UW Public Lecture Series

UW's Graduate School Public Lecture schedule came out recently and it has, as usual, some great offerings.  Most of the lectures are free but require pre-registration.  Registration for most events started on September 11th.  (You can go without pre-registrating but many events sell out so if you don't register, you probably won't be admitted.)

Here are the lectures related to topics in public education.

Parenting/Race and Equity

Julie Lythcott-Haims is the author of the New York Times best-selling book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (2015) and Real American: A Memoir (2017). She is deeply interested in what prevents people from living meaningful, fulfilling lives.

How to Raise an Adult emerged from Lythcott-Haim’s decade as Stanford University’s Dean of Freshmen, where she was known for her fierce advocacy for young adults and her fierce critique of the growing trend of parental involvement in the day-to-day lives of college students.

In a different vein, the memoir Real American details Lythcott-Haim’s personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. 

Using Data to Advance Racial Justice

Data can be a powerful tool for fighting systemic racism and police violence. In this lecture, Sam Sinyangwe will present strategies for using data to support organizing campaigns focused on equity and justice in the United States.

Sinyangwe is a policy analyst and data scientist who works with communities of color to fight systemic racism through cutting-edge policies and strategies. Sinyangwe has supported movement activists across the country to collect and use data as a tool for fighting police violence through Mapping Police Violence and to advance solutions to police violence through Campaign Zero.

Art/Native Americans
Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract

Race and Justice
Anita Hill -

As a brilliant intellect and thoughtful voice, Anita speaks of progress and setbacks, outlining the arc of sexual harassment, asking “Have we learned nothing since 1991?” Her answer is clear, “We must raise our voices just as we did then to say, ‘enough is enough.’” Inspiring others to get engaged, find their voice, and speak truth to the power, she explains how we must change the overarching culture and systems of our society in order to foster true change.

Race/Gender
Janet Mock

Janet Mock is a writer, director, TV host and producer whose memoir, Redefining Realness, debuted on the New York Times bestsellers list in 2014. Her second book, Surpassing Certainty, a memoir about her twenties, was released in 2017. She is an advocate for trans rights and the founder of #GirlsLikeUs, a social media project that empowers trans women.

Mock made television history as the first trans woman of color to write, direct and produce for a series with Ryan Murphy’s FX drama Pose, which has assembled the largest cast of trans actors in series regular roles ever for a scripted series.

 Disabilities
Interdependent Success: Cultivating a Community of Diverse Bodies and Minds

Heather D. Evans is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Disability Studies Program and Law, Societies & Justice Department. She has conducted both statistical analyses and ethnographic fieldwork. Evans’ current work examines “invisible disability”, focusing on disclosure and identity management among people with physical, mental, and sensory differences that are not readily apparent.

Race and Culture
An Evening with Karamo Brown

Three-time Emmy Winner and Culture Expert on the Netflix reboot of Queer Eye, Karamo Brown “is at the intersection of where pop culture, social media, and real life collide,” according to the LA Times. 

Onstage, Brown draws from his work as a counselor and psychotherapist to show how he both discovered and learned to explore his many different “identities.” Whether as an openly gay man, a black man, a single father, or psychotherapist, Brown strategically utilizes the strengths of his numerous identities to achieve success – and teaches others to do the same.

Sexual Harrassment/Privacy
Monica Lewinsky

Monica Lewinsky is a social activist, a global public speaker, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a consultant. She advocates for a safer social media environment and addresses such topics as digital resilience + reputation, privacy, cultivating compassion, overcoming shame and equality.

Working with global telecommunications company, Vodafone, in 2016, Lewinsky conceived and helped to create a suite of Anti- Bullying Emojis for Support. The #BeStrong emojis, which are a free download, make it easier to show support to targets of bullying when words sometimes fail us — especially teens.

Race/Criminal Justice
On Social Problems

Alexes Harris, Ph.D., is the Presidential Term Professor and Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Harris’ work has spanned the criminal justice system, including juvenile justice, case processing outcomes, and monetary sanctions. Her research is fundamentally centered around issues of inequality, poverty and race in United States’ systems of justice.

Her book, A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as a Punishment for the Poor details the ways in which fines and fees sentenced to defendants often put an undue burden on disadvantaged populations and place them under even greater supervision of the criminal justice system.