CRSP
News from the Center on Race and Social Problems
Institutes, Speaker Series, and Publications cover 2019's biggest events.
2019 Institutes
Last summer, we held two institutes to sold-out crowds. On June 26, our institute on Race and Hate Crime featured keynote speaker Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life synagogue. Our distinguished panelists were Esther Bush, Heath C. Johnson, Daphne Retter, and Wasi Mohamed. On July 16, we held an institute on Race and Health Across the Life Span, which featured keynote speaker Nancy Krieger of the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and distinguished panelists Paula Braveman, Rollin Wright, Julius Boatwright, and Valire Copeland.
2019 Fall Speaker Series
Our speaker series continues to draw diverse audiences. During fall 2019, we welcomed dean emeritus and founding director of CRSP Larry E. Davis for a lecture titled “A Conversation About Race.” Subsequently, we welcomed Alexandra Filindra of the University of Chicago for “Race, Rights and Rifles: White Racial Attitudes and the Debate over Guns” and Alexandra “Sasha” Killewald of Harvard University for her lecture, “The Past Is Present: How Racial Wealth Gaps Perpetuate Across and Within Generations.” We closed our fall lecture series with Pitt School of Social Work alumnus Michael Lindsey (PhD ’02), who presented “Ring the Alarm: A Looming Crisis for the Mental Health of Black Youth.”
CRSP Publications
The CRSP journal, Race and Social Problems, is a highly successful social science journal that continues to bring attention to the issues of race and poverty. The September 2019 issue included articles on White privilege in the United Kingdom, race and social capital, and judgments in cross-race crimes. Access to these articles and an archive of all previous issues of the journal can be found on our website, crsp.pitt.edu.
In August, CRSP’s Just Discipline Project released a brief on the two-year results of its collaboration with the Woodland Hills School District aimed
at reducing exclusionary discipline and improving student performance. Results showed a 28 percent decrease in the number of students suspended as well as academic gains and evidence that students feel safer. The project team’s work also is slated to be discussed in depth in an upcoming issue of Children & Schools.