal impact of caging Ohioans pretrial
- Review core components of bipartisan bail reform bills Senate Bill 182 and House Bill 315, and
- Testimony writing training and mobilization opportunities.
Faculty Spotlight: The Social Justice Institute in the Aftermath of the Racial Justice Uprising
April 6, 2021, virtual
Social Justice Institute co-directors Ayesha B. Hardaway and Mark Chupp were invited to take part in CWRU’s Faculty Spotlight series in which they discussed social justice advocacy in the aftermath of the racial justice uprising fueled by the death of George Floyd and many other Black victims of police brutality. The co-directors analyzed the state of our country 's current sources of social turmoil, the impact of the racial justice uprising on CWRU, the universities response to recent anti-racism advocacy, and the role of the social justice institute in racial equity promotion and racial justice work. Watch the video.
2020-2021
Social Justice Institute 10th Anniversary Virtual Events: October 2020
On October 23-24, 2020, we hosted a series of virtual events marking the 10th anniversary of Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute. Over this two-day period, inspiring speakers shared their insights on the issues of today and opportunities for social justice advancement going forward. These sessions focused on themes we have covered over the last ten years, while highlighting the work of faculty from across the university.
Breathe! Resist! Live!: Keynote Address with Rhonda Williams
The 10th anniversary virtual event series kicked off with a keynote address from Rhonda Williams, CWRU’s Social Justice Institute founder and inaugural director on October 23, 2020.
Williams is a historian of low-income Black women’s and marginalized people’s experiences, everyday lives, politics and social struggles. Her research contributes to the rethinking of gender, political identity, citizenship, civil rights, Black liberation struggles and interactions with the U.S. state. She serves as a history professor and John L. Seigenthaler Chair in American History at Vanderbilt University.
During her two-decade tenure as a faculty member in the History Department at Case Western Reserve, she also established and directed the Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Studies.
Williams is the author of the award-winning The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality (2004) and Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century (2015), among other notable articles and essays.
Co-Director Remarks: Our Vision for the Future
Following the keynote address, Social Justice Institute Co-Directors Ayesha Bell Hardaway and Mark Chupp closed the evening by sharing their vision for the future of SJI as a university-wide initiative under the Office of the Provost, and celebrating the accomplishments over the last 10 years.
Saturday Sessions
During day two of the event, we examined topics from past programming over the last 10 years, including topics on racism, mass incarceration, immigration and human rights. Included below are additional details on the session times and speakers.
| Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|
|
The Covid-19 Crisis in the Prisons |
Tim Black and Crystal Tascon |
|
Social Inequalities: Redlining and Its Legacy |
Claudia Coulton |
|
Protesting While Black: The Fourth Estate, Protest Scripts, and How Mass Media Legitimizes State Violence Against Marginalized Groups |
Bryan Adamson |
|
Modern Native American Visibility & Decolonization |
Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, Bruce Kafer and Cynthia Connolly |
|
Democracy and Social Justice in Hard Times |
Karen Beckwith |
|
Immigration and the 2020 Election |
John Flores and Fatima Rahman |
2019-2020 Events
Black Indians: An American Story - Documentary and Discussion
- Date and Time: Tuesday, February 11, 2020, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9, 10900 Euclid Avenue
The award-winning documentary film Black Indians: An American Story brings to light a hidden heritage of America's past ‐ the cultural and racial fusion of Native and African Americans. This in-depth exploration of racial identity examines what brought the Native Americans, African Americans and Black Native Americans together, what drove them apart and the challenges they face in the 21st century.
Dr. Susan Dominguez will lead a robust discussion following about the critical need to examine lost, hidden, forgotten and denied histories and about the unique twin cultural heritage of Native Black Americans.
Free and open to the community. Light refreshments will be served.
Social Justice Teach-In
FEATURING HIP-HOP ARTIST/ACTIVIST/SCHOLAR OLMECA
- Date and Time: Saturday, February 8, 2020, 10:30 am-3:30 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
IRTF & CWRU’s annual Social Justice Teach-In is a great opportunity for people of all ages to gain the information, practical skills, and resources to work for peace, economic justice, and human rights! This annual event attracts hundreds of participants, most from area high schools and colleges. Choose from 30-40 workshops on local and global justice issues. Get skills training to work for social change!
The Teach-In will begin and end with an inspiring keynote and performances by Olmeca, a bilingual Latinx hip-hop artist, producer, activist, and scholar who intersects various identities and demographics. The son of immigrants who grew up in the barrios of L.A., Olmeca is one of the few artists who broke ground as an artist and advocate for human rights. His unique writing talent in both English and Spanish has gained the attention of hip-hop and alt-Latinx music audiences. His lyrics are written to encourage critical thinking, transformative education, cultural/political empowerment, and social justice. Olmeca is a graduate of California State University-L.A. in Latin American Studies and Philosophy. hidden, forgotten and denied histories and about the unique twin cultural heritage of Native Black Americans.
Getting Involved with Social Justice on Campus
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 10, 2019, 12-1 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Join CWRU Social Justice Institute Co-Director Tim Black and representatives from student justice groups to learn more about the issues facing our campus and community, the roots causes of inequality, and how you can make a difference during your time in Cleveland. Bring your lunch; drinks and dessert provided.
Reparations, or Another Attempt at Reconstruction
Co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society CWRU Student Chapter
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 17, 2019, 1-2 pm
- Location: Room 100, Mather House, 11201 Euclid Avenue
The U.S. Congress held hearings on reparations for Black Americans on account of slavery last June 19th, or Juneteenth. This September 17th, Constitution Day, Taru Taylor (LAW '18) will discuss how reparations could validate, for Black American descendants of slaves, the social contract that was “ordained and established” by We the People. The Constitution denoted slave codes until the Civil War. Reconstruction failed, partly due to the government’s breach of its promised “40 acres and a mule.” And so, despite the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the Constitution denotes Black Codes to this day. Taylor's talk will emphasize reparations as a means of “restitution,” of making Black people whole and thus completing Reconstruction. Bring your lunch; drinks and dessert provided.
Advocacy Education for Health Justice - Workshop Series
- Date and Time: September 18, October 23, November 20, December 11, 2019, 6-9 pm
- Location: Thwing Hall
Graduate and undergraduate students, staff, faculty and community members interested in developing advocacy skills for health justice are invited to participate in this new workshop series. Each session will focus on a current campaign for a critical issue facing Ohio:
- Medicaid expansion (September)
- Reproductive justice and abortion access (October)
- Public health, addiction and Tobacco 21 (November)
- Gun violence as a public health crisis (December)
Experts from the campus and community will present information about local coalitions, communication strategies and negotiation techniques utilized by activists and advocates. Workshop participants then will work together to develop novel campaign proposals to address the issues. A light dinner will be provided. Participants are welcome to attend one or more workshops.
The Take: A Panel Discussion on Alternative Economics
Co-sponsored by the Ellipsis Institute for Women of Color in the Academy
- Date and Time: Friday, September 20, 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Senior Classroom, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Join SJI Co-Director John Flores for a screening of The Take, a compelling documentary film about workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who reclaim control of a closed Forja auto plant and create a worker-owned cooperative. Miami University professor Nishani Frazier will respond to the film and share her research about examples of alternative economic models in place closer to home. Free and open to the community.
Teatime for Peace - Muslims in America
Co-sponsored by the Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Office for Multicultural Affairs, InterReligious Council, CWRU Muslim Student Association and CAIR Ohio
- Date and Time: Monday, September 23, 2019, 6:15 pm
- Location: Thwing Ballroom, 11111 Euclid Avenue
Come, have a cup of tea with your Muslim neighbor and learn through human connection. In light of the political rhetoric of divisiveness and fear of American Muslims, an organization called Code Pink encouraged community groups to organize "pop-ups" for peace to counter the dangerous current climate, which led to the first Teatime for Peace event in Cleveland. Each event is held in a different local space, open to all who are interested in open dialogue. Free and open to the community.
U.S. Intervention in Venezuela and Colombia
An event of Hispanic Heritage Month
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 3, 2019, 6-8 pm
- Location: Senior Classroom, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
SJI Co-Director John Flores moderated this event, a discussion with Gloria La Riva and Gabriel Murcia (CWR '18), Field Organizer for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. La Riva shared video footage of her time in Venezuela. Free and open to the community.
Living Undocumented: Screening and Discussion
Co-sponsored by the CWRU Institute for Global Security Law & Policy
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 10, 2019, 4:30 pm
- Location: Moot Courtroom, School of Law, 11075 East Blvd.
Lynn Tramonte, founder and director of Ohio Immigrant Alliance, led a discussion concerning immigrants' representation in the media, incarceration and its impact on people and families, immigration policy, bias and racial justice. We screened excerpts from the Netflix series Living Undocumented, which focuses in part on an Ohio family from Mauritania.
Columbus Day Legacy - Indigenous Peoples' Day
Co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs
- Date and Time: Monday, October 14, 2019, 6:30-8 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Columbus Day Legacy explores tensions and contradictions between Native and Italian‐American participants in the ongoing Columbus Day parade controversy in Denver, Colorado. This very personal yet public conflict is the source of hard questions about freedom of speech, interpreting history and what it means to be an "American."
The short documentary film was preceded by an introduction to the ongoing call by many Native communities to change October 14 to Indigenous Peoples' Day. Afterwards, there was a robust conversation about the issue. Free and open to the community.
How the Israel Lobby Distorts the Palestinian Conflict
Co-sponsored by the Departments of Political Science and History, Radical Student Union, Jewish Voices for Peace Cleveland, NOCMES and Eyewitness Palestine Ohio
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 17, 2019, 5-6:30 pm
- Location: Senior Classroom, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Dr. Walter Hixon is a Distinguished Professor History at the University of Akron. His most recent book is Israel's Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict. Professor Hixson offered a historical perspective on the growth and development of the Israel lobby in the United States to help clarify many of the present controversies on Israel & Palestine.
Bail Reform Campaign Teach-In
- Date and Time: Monday, October 28, 2019, 12:30-1:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Across the nation on any given day, tens of thousands of people languish in jail, not convicted, simply because they are too poor to afford cash bail. Pretrial detention is one of the leading drivers of mass incarceration in the state of Ohio. ACLU of Ohio and the Social Justice Institute hosted an in-depth examination of the current reform movement, examining the campaign to reform the bail system, demystifying the mechanics of the pretrial system, and presenting opportunities for direct action. Free and open to the community.
Native Cleveland Talking Circle
- Date and Time: Tuesday, October 29, 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Guildford House Parlor, 11112 Bellflower Road
In the spirit of a traditional Native American Talking Circle, we bring together multi-generational members of Northeast Ohio's Indigenous community. From the lens of Native people living in our city and our campus community, the circle participants will speak in turn about an issue they feel is important to share. After the circle members have spoken, Dr. Susan Dominguez (SJI Indigenous Community Coordinator) will moderate a questions and answer session. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the community.
Kashmir: A Postcolonial Wound that Refuses to Heal
Co-sponsored by the Departments of Political Science and History, and the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities
- Date and Time: Wednesday, October 30, 2019, 4:30-5:30 pm
- Location: Clapp Hall, Room 108, 2080 Adelbert Road
A former BBC journalist, Dr. Ather Zia is now a professor of anthropology and gender studies at the University of Northern Colorado. She received a journalism degree and performed field studies in Kashmir. Among other things, she writes on Kashmiri women's human rights efforts.
The Lines Between Us: A Dialogue about Fair Housing, Segregation and Social Disparities
Co-sponsored by the Fair Housing Center for Rights and Research
- Date and Time: Thursday, November 14, 2019, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Clark Hall, Room 207, 11130 Bellflower Rd.
In The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore's Racial Divide, journalist Lawrence Lanahan chronicles the segregation and economic inequalities of Baltimore and the strategies activists, community leaders, attorneys and politicians are employing to change them. After Lanahan's presentation, Jonathan Entin (David L. Brennan Professor Emeritus of Law and Political Science, CWRU) and Dr. Megan E. Hatch (Associate Professor, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, CSU) will reflect on the broad themes introduced in the book and compare them with the critical work happening here in Cleveland. Free and open to the community.
Between Fear and Hatred: Surviving Migration Detention in Assam
- Date and Time: Monday, November 18, 2019, 7:00 pm
- Location: Senior Classroom, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Rd.
In the United States, we typically discuss immigration as an "American dilemma," focusing on Latin Americans entering the United States. But hundreds of thousands of migrants currently circle the globe, and they are forced to cope with deadly borders, family separation, and incarceration. Since 2004, more than 20,000 migrants have died trying to enter the European Union alone, while states within the Global North and Global South - from France to Australia and Mexico to India - create increasingly exclusionary policies for migrants.
In Assam, India, at least 1.9 million people have been left off the final list of the Government of India's National Register of Citizens (NRC). These people face potential statelessness as Foreigners Tribunals determine their fate. Many Indians, especially those belonging to poor and marginalized communities, do not have certified copies of identity documents or are unable to produce them on time to prove their citizenship status. This is particularly true in the case of Assam, a state that includes many displaced persons who have fled outbreaks of violence and natural disasters. Those who have been deemed foreigners have been sent to detention centers. Some have languished in detention centers for years, they have almost no access to parole, they have been separated from their families, and they have limited contact with the outside world.
This screening of the documentary film Between Hatred and Fear: Surviving Detention in Assam (2018; 30 minutes) and the following panel discussion will address the history, detention, and deportation of people in Assam. Free and open to the community.
2018-2019 Events
Justice Work in Cleveland
Orientation 2018
- Date and Time: Friday, August 24, 2019, 1-1:50 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room 9A
Join SJI Co-Director and local activists Shemariah Arki (Ellipsis Institute for Women of Color in the Academy) and Akshai Singh (Clevelanders for Public Transit) to learn more about social justice issues in Cleveland. What are the major problems and how are activists tackling them? How can CWRU students become involved?
"God Complexes" and "Complex Gods": Emancipatory Practices in Religion and Hip Hop
Social Justice Research Lunch Series
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 11, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9 (ground floor), 10900 Euclid Avenue
Joy Bostic will explore the use of "divine grammars" by Black hip hop and contemporary pop artists to address complex issues of race, gender, sexuality, power and divinity. Bring a lunch; drinks and dessert provided.
History is Relevant: The Israeli New History and Its Legacy
Co-sponsored with the Department of History
- Date and Time: Thursday, September 13, 2018, 4:30-6 pm
- Location: Wolstein Auditorium, 2103 Cornell Road
Ilan Pappé, Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies of the University of Exeter, will discuss the emergence of the Israeli New History as an interpretation of 1948, and the post-Zionist debate that followed this new interpretation. He will then assess the impact of the New History on Israel and Palestine since its emergence. The talk will conclude with an update on the present historiographical orientations in historical research on Israel and Palestine. Free and open to the community.
Locking Up Our Own: Crime & Punishment in Black America with James Forman, Jr.
- Date and Time: Thursday, September 20, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center Senior Classroom, 11038 Bellflower Rd.
Author and former public defender James Forman, Jr., will speak about Locking Up Our Own: Crime & Punishment in Black America, the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. This critically acclaimed book explores mass incarceration, its disproportionate impact on people of color, and why the war on crime that began in the 1970s has been supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers. Free and open to the community.
Childhood Trauma at the U.S. Border: A Panel Discussion
Co-sponsored by Alianza Latina, the Schubert Center for Child Studies, the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education, the Center on Trauma and Adversity, and the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development
An event of Hispanic Heritage Month
Click here for a video of the event and resources about family separation.
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 25, 2018, 2:30-4 pm
- Location: Noble Commons, MSASS, 11235 Bellflower Rd.
This critical and timely discussion will focus on the experiences of immigrant children and teens detained at the border, including the legal context under which family separations are occurring, the medical and therapeutic guidelines for youth exposed to trauma, issues of consent for treatment, long-term consequences of internment and options for advocacy and activism for allies. Panelists are: Sana Loue (CWRU School of Medicine), Gabriela Sehinkman (The Centers for Families and Children), and Jane Timmons-Mitchell (CWRU School of Medicine and the Begun Center for Violence Prevention). SJI Co-Director John Flores will moderate. The event is free and open to the community. RSVP to socialjustice@case.edu.
Queer Love: Then & Now - An Art Installation
Co-sponsored by Collective Action Towards Social Justice and the LGBT Center
- Dates: September 24-28, 2018
- Location: Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, 11235 Bellflower Rd.
Whoever you are, whatever you are, this is for you. Stop by anytime to see the photographs and objects of this Arts-in-Action exhibit. Join the community on Friday, September 28, from 6-9 pm, for a Living Art Installation event. For more information, contact Dani Dickinson.
Gun Violence in America - A Public Health Crisis
Co-sponsored by the CWRU Master's in Public Health Program
- Date and Time: Wednesday, October 3, 2018, 6-7:30 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Annie Du (CWR '21), a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, will convene a panel to discuss the critical issue of gun violence through a public health lens. Featuring Dr. Scott Frank, founding Director of the CWRU Master of Public Health Program and Director of Public Health Initiatives, Alexander Smith of Sandy Hook Promise, and representatives from Moms Demand Action, the discussion will include ways individuals can become involved in violence prevention and policy advocacy. Bring your thoughts and questions. The event is free and open to the community. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP to socialjustice@case.edu.
Traditional Leadership from Mother Earth: Standing Rock and the Mni Wiconi Gathering
An Evening with Faith Spotted Eagle (Ihanktonwan Dakota)
Co-sponsored by Native Cleveland with the Beamer-Schneider Professorship in Ethics
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 6:30-8 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center Ballroom, 11038 Bellflower Road
The Social Justice Institute and Native Cleveland are honored to welcome Native American activist and environmentalist Faith Spotted Eagle, who provided Indigenous leadership during the gatherings at Standing Rock and protests against the North Dakota Access Pipeline. The Mni Wiconi (“water is life”) was an historic convergence of numerous American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, as well as supporters and onlookers. Spotted Eagle will share the story of the protest and explain how Traditional Knowledge and beliefs provide a profound and enduring framework for social justice. Free and open to the community.
Capturing the Flag
Co-sponsored by the CWRU LGBT Center, the Department of History, the Department of Political Science, the Center for Civic Engagement and Learning, and Vote Everywhere
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 25, 2018, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Mather House, Room 100, 11201 Euclid Avenue
Join us for a screening of the documentary film about voter suppression. This unexpected story about American democracy traces a tight-knit group of friends as they travel to Cumberland County, North Carolina - the 2016 epicenter of voter suppression - intent on proving the big idea that American democracy can be defended by small acts of individual citizens. Dr. Kenneth Ledford (History) will introduce the film and a discussion will follow.
Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison with Bruce Western
- Date and Time: Friday, October 26, 2018, 4:00-5:30 pm
- Location: Thwing Ballroom, 11111 Euclid Avenue
Bruce Western is Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Justice Lab at Columbia University. His most recent book, Homeward: Life in the Year after Prison, examines the tumultuous first year after release from prison. Drawing from in-depth interviews with over one hundred individuals, Western describes the lives of the formerly incarcerated and demonstrates how poverty, racial inequality, and failures of social support trap many in a cycle of vulnerability despite their efforts to rejoin society.
Never Leave Yourself: Gender, Education and Health in Belize
Social Justice Research Lunch Series
- Date and Time: Tuesday, November 6, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Eileen Anderson-Fye of the School of Medicine will provide an analysis of a twenty-year study that followed the first high school educated cohort of women in Belize and discuss how they subsequently transformed their society. Bring a lunch; drinks and dessert provided.
Collateral Costs: Incarceration's Effects on Economic Mobility
- Date and Time: Tuesday, November 6, 2018, 6-8:00 pm
- Location: Mandel Community Studies Center, 11402 Bellflower Rd.
Crystal Bryant (Director of the Cuyahoga County Office of Reentry), Damian Calvert (Project Coordinator/Outreach, Community Relations Board, City of Cleveland), Bishara Addison (Towards Employment) and Peter Truog (Director of Civic Innovation & Insight at The Fund for our Economic Future) will join Tim Black, Co-director of SJI, to discuss the hidden costs and long-term economic implications of incarceration. Free and open to the community.
Montaña de Luz: Transforming HIV/AIDS Care in Honduras
- Date and Time: Friday, November 9, 2018, 12:45-2 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Montaña de Luz began as a hospice for children in Honduras, home to 60% of the people living with HIV/AIDS in Central America. Today, thanks to the availability of anti-retroviral medications and new treatment philosophies, the “mountain of light” is transforming from an orphanage to a family-based model of HIV care. By reducing barriers (health literacy, stigma, transportation and medical co-pays), children remain at home to live healthy, happy lives – at a fifth of the cost of a traditional orphanage system.
In addition, Montaña de Luz is committed to leading systemic changes in the community – reintegration and reunification of families, increasing adherence by impacted children and adults to medication regimens, and centering local voices to determine the organization’s future.
Join Morgan Brown, Executive Director of Montaña de Luz, and Keiffer Erdmann, a Youth Across Borders ambassador, to discuss this cutting-edge model for care transformation and to be inspired by their unique vision of health justice work. Learn more about opportunities for in-country research, assisting with the creation of best practice models, and volunteering at home and abroad.
This event is free and open to the community. A light lunch will be served.
A Celebration of Poetry, Art & Music: A Benefit for HOLA
Co-sponsored by La Alianza
- Date and Time: Friday, November 16, 2018, 6-8 pm
- Location: Hovorka Atrium, Agnes Pytte Science Center, 2080 Adelbert Road
Join SJI and La Alianza for a celebration of poetry, art, and music to raise money for HOLA Ohio, a grassroots organization that focuses on community organizing, leadership development, civic engagement and immigration reform. Students, faculty and staff who would like to recite a poem, sing a song or offer commentary on a piece of art that speaks to them are welcome to participate; contact John Flores to volunteer. Help us build a social justice community in support of HOLA. Coffee, tea, and light desserts will be provided.
Immigration Justice Book Club - Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move
- Date and Time: Tuesday, November 20, 2018, 7-8:30 pm
- Location: Forest Hill Presbyterian Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd.
The first meeting of the Immigration Justice Book Club will feature a discussion of Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move, by Reece Jones. The club is open to everyone who genuinely and empathetically wants to learn more about immigration and seeks to bring people together from across the immigrant rights community. John Flores, SJI Co-director and an immigration historian, will deliver brief remarks, answer questions and lead a discussion.
Subsidized transportation for CWRU students to the church is available.
Free and open to the community.
Don't Get Sick After June: American Indian Healthcare - Documentary Film and Discussion
Co-sponsored by the CWRU School of Medicine Office of Student Affairs
- Date and Time: Tuesday, November 27, 2018, 12-1:30 pm
- Location: Robbins Building, E401, 2210 Circle Drive
This documentary presents a troubling portrait - and indictment - of the U.S. government's dismal failure to provide health care in fulfillment of federal treaty and trustee obligations with American Indian nations. Bringing forth an important voice in the national dialogue on health justice, the film reveals powerful images and stories from some of the vulnerable communities in Indian Country, provides historical evidence of just how poorly health care services have been funded and managed, and offers a critical look at the alarming increase in negative health outcomes as food commodities have supplanted traditional Native diets. Free and open to the community. RSVP to socialjustice@case.edu.
Reflections of a Resolute Radical: A Community Conversation and Book Signing with Don Freeman
- Date and Time: Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Linsalata Alumni Center, 11310 Juniper Road
Join us as activist, author, editor and scholar Don Freeman (CWR '61) reads from and discusses his autobiography, Reflections of a Resolute Radical. A lifelong Cleveland resident and graduate of Glenville High School and Case Western Reserve University, Don will share thoughts about the civil rights movement, the rise of radicalism, and the community's responses to both. Free and open to the community; a light reception will follow. Reservations requested to socialjustice@case.edu.
Followers in a Leaderless Movement: An Intersectional Analysis of the Occupy Wall Street Movement
Social Justice Research Lunch Series
- Date and Time: Tuesday, December 4, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Even in contemporary "leaderless" social movements, leadership is an interactional, gendered, and intersectional process, shaped by follower feedback. Heather McKee Hurwitz, a full time lecturer in sociology, will analyze the Occupy Wall Street movement through this complex lens. Bring a lunch; drinks and dessert provided. RSVP to socialjustice@case.edu.
Returned Citizens - Personal Reflections at the Prison Nation Exhibit
- Date and Time: Thursday, December 6, 2018, 6-7:30 pm
- Location: Martin Luther King, Jr., Library, 1962 Stokes Blvd.
How can images tell the story of mass incarceration when the imprisoned don't have control over their own representation? This question is at the core of Prison Nation, a powerful exhibition curated by Aperture Magazine that addresses the unique role photography plays in creating a visual record of this crisis, using both historical pictures and contemporary digital work. Local returned citizens (individuals who were formerly incarcerated) will speak on a panel about their experiences and their response to the empathy, awareness and political action essential to creating systemic change. Free and open to the community.
This is one of many events surrounding the exhibit - click here to see more community events.
Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland
Author Talk with James Robenalt
Co-sponsored by the Kelvin Smith Library and the Department of Political Science
- Date and Time: Tuesday, January 22, 2019, 4-6:30 pm
- Location: Dampeer Room, Kelvin Smith Library*, 11055 Euclid Avenue
Local author, attorney and historian James Robenalt will discuss the roots of the violent uprisings in Cleveland in 1968 (Hough Riot, Glenville Shootout, etc.) and the political aftermath. Cleveland was a uniquely important city in the civil rights movement and hosted critical speeches by Rev. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X (whose Ballots or Bullets speech was first delivered here), and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who spoke of the Mindless Menace of Violence at the City Club. Free and open to the community.
*Please note: all visitors to the Kelvin Smith Library must have a photo ID to be admitted.
THIRTY: Exploring Artistically the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Exhibit Opening and Reception
Co-sponsored by the Kelvin Smith Library
- Date and Time: Thursday, January 24, 4:30-6 pm
- Location: Kelvin Smith Library*, 11055 Euclid Avenue
The students of Facing History New Tech High School (a Cleveland public school) worked with artist Jason Labovitz to create this powerful collection of digital compositions exploring the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The compelling images and texts investigate the juxtaposition of human and educational rights with physical visual manifestations of those rights. Timothy Webster, associate professor of law, will share the history of the Declaration, followed by the artist and some of the student creators discussing the exhibit. A light reception will follow. Free and open to the community.
*Please note: all visitors to the Kelvin Smith Library must have a photo ID to be admitted.
Draw the Circle Wide: Celebrating Transgender and Gender Expansive Students in Music Learning Environments
Social Justice Research Lunch Series
- Date and Time: Tuesday, January 29, 2019, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
A critical conversation about creating equal access to ethically and pedagogically sound education for trans and gender expansive students with Matthew Garrett, associate professor of music.
Inspiring Change through Truth Telling - A Social Justice Teach-In
Co-sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement and Learning and IRTF
- Date and Time: Saturday, February 9, 2019, 11:00 am-3:15 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Join hundreds of students and community members for a deep examination of justice work - local, national and international. Keynote speaker Anthony Grimes will discuss the importance of speaking truth to power authentically, while also engaging with and collaborating positively with individuals and groups who hold different political or social views. Following the inspiring keynote, participants will choose individual workshops on diverse topics to attend.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Focus on Africa
U.N. World Social Justice Day
Co-sponsored by the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence and the Kelvin Smith Library
- Date and Time: Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 6:00-7:30 pm
- Location: Kelvin Smith Library*, 11055 Euclid Avenue
In conjunction with the powerful Thirty art exhibit, our annual event to commemorate the United Nations World Social Justice Day will feature a panel of speakers exploring how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has impacted - and failed to impact - various issues and populations across the African continent. Philosophy professor Laura Hengehold will provide a brief overview of the Declaration and moderate the conversation. Featured panelists and topics include:
- George S. Kamanda, international human rights scholar and JD candidate, CWRU School of Law - women's economic rights in Sierra Leone
- Felix Kumah-Abiwu, assistant professor of Pan-African Studies, Kent State University - voting rights in Ghana
- Sara Thiam, visiting assistant professor, Anthropology, CWRU - children's rights in Senegal and Mali
The "Tiny Horrors" of Cultural Genocide: Indigenous Children in Residential and Boarding Schools, 1870-1970
Social Justice Research Lunch Series
- Date and Time: Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Susan Dominguez, SAGES teaching fellow, will discuss the century of North American federal policy that ripped children from families and inflicted tortuous cruelties for years at a time, creating conditions of PTSD and genetically embedded intergenerational trauma.
Company Town: A Documentary and Discussion about Environmental Justice, Race and Power
An Event of the 2019 Cleveland Humanities Festival
Co-sponsored by the Master of Public Health Program, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, and the Oberlin College and Conservatory Environmental Studies Program
- Date and Time: Monday, March 18, 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm
- Location: Ballroom B, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
What do you do when the company you work for and live near is making you sick? Company Town is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about environmental injustice, corporate accountability and community action in a rural Arkansas town. This chilling story reveals the egregious business practices of a company owned by the billionaire Koch brothers, government negligence and deregulation, and a devastating cancer cluster that galvanized a town to fight back. Janet Fiskio, associate professor of environmental studies at Oberlin College, will introduce the film and lead a discussion with Karen B. Mulloy of the Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health. Free and open to the community; light refreshments will be served.
Embedded Activism: Changing Foster Care from the Inside Out for LGBTQ2S Youth
Social Justice Research Lunch Series - Co-sponsored by QGrad
- Date and Time: Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Avenue
Dana Prince (MSASS assistant professor) and Sonia Emerson (project coordinator of Affirm Me) lead a dialogue about opportunities, barriers and effective strategies for effecting social change for LGBTQ2S (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning Two-Spirit) youth within the public child welfare system. Bring your lunch; drinks and dessert provided.
Mankiller: A Documentary and Discussion with Filmmaker Valerie Red-Horse Mohl
Co-sponsored with the Center for Civic Engagement and Learning, LGBT Center, Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, Ellipsis Institute for Women of Color in the Academy, Lake Erie Native American Council and YWCA Greater Cleveland
- Date and Time: Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 6-8:30 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Rd.
Wilma Mankiller was an activist, feminist and Cherokee Chief, a woman who humbly defied the odds to fight injustice and give a voice to the voiceless. She overcame rampant sexism and personal challenges to emerge as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief in 1985. Mankiller reminds audiences of the true meaning of servant leadership and serves as a wake up call to take action for positive change.
Director and producer Valerie Red-Horse Mohl (Cherokee) will speak following the screening, examining the legacy of Mankiller’s formidable life, discussing her work as the preeminent collaborator with American Indian tribal nations bringing Native stories to the screen, and contemplating the critical roles of women in leadership.
Free and open to the community; light refreshments will be served.
I’m a pretty ordinary person given an opportunity to do extraordinary things in my life.
—Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee Chief, 1985-1995
Harambee City: Black Economic Power in Cleveland's Past and Future
Co-sponsored by the African and African American Studies Program and the Ellipsis Institute for Women of Color in the Academy
- Date and Time: Friday, April 12, 2019, 6:30-8:00 pm
- Location: Linsalata Alumni Center, 11310 Juniper Road, Cleveland
BLACK POWER! It was a phrase that consumed the American imagination in the 1960s and 70s, inspiring a new agenda for black freedom. Dynamic and transformational, the black power movement embodied more than media stereotypes of gun-toting, dashiki-wearing black radicals; the movement opened new paths to equality through political and economic empowerment.
In Harambee City, Nishani Frazier chronicles the rise and fall of black power within the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) by exploring the powerful influence of the Cleveland CORE chapter. Black Clevelanders began to espouse black power ideals and advocated for community uplift that emphasized economic populism. Not surprisingly, these new empowerment strategies found acceptance in Cleveland. Now old ideas find new life in current efforts to create cooperative owned businesses and community gardening. Dr. Frazier will discuss this history and the implications for its current iteration for Cleveland.
WE EXIST: Beyond the Binary
Co-sponsored by the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, Collective Action Towards Social Justice, Kelvin Smith Library, CWRU LGBT Center and QGrad
- Date and Time: Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 6:30-8:00 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9 (ground floor)
This documentary film is a deeply personal, first-hand account of living life beyond the binary construct of strictly male or female. Too often, the implications of that reality are both personal and global: invisibility, silencing, systemic discrimination and exclusion, and the denial of the most fundamental human right–the legal right to exist. Despite these extraordinarily rigid conditions, personal determination and social agency prevail. Free and open to the community; drinks and dessert provided.
What Works and New Will: American Has Made Little Progress 50 Years After the Kerner Commission
An event of The City Club of Cleveland
- Date and Time: Thursday, May 9, 2019, 12:00-1:30 pm
- Location: The City Club, 850 Euclid Avenue
In February 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders – known as the Kerner Commission – concluded that America was heading toward “two societies, one black and one white, separate and unequal,” llustrating the country's economic and social division. The report is widely considered one of the most insightful government examinations of the state of race relations in 20th century America.
Fifty years later, in February 2018, the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation released its update of the Kerner Commission. This report, Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years After the Kerner Report, concluded that America has made relatively little progress in reducing poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. Dr. Alan Curtis, president of The Eisenhower Foundation, will discuss what these findings mean for the next 50 years as racial tensions continue to increase and more Americans believe the American Dream to be unattainable.
Please note: since this is an event of The City Club, there is a fee to attend. Use the code SJI19 for 20% savings.
2017-2018 Events
Campus ERA Day
Co-sponsored by the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, the Department of Political Science, the Women's and Gender Studies Program, and the American Constitution Society-CWRU Chapter
- Date and Time: Thursday, April 26, 2018, 6-8 pm
- Location: Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, TVUC
In conjunction with the E.R.A. Coalition, the second annual Campus E.R.A. Day aims to spread awareness of and gain support for the revitalized push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.
A viewing party of the short film 50/50 will be held, followed by a livestream Q&A with Carol Robles-Roman (CEO of the E.R.A. Coalition), Carol Jenkins (founding president of The Women's Media Center and chair of AMREF USA, an African health organization) and others.
A Critical Discussion on Defending Immigrant Communities
Co-sponsored by the Latino Alumni Network and the CWRU Alumni Association
- Date and Time: Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 6-8 pm
- Location: Mandel Community Studies Center, 11402 Bellflower Road
Join fellow alumni, students and CWRU community members for a critical discussion on the challenges facing Latinx immigrant youth and families in northeast Ohio and across the country. Learn what you can do to support immigrant members of your community.
Featured speakers:
- Veronica Dahlberg, Community Leader and Activist, Executive Director of HOLA Ohio
- Professor John Flores, Climo Junior Professor History
- Fatima Rahman, DACA Recipient and Student Activist, CWRU Class of 2021
Our panel of experts will explain from various perspectives the challenges facing Latinx immigrant communities, propose solutions, and suggest actions attendees can take to make a difference. Ms. Dahlberg will provide insight as a nationally recognized advocate for the Northeast Ohio Latinx immigrant community. Professor Flores will present a historical context for understanding the causes of migration and the criminalization of immigrants. Ms. Rahman will share first-hand knowledge as a DACA-recipient, activist and CWRU undergraduate student.
We invite you to be part of the conversation and learn how you can work within your sphere of influence to support immigrant communities.
Race, Food and Justice: Examining the Urban Food Movement through a Social Justice Lens
Presented with Environmental Health Watch and Rid-All Green Partnership
- Date and Time: April 19-20, 2018
- Location: CWRU Campus
Featuring keynote presenters Allyson Carpenter, Keymah Durden III, Dr. Monica White, and Malik Yakini
Registration is now open - sign up today!
Click here to view the full program agenda and conference details.
Social Justice Institute Fellows Present...
Research Lunch Series with Janet McGrath and Andrew Rollins, Frank Manzella and Megan Schmidt-Sane
- Date and Time: Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Anthropology-Engineering Collaborative: Designing Interdisciplinary Solutions to Global Health Problems
Janet McGrath (professor of anthropology) and Andrew Rollins (professor of biomedical engineering and medicine) will present the results of their collaboration that trains social science and engineering students at CWRU and Makerere University, Uganda in a collaborative design process involving community based participatory action research (PAR) and biodesign to develop solutions to locally identified technology for health needs in Luwero district, Uganda.
(Dis)Embodied Experiences of Medical Tourism in Urban Brazil
Drawing on the results of a one-year ethnographic study on the medical tourism industry in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Frank Manzella (graduate student in anthropology) will focus on the social justice dimensions that encourage foreign patients to seek healthcare in another country. Additionally, conflicts encountered by patients throughout the many phases of the medical tourism process will be described.
"We lost many of our friends": Economic scarcity, social resilience, and HIV vulnerability in Kampala, Uganda
The research of Megan Schmidt-Sane (graduate student in medical anthropology) employs a broader framing of risk in the patterning of HIV vulnerability and social resilience among men in Kampala, Uganda who live and work in communities deemed “high-risk” due to the presence of sex work. This study draws on core principles in social justice to confront the complexity and fragility that punctuates life at the margins.
The Research Lunch Series is free and open to the community. Bring a lunch; drinks and dessert provided. RSVPS requested to lbk24@case.edu.
Lunch with SJI - Learn about the Social Justice Minor
- Date and Time: Friday, April 13, 2018, 12:45-2 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9
Join SJI Academic Coordinator John Flores for an informal lunch and conversation about SJI and the social justice minor. Bring your questions or just come to connect with other like-minded students interested in justice and activism. RSVP to lbk24@case.edu.
Who's Afraid of Edward Said? The Palestinians, Antisemitism and the Culture of Silence
- Date and Time: Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 7-9 pm
- Location: Mandel Community Center Building, 11402 Bellflower Road.
Why is it so difficult to speak about the Palestinian people on the Case Western Reserve University campus? Ted Steinberg, Davee Professor of History, will give a lecture about his life as a Brooklyn-born Jew, while elaborating on Edward Said’s thoughts about the Palestinian question and its place in university life. Steinberg’s talk will challenge us to think about diversity, equality, and our common humanity in light of what he sees as one of the greatest oppressions in modern history before opening the discussion to audience members.
Women's Liberation at CWRU: Educating, Empowering and Creating Institutional Change from 1965-1972
An event of the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women's Spotlight on Women's Research Series
- Date and Time: Friday, April 6, 2018, 12:30-2 pm
- Location: Center for Women, Tinkham Veale University Center
Student Gillian Prater-Lee will present research on the women’s liberation movement at Case Western Reserve University from 1965-1972, including activism surrounding sexual liberation, reproductive rights, the Vietnam War, and women in athletics. Panelists will discuss changes in women’s activism and representation at Case from 1965 to today. Featured panelists include:
- Christine Ash, alumna and retired Vice President for Planning & Institutional Research
- Tori Hamilton, CWRU Feminist Collective, undergraduate student
- Colette Ngana, reproductive rights activist, graduate student
The Babes Were Silent: Infant Mortality and Public Health
CONVERSATIONS! at the Dittrick Museum
- Date and Time: Thursday, March 29, 2018, 6 pm
- Location: Clark Hall, Room 206, 11130 Bellflower Road
Co-sponsored by the Dittrick and the CWRU Social Justice Institute, this event will be part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival. Join us for a short-lecture, panel discussion, and public round-table about public health history, industrialization, housing, and the ways race and class combine to produce an ongoing crisis for our community.
Brandy Schillace, PhD, Senior research associate at the Dittrick Museum, will give a short TED-style talk on the rapid industrialization and immigration boom of the early 20th century in Cleveland. She will take a look at how a stressed water and sewage system, poor housing, and the exploitation of the poorest workers with the least social mobility led to outbreaks of cholera, rampant lead poisoning, and high rates of infant mortality in urban centers. The geography of these neighborhoods still matters, and Cleveland still faces high infant mortality rates. The historical presentation will end with a panel discussion about problems of race, class, and health today. The presentation will end with a public roundtable and Q and A.
Looking Towards Home: An Urban Indian Experience
Presented with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Native Cleveland (an initiative of the Beamer-Schneider Professorship in Ethics) and the Indigenous Alliance
- Date and Time: Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 7-8:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A9
In this documentary film, narrator Conroy Chono (Acoma Pueblo) explains how the 1950s Federal Relocation Programs enticed significant numbers of Native Americans to leave reservations for life in major cities, including Cleveland. The film reveals the hardships and resilience of relocated Native people and subsequent generations, who maintain cultural identities and traditions far from tribal homelands. Panelists, including Joe Connolly (Chair, Lake Erie Chapter of American Indian Science and Engineering Society), will share their own experiences and discuss how community and cultural identity intersect with education, health care, institutional racism and economic justice. Drinks and dessert will be served.
No Más Bebés: Film & Conversation with Producer/Researcher Virginia Espino
Presented with the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, Office of Multicultural Affairs, President's Advisory Council on Minorities, Schubert Center for Child Studies, Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, The Alianza Latina/Latino Alliance, SAVE (Sexual Assault and Violence Educators), and the Latino Medical Student Association
- Date and Time: Wednesday, March 21, 2018, 6-8:30 pm
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Rd.
An Event of the Cleveland Humanities Festival
They came to have their babies. They went home sterilized. So begins the incredibly moving tales of the women chronicled in No Más Bebés (No More Babies), a heartbreaking documentary film based on the research of Latinx historian Virginia Espino. This is the story of Mexican immigrant mothers who sued Los Angeles county doctors, the state and the federal government after they were sterilized while giving birth in the 1970s. Led by an intrepid young Chicana lawyer, the mothers faced public exposure and stood up to powerful institutions in the name of justice. A discussion with Espino will follow the film. Light refreshments provided.
A Different PoV: A Plea for Academic Rigor on North Korea
Research Lunch Series with Merose Hwang, Hiram University
- Date and Time: Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, aka North Korea) is referred to as the most isolated country in the world. We assume this is an inaccessible country and yet we hold strong assumptions and feelings about this place. Teaching on this topic presents many challenges when ideas of North Korean threat and violence dominate the headlines and racial misogyny permeates the literature.
In this presentation, Professor Hwang challenges us to look beyond our enemy-lens to find a better way of understanding North Korea and to look at the DPRK from its own historiographical vantage point. Examining North Korean pedagogical materials allows us to glean a new perspective, one in which a country endured a long history of imperial and colonial aggression and emerged as a truly post-colonial nation. By studying DPRK poems, interviews, documentaries, and films, we can gain nuanced understanding of the values and attitudes of people as individuals, social sub-groups, communities, as humans experiencing pleasures, local and global challenges, and the mundane of everyday life and see North Korea beyond a faceless horde under a diabolic dictator.
Forced Labor and Maritime Art: Finding Slaves in Seventeenth-Century France
Research Lunch Series with Gillian Weiss
- Date and Time: Tuesday, February 13, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Historians long assumed that after the medieval period, slavery vanished from metropolitan France and re-emerged only in its American colonies. In fact, thousands of enslaved Muslims and convicts labored for King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715). Besides rowing his Mediterranean galleys, these servile oarsmen helped build and decorate naval vessels and other artworks that proclaimed royal supremacy. In her collaborative book project (with NYU art historian Meredith Martin), historian Gillian Weiss explores the role of forced labor in maritime art produced and displayed in seventeenth-century France. Her talk will consider how revealing the historical presence of Muslims and the persistence of slavery reverberates in current debates about Islam, immigration, integration and citizenship.
2018 Social Justice Teach In
Presented with the Center for Civic Engagement & Learning and the Interreligious Task Force on Central America
- Date and Time: Saturday, February 10, 2018
- Location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Join hundreds of students and community members for an illuminating and meaningful opportunity to learn about the social justice issues that concern you. Following a powerful keynote address by Amanda King and the youth of Shooting Without Bullets, participants will select workshops from dozens being offered. The event is free for students and $10 for community members. Registration requested.
Medical Deportation: The New Form of Patient Dumping
Research Lunch Series with Sana Loue
- Date and Time: Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Medical deportation refers to the involuntary removal of documented and undocumented immigrants with long term health care needs and little or no health insurance coverage from a US hospital to a facility in their country of origin. Often, the medical facilities that exist in the immigrant’s country of origin to which individuals are sent lack adequate equipment and/or skill to provide the requisite care. Research suggests that hospitals are increasingly utilizing this practice to address inadequate funding for emergency and long term medical care costs. Some hospitals have attempted to have a US citizen patient removed to the country of a parent’s origin in an effort to reduce their costs. Hospitals have often been successful in their attempts to obtain a state court order permitting such medical deportations. Various commentators have suggested that the practice of medical deportation represents a form of patient dumping across international borders, and constitutes a violation of both US and international law. This presentation explores the ethical and legal issues confronting health care providers in such situations, as well as the obligations of local governments and organizations to provide care for immigrants with health needs.
Who's Afraid of Edward Said? The Palestinians and the Stifling of Dissent
Research Lunch Series with Ted Steinberg
- Date and Time: Tuesday, December 5, 2017, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Steinberg writes: "Growing up in the sixties and seventies, I don’t recall hearing anything about Palestinians. It was always Arabs. Golda Meir herself had said that the Palestinian people 'did not exist.' My personal journey with respect to this contentious issue, and an update on the serious threats to dissent now present and brewing in the United States—and on our campus."
Think Tank 2017
Educating for Struggle: State Violence, Then and Now
- Date and Time: November 16-18, 2017
- Location: Tinkham-Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Road
Featuring Keynote Addresses by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Ibram X. Kendi.
Sponsored by the CWRU Office for Inclusion, Diversity & Equal Opportunity, the President's Advisory Council on Minorities, ideastream, Ndeda N. Letson, the Beamer-Schneider Professorship in Ethics and the CWRU School of Law.
Race, Equity and Inclusion: How Cleveland Generates Wealth
Research Lunch Series with Kevin Alin and Peter Truog
- Date and Time: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
What happens when a community comes together to unpack the history of structural racism and how it manifests locally? In 2017, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, the Fund for Our Economic Future, and other engaged partners funded a learning journey to increase shared understanding of racial inequality in Northeast Ohio and foster productive dialogue among stakeholders. Through that journey, The Fund for Our Economic Future has produced an analysis looking at how wealth is generated annually in the Cleveland MSA through a racial equity and inclusion lens. A discussion of this analysis and the questions that it provokes will be the focus on this presentation.
Decolonizing Cleveland Charette
Co-sponsored by the Beamer-Schneider Lecture in Ethics and Civics
- Date and Time: Saturday, October 14, 2017, 10:30 am-2 pm
- Location: Clark Hall, Room 309, 11130 Bellflower Road
Indigenous movements such as the Dakota Access Pipeline often call for “decolonization” as a goal of social justice advocacy. What does decolonization mean? What are the different forms decolonization could take locally? The greater Cleveland area may assume its history to start with the formation of the U.S. and European colonization of North America. But the area is also home to a much longer history of diverse Indigenous peoples. In fact, this area has been known by many names. Moreover, more recently, Indigenous persons and communities make their home in the Cleveland area, bringing both traditions from this region and from many other regions in North America, and also beyond. In the last 200 years, additional groups, including African-Americans, have created homes, communities and cultures in the area. But the current infrastructure, maps, buildings, artwork, and other markers of the physical landscape in the Cleveland area do not appear to include or honor these connections to Indigenous peoples and other groups. In fact, in some respect, the physical landscape and urban/suburban ecology reflect U.S. desires to take the land from other groups and erase their histories and contemporary lives. What would it mean, then, to change this situation? This event, open to the Cleveland community and CWRU, will be an open discussion of whether decolonization has a place in the Cleveland area, what decolonization might look like, and how it might be achieved.
At this participatory event, Kyle Powys Whyte, several elders from the Cleveland indigenous community, and an SJI representative will lead us in an envisioning process to imagine what it would be to decolonize Cleveland. This process is meant as an introduction and as something incomplete — a kind of proposition, even a preposition.
Lunch with SJI - Learn about the Social Justice Minor
- Date and Time: Friday, October 27, 2017, 12:45-2 pm
- Location: Mather House, Room 100
Join SJI Academic Coordinator John Flores for an informal lunch and conversation about SJI and the social justice minor. Bring your questions or just come to connect with other like-minded students interested in justice and activism.
The Monument Quilt
To create a culture of support for survivors of rape and abuse
- Date and Time: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 10 am-2 pm
- Location: Corner of Euclid Ave and Adelbert Rd (Rain location: Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Rd)
Organized by FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, the Monument Quilt is an ongoing collection of stories from survivors of rape and abuse. Written, stitched and painted onto red fabric, the stories are displayed in city centers to create and demand public spaces to heal. The quilt resists the popular and narrow narrative of how sexual violence occurs by telling many stories, not one, and builds a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than publicly shamed. After visiting cities across America, thousands of fabric squares will blanket over one mile of the National Mall spelling "NOT ALONE."
This event is organized by SJI, Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, CWRU Green Dot, Greek Life, SMARRT (Students Meeting About Risk and Responsibility Training), Center for Civic Learning and Engagement, Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at the Mandel School for Applied Social Sciences, SAVE (Sexual Assault and Violence Educators), The Feminist Collective at CWRU, the CWRU LGBT Center, the Women & Gender Studies Program, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, National Council of Jewish Women/Cleveland, and ATNSC: Center for Healing and Creative Leadership.
Social Justice Institute Fellows Present...
Research Lunch Series with Matthew Rossman and Elizabeth Nalepa
- Date and Time: Tuesday, October 10, 2017, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Not the Sharpest Tools in the Shed - In Search of Smarter Homeowner Subsidies
Matthew Rossman, professor of law, will discuss his revealing research project about the profound disconnect between the federal tax code’s homeowner subsidies (often criticized for primarily benefiting higher income households) and other federal housing related policies. These other policies include combating disinvestment in distressed housing submarkets, decreasing residential segregation, and minimizing negative environmental externalities. This project also explores how homeowner subsidies might be made smarter, including through community level applications of advances in real estate data and analytics.
The Effect of Abortion Restrictions on Individual Outcomes
New regulations and restrictions placed on access to abortion in the United States are assumed to disproportionately impact women marginalized by their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Using data that spans more than 30 years, Elizabeth Nalepa, sociology graduate student, will explore how health policy such as abortion regulation generates or worsens health inequalities.
The Research Lunch Series is free and open to the community. Bring a lunch; drinks and dessert provided. RSVPS requested to lbk24@case.edu.
In Search of One Big Union: Folksongs and Social Movements in the U.S.
Co-sponsored by the CWRU Center for Popular Music Studies
- Date and Time: Thursday, October 5, 2017, 7-8:30 pm
- Location: Clark Hall, Room 206, 11130 Bellflower Road
Focusing on the role that folksongs play in the U.S. labor and other social movements, musician and sociologist Corey Dolgon brings both history and theory to life. This singing lecture includes songs from a multicultural perspective and examines the function of folk songs in the struggles for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, environmental protection and more contemporary movements as well. Free and open to the community. Light refreshments will be served. RSVPs requested to socialjustice@case.edu.
Dress for Less
An Economic Justice Event co-sponsored with the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women
- Date and Time: Tuesday, October 3, 2017, 10 am-5 pm
- Location: Center for Women Living Room, Tinkham Veale University Center, 11038 Bellflower Rd.
Dress for Success of Cleveland will be providing professional women's clothing at discount prices. All CWRU students, staff and faculty are invited to attend.
Authoritarianism and its Challenges to Democracy and College Campuses
A Social Justice Institute Teach-In
- Date and Time: Friday, September 29, 2017, 12:45 pm
- Location: Clapp Hall, Room 108, 2080 Adelbert Road
White nationalists have been legitimated and emboldened by a presidential administration that took office by advancing racist, sexist, homophobic, ablest, and nationalist rhetoric. In August, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists took to the streets in Charlottesville armed with clubs, shields, pistols, and assault rifles, while President Trump expressed indifference. In a move toward political exclusion, Trump has recently called for a ban on transgender members of the military and threatened to remove more than 800,000 young immigrants given amnesty under DACA. Is this the formation of neo-fascism? What can be done to challenge this militant right movement? What is the role of university campuses?
Join us for a panel discussion to more deeply understand this historical moment, its call to action, and the role of the university.
Opening remarks: Dean Cyrus Taylor, College of Arts and Sciences
Panelists: John Flores, Associate Professor, History, Kenneth Ledford, Associate Professor and Chair, History, Ayesha Bell Hardaway, Assistant Professor, Law
Moderator: Tim Black, Interim Director, Social Justice Institute
They Can't Kill Us All: Law Enforcement, Race and Justice
Wesley Lowery at the City Club of Cleveland
- Date and Time: Friday, September 22, 2017, 12 pm
- Location: City Club of Cleveland, 850 Euclid Avenue, Second Floor
The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Freddie Gray inspired Washington Post reporter (and Shaker Heights High School graduate) Wesley Lowery to question the data around police shootings. His inquiry spurred The Post's investigative data-gathering project The Fatal Force which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Lowery's experiences traveling across the country covering police shootings are chronicled in his book They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement. In it, he also describes the events that led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and how black activists used social media to elevate their message.
SJI is proud to co-sponsor the lunch and conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Lowery on the ongoing struggle between law enforcement, race, and justice.
The Secret Joy of Accountability
Mixed-Race -Gender -Class -Age Collaborations in Life and Liberation Work
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 19, 2017, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
Veteran queer, sex-positive activists Ignacio Rivera and Jaime Grant will talk about their long history of collaboration across differences that are often fault lines in our culture and society. How do we create accountable partnerships and grow accountable communities across race and gender differences (especially) in the midst of so much white supremacist, sexist and transphobic violence? How do we address how racism, sexism, queer and transphobias, ageism, fatphobia and other systems of oppression inequitably distribute resources and opportunity? How do we take care of each other while fighting? How do we take care of ourselves? Bring a lunch; drinks & dessert provided.
History, Biography and Age: Levels of Inequality in the Life Course
Research Lunch Series with Dale Dannefer
- Date and Time: Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 11:30 am-12:45 pm
- Location: Crawford Hall, Room A13, 10900 Euclid Ave
In many late modern societies, increasing attention is being paid to the realities of inequality. Although those who focus on inequality have paid little attention to its relation to age, the set of temporally grounded processes associated with individual aging comprise a robust and reliable generator of social inequality. In this talk, Dannefer will review those processes and consider the reasons for their resilience and the possibilities of change.
2016-2017
- Measuring World Peace: Michelle Breslauer and the Global Peace Index, 6.14.17
- 2016-2017 Research Lunch Series
- 100 Days Into the Presidency: A Three-Part Community Conversation, 4.28.17
- Assessing and Treating Exposure to Violence and Trauma in Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth, with Fredrick Butcher, 4.25.17
- PowerUP! Student & Youth Leadership Conference, 3.25.17
- The Artist as Activist: Imani Roach and the Green Book, 3.21.17
- Controversial Coverage: Faith and the Fight to Insure Contraception, 3.9.17
- Pasta for CASA: Empathy & Action for Youth Impacted by Foster Care, 3.1.17
- How Native Americans Protect Traditional Knowledge from Misappropriation, with Dalindyebo Shabalala, 2.28.17
- U.N. World Social Justice Day: The Refugee Crisis in Syria, 2.20.17
- Activism Then & Now: Panel Discussion at the Maltz Museum, 2.15.17
- Stereotypes, Identities, Roles and Allies, 2.8.17
- Social Justice Fellows present..., with Diana Bilimoria, Morgan Bulger, Keimei Sugiyama and Cassi Pittman, 1.31.17
- The Occupation of the American Mind: Film & Discussion, 1.19.17
- Intersectional Feminism: Navigating the Intersections, Women of Color Series, 1.18.17
- Community Building and Activism through the Eyes of East Cleveland Women (Voicing & Action Project - Continuing Conversations), 12.10.16
- Post-Election Analysis: How This Happened & Where to Go from Here, SJI Teach-In, 12.6.16
- Is Extending Working Life the Best Response to Population Aging for All Workers?, SJI Policy Seminar, 11.29.16
- Placemaking and Race through the Stories of East Cleveland Women (Voicing & Action Project - Continuing Conversations), 11.22.16
- From Riot to Political Event: Cleveland's Hough Neighborhood of July 1966, with Paul Hanson, 11.8.16
- A People's Platform: An Introduction and Dialogue, 10.16.16
- With Justice For All in a Changing America: Morris Dees, 10.2.16
- SJI Open House, 9.16.16
- Sexual Assault Kits - Changing What We Know About Rape, with Rachel Lovell and Misty Luminais, 9.13.16
- History on Tap: What's Your Cause?, Cleveland Historical Society, 9.8.16
- Oriented: A Documentary Film and Discussion with Khader Abu Seif, 9.7.16
- Activism Adventure: Orientation 2016, 8.18-20.16
2015-2016
- National Lawyers Guild Training Sessions, 6.20.16 and 6.27.16
- The Fixers: Stories from Greater Cleveland, 6.16.16
- CWRU in the Community: Lunch and Learn with Dr. Rhonda Williams, 6.15.16
- The Women of East Cleveland: An International Perspective, with Visiting Fellow Risham Waseem, 5.26.16
- Debunking Cultural Bias: What Does an Intersectional Movement Look Like?, 4.28.16
- Race, Food and Justice: Analyzing the Urban Food Movement through a Social Justice Lens, 4.21.16-4.23.16
- Living Longer, Working Longer in the USA: A Gender Perspective, with Áine Ní Léime: Research Lunch Series, 4.19.16
- Schools Push Out and the Criminalization of Childhood, with Gabriella Celeste, 4.5.16.
- Power Up! Student & Youth Leadership Conference, 4.2.16.
- The MYCincinnati Ambassador Ensemble, 3.15.16.
- Bridging Worlds Together: Advancing Our Understanding of Social Justice through Cultural Awareness, 3.4.16.
- Blaming, Shaming and Explaining Teen Moms, with Mary Patrice Erdmans: Research Lunch Series, 3.1.16.
- Brown Gold: African-American Children's Literature as a Genre of Resistance, 2.18.16.
- Social Justice Teach In, 2.6.15.
- Disparities in Mental Health and Access to Care, with Sana Loue: Research Lunch Series, 2.2.16.
- Innovations in Social Justice Research: Research Lunch Series, 12.1.15.
- Think Tank 2015: Educating for Struggle: Empathy, Social Justice and Social Transformation, 11.12.15–11.14.15.
- The Aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis: Research Lunch Series, 10.7.15.
2014-2015
- PowerUP! Student & Youth Leadership Conference, 4.11.15.
- Coalition Building and Solidarity Needs - Social Justice Read-Ins and Teach-Ins, 3.18.15.
- Millenials and What it Means to Be a Radical Student- Social Justice Read-Ins and Teach-Ins, 3.4.15.
- UN World Social Justice Day, 2.20.15.
- Police Brutality and the Black Community - Social Justice Read-Ins and Teach-Ins, 2.18.15.
- Read-In of the DOJ Report, 1.22.15.
- SJI Brown Bag Luncheons, Fall 2014.
- PowerUP! Student & Youth Leadership Conference, November 1th, 2014.
- The New Black, October 17th, 2014.
- With/Out Borders Conference, September 25 - 28th, 2014.
- "The World is All Around Us", a lecture by documentary filmmaker Lee Mun Wah, 9.4.14.
2013-2014
- Race, Food & Justice Conference, Friday April 4 and Saturday April 5, 2014.
- U.N. World Day of Social Justice - On Human Trafficking -- Friday, February 21st and Saturday, February 22nd, 2014.
- Think Tank 2013: Educating for Struggle, 11.15.13–11.16.13.
- In(queer)ies — Rein in the Rhetoric: How Moral Panics over Sexuality Obscures Social Justice Issues, November 8th, 2013. (PDF)
- A discussion and reading with Thomas Glave, author of Among the Blood People, October 30th, 2013., 10.30.13 (PDF)
- Social Justice Institute Open House, September 24th, 2013., 9.24.13 (PDF)
- Voicing and Action Project: Power of Testimony, People in Action - East Cleveland, Saturday, July 27th, 2013, 7.27.13 (PDF)
2012-2013
- Discussion of Heather Andrea Williams' book Help Me to Find My People, April 27, 2013, 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., 4.27.13 (PDF)
- Race, Food and Justice Conference, 4.25.13-4.26.13.
- Kwame Appiah Lecture on The Honor Code: Making Moral Revolutions, March 18th, 2013., 3.18.13 (PDF)
- World Social Justice Day: The End of Poverty, February 20, 2013., 2.20.13 (PDF)
- Michelle Alexander Lecture on The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarcerations in the Age of Colorblindness, October 25, 2012., 10.25.12 (PDF) Watch all parts of the lecture on our media page.
- Community Book Discussion Series: The New Jim Crow, 9.11.12-10.16.12
- Cleveland Voter Education Forum, September 25, 2012, 9.25.12 (PDF)
- East Cleveland Voter Education Forum, September 20, 2012, 9.20.12 (PDF)
2011-2012
- Student Leadership Conference, April 21, 2012, 4.21.12 (PDF) View the Slideshow Recap on our Media page.
- Slavery by Another Name: February 8, 2012, 2.8.12 (PDF)
- Social Justice Institute Open House, Thursday, November 3, 2011, 11.3.11 (PDF)
- Coalition of Immokolee Workers - Human Trafficking, October 20, 2011, 10.20.11 (PDF)
- An Evening with The Freedom Riders, 9.30.11.
2010-2011
- Bonded Souls and Binding Histories, South Asia Initiative lecture by Chinnaiah Jangam, 4.14.11.
- Worse Than War, featuring Daniel Goldhagen, by Facing History and Ourselves, 4.6.11.
- Will Allen, CEO, Growing Power & MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient Visits Cleveland, Ohio, 3.18.11–3.19.11.
- 2011 Jean Donovan International Social Justice Conference, 2.25.11–2.26.11. View the corresponding media for this lecture on our Media page.
- Social Justice, Race and Profiling: An Intergenerational Think Tank, 11.19.10–11.20.10.
Forums
- Social Justice and the Research University: A Faculty Forum (PDF) 3.17.11.
Visit the SJI YouTube Channel to see recorded conference lectures, plenary sessions and oral histories.
Selected event photos courtesy of Eric Benson Photography