Friday, October 2, 8:30 AM - 7:30 PM
Hybrid! Alumni House, UC Berkeley
Join us for a one-day symposium celebrating 50 years of social change research at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Bringing together distinguished alumni scholars, Center chairs, and current and former directors, this event highlights vital work on topics including environmental justice, community-engaged research, and educational equity. The program begins with a welcome by Chancellor Rich Lyons and features engaging research presentations, reflections on our legacy and contemporary challenges, and spotlight snapshots of some of ISSI’s vibrant centers.
Throughout the day, you’ll have plenty of time to network and catch up with friends and colleagues. We’ll end with a celebratory 50th-anniversary party!
Thank you to our co-sponsors: Department of Sociology, Department of Ethnic Studies, School of Public Health, School of Social Welfare, Graduate Division, Othering and Belonging Institute, Social Sciences Division
Register to attend in person! (See below for Zoom links for each panel if you prefer to attend virtually.)
Program
Read abstracts from our alumni scholars, and bios and photos of all our speakers.
8:30-9 - Coffee and pastries
9-9:15 - Welcome
Richard K. Lyons, Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley
Kurt C. Organista, Director, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues; Professor and Harry & Riva Specht Chair in Publicly Supported Social Services, UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare
9:15-10:45 - Policy, Precarity, and Power in Housing, Labor, and Education
Colleen Lye, Associate Professor of English, UC Berkeley, and chair of the Asian American Research Center, will give a snapshot of the center and moderate the panel.
- Gretchen Purser, Associate Professor of Sociology, Maxwell School of Syracuse University, “Raise the Roof: Building Tenant Power in Syracuse”
- Alejandro Garcia, Instructor of History, Merritt College, “‘Street Hoodlum’ and Racial Integration: The Rise of America's Neoliberal New Right in Los Angeles in the 1970s”
- René Espinoza Kissell, Assistant Professor of Education, UC Santa Cruz, “‘Crisis Management’ of California Public Schools: Debt Logics and Institutional Authority”
- Reflections by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Associate Director, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues
- Video: Reflections by ISSI Alumni
Register to join the welcome and first panel virtually.
10:45-11:15 - Break (coffee, tea, and pastries)
11:15-12:45 - Social Change Research in Action: From Community Partnerships to Technological Futures
Deborah Freedman Lustig, Graduate Fellows Program Co-Director, will moderate the panel and give a snapshot of the Center for Research on Social Change
- Vicky Gomez, Associate Professor of Public Health, San José State University, Department of Public Health, “Partnering with Communities to Advance Equity”
- Teresa Córdova, Director, Great Cities Institute, and Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois Chicago, “What Becomes of the Study of Social Change Over a Lifetime? Reflections on Fifty Years of Engaged Scholarship”
- Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, Professor of Education, University of San Francisco, "Undocumented Staff Serving Undocumented Students: Trump 2.0, Trauma & The Politics of Care in Higher Education"
- Lawrence A. Rosenthal, Chair of the Center for Right-Wing Studies, will give a snapshot of the center.
- Video: "50 years of Social Change Research," featuring Troy Duster, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley, and other Institute faculty, staff, and alums
Register to join the second panel virtually.
12:45-1:45 - Lunch will be served
1:45-3:30 - Interrogating Institutions: From Structural Critique to Decolonial Praxis
Laura E. Pérez, Professor of Chicanx and Latinx Studies, UC Berkeley, and chair of the Latinx Research Center, will give a snapshot of the center and will moderate the panel.
- Tria Blu Wakpa, Assistant Professor of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UC Los Angeles, “Decolonial Choreographies”
- Caleb Dawson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, “Black Campus Leaders and the Gendered Frontlines of Racial Redress”
- Karen Villegas, Assistant Teaching Professor and Associate Director of the Dimensions of Culture program, Thurgood Marshall College, UC San Diego, “Teaching and Research Dialectically: Writing as a Shared Political Practice”
- Reflections by former director Rachel F. Moran, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Education Law Program, Texas A&M University
Register to join the third panel virtually.
3:30-4 - Break (refreshments)
4-5:30 - Space, Place, and Belonging: Working Towards Environmental Justice
Moderated by Michael Omi, Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley, and former Institute Director
- Peter Nelson, Assistant Professor, ESPM and Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley, and Chair of the Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues “Community Engaged Research with Tribal Peoples and Fire in Central California”
- Lindsey Dillon, Associate Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Cruz, “Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco”
- Teresa Irene Gonzales, Associate Professor of Sociology, Loyola University Chicago, “No Somos Amargados y Fracasados: Collective Play, Public Parks, and Loving Community among Latino Men”
- Closing remarks by Deborah Freedman Lustig, Graduate Fellows Program Co-Director, and video tribute to David Minkus
Register to join the fourth panel virtually.
5:30-7:30 Reception/party