News and Events

CURE Seminar Series: Diverging Space for Deviants – The Politics of Atlanta’s Public Housing with Akira Drake Rodriguez, Ph.D. – December 2

Date: Thursday, December 2
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
NEW Location: Campus Center, South ABC Conference Room
Free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.

Registration is required. Register now at https://go.rutgers.edu/6xfyoerg.

In 1936, the City of Atlanta was the first US city to open federally-financed and locally-administered public housing developments to low-income families in need of safe and sanitary housing (Techwood Homes).  For the city’s Black residents, and later, other marginalized groups, these developments provided political opportunity to assemble, mobilize, and make claims on the State in ways that were otherwise inaccessible. Over time, tenant associations served as conduits for working-class political interests centered in spatial justice – the very politics of planning that were used to segregate and marginalize developments and residents served as an organizing logic around spatial justice issues. However, in 2013, demolition began on one of the city’s last public housing developments for low-income families, nearly two decades after Techwood Homes was demolished for the 1996 Olympics. This talk examines the historical role of public housing in working-class politics and how the loss of tenant associations in the city has deepened contemporary inequities.


About the speaker

Akira Drake Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design.  Her research examines the ways that disenfranchised groups re-appropriate their marginalized spaces in the city to gain access to and sustain urban political power. She is the author of Diverging Space for Deviants: The Politics of Atlanta’s Public Housing, which explores how the politics of public housing planning and race in Atlanta created a politics of resistance within its public housing developments. Dr. Rodriguez was recently awarded a Spencer Foundation grant to study how educational advocates mobilize around school facility planning processes. 

CURE Seminar Series: The Impact of Affirmative Action Litigation on Police Killings of Civilians with Jamein Cunningham

 

Date: Thursday, November 4
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
NEW Location: Campus Center–Executive Meeting Room
Free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.

Registration is required at https://rcit.rutgers.edu/apps/payment/register.php?event_id=714

This event will also be live-streamed at https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/93601254741?pwd=TDUza2tweW5VS2M3bVVTSjRpcHZWdz09

Abstract:

Although research has shown that court-ordered hiring quotas increase the number of minority police officers in litigated cities, there has been little insight into how workforce diversity, or lack thereof, may impact police violence. Using an event-study framework, we find that the threat of affirmative action litigation reduces police killings of both non-white and white civilians in the long-run. In addition, we find evidence of lower arrest rates for non-white civilians and more diverse police departments 25 years after litigation. Our results highlight the vital role that legal and federal interventions have in addressing police behavior and the use of lethal force.
 

About the speaker:

Dr. Jamein P. Cunningham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. His research agenda currently consists of four broad overarching themes focusing on the intersectionality of institutional discrimination, access to social justice, crime and criminal justice, and race and economic inequality.
 
Dr. Cunningham held previous positions as an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Memphis and at Portland State University, where he taught urban economics, econometrics, labor economics, and economics of discrimination.  Prior to joining the faculty at Portland State University, Dr. Cunningham was a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics and a Populations Studies Center Graduate Trainee at the University of Michigan.  He was a recipient of the Rackham Merit Fellowship and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute in Child Health and Development Fellowship. Before obtaining a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, he completed his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and a Master’s in Economics at the University of North Texas.

CURE Seminar Series: Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid Beyond Capitalism – October 7, 2021

Date: Thursday, October 7
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
NEW Location: Campus Center–Executive Meeting Room
Free and open to the public. Lunch will be served.

Registration is now closed.

The seminar will also be live-streamed on Zoom: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/93085765758?pwd=MmdQZlRBN1gxM3FPWG8vL2tFUjVDdz09

Abstract:

From the crises of racial inequity and capitalism that inspired the Black Lives Matter movement and the Green New Deal to the coronavirus pandemic, stories of mutual aid have shown that, though cooperation is variegated and ever-changing, it is also a form of economic solidarity that can help weather contemporary social and economic crises. Addressing this theme, Practicing Cooperation delivers a trenchant and timely argument that the way to a more just and equitable society lies in the widespread adoption of cooperative practices. But what renders cooperation ethical, effective, and sustainable? Providing a new conceptual framework for cooperation as a form of social practice, Practicing Cooperation describes and critiques three U.S.-based cooperatives. Through these case studies, Andrew Zitcer illuminates the range of activities that make contemporary cooperatives successful: dedicated practitioners, a commitment to inclusion, and ongoing critical reflection. He asserts that economic and social cooperation must be examined, critiqued, and implemented on multiple scales if it is to combat the pervasiveness of competitive individualism.

About Andrew Zitcer:

Andrew Zitcer is an associate professor at Drexel University, where he directs the Urban Strategy graduate program. His research explores social and economic cooperation, as well as arts as a tool for urban revitalization. Zitcer’s work has been published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, Planning Theory & Practice, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Antipode. He lives in West Philadelphia, where he is active in a number of community-based initiatives.

 

 

CURE is part of State Policy Lab established at Rutgers via $1 Million awarded by NJ Secretary of Higher Education

Date

April 26, 2021

Media Contact

Megan Schumann

848-445-1907

megan.schumann@rutgers.edu

Rutgers has received $1 million from the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education to establish a policy lab that will analyze solutions to critical issues facing the Garden State.

The State Policy Lab, housed in Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and managed in conjunction with the Rutgers-Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration, will include expertise from a network of scholars, community members and external policy experts.

“Rutgers-New Brunswick and its Bloustein School have always focused on serving the people of New Jersey,” said Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Christopher J. Molloy. “We are proud to collaborate with the state on this partnership, which provides another important venue by which our world-class research will help enhance the quality of life in the Garden State.”

The main purposes of the lab, which is being funded through Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2021 state budget, includes providing policy-makers with clear and accessible research on state and local governance while assisting stakeholders in troubleshooting unanticipated implementation issues; generating data modeling for policy recommendations to enable state policymakers to test different budgetary and legislative scenarios; and building coalitions across governments, institutions of higher education and community organizations to support evidence-based policy initiatives.

“We look forward to providing our expertise with policy research, big data analytics and community engagement towards evidence-based decision-making in critical areas of policy and operations within the state of New Jersey,” said Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. “I am particularly excited to be working with the School of Public Affairs and Administration in Rutgers-Newark, and a wider network of academic and policy collaborators throughout the university, statewide, nationally and even internationally to solve grand policy challenges. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students, as it is for us to be of service to our state.”

Charles Menifield, dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration said he is hoping the new collaboration with Bloustein will be the first of many.

“This is an exciting time for SPAA and we are excited to work with the Bloustein School in launching this endeavor,” Menifield said. “It is a great opportunity for Rutgers to provide expertise to the governor and state legislature. I hope this opportunity leads to other collaborations.”

For New Jersey to continue to be at the forefront of innovation throughout the nation, policy issues need to be carefully addressed, said Brian Bridges, secretary of Higher Education.

“High-quality research and analysis is crucial to ensure New Jersey remains at the center of innovation,” said Bridges. “This will be even more critical as our economy recovers from the pandemic, as the State Policy Lab will examine how to address long-term issues facing the state and improve the lives of New Jerseyans. I look forward to Rutgers’ leadership in this high quality research endeavor.” 

The State Policy Lab will utilize an equity framework to analyze policies and programs with the goal of identifying improvements that benefit all residents, particularly those from low-income backgrounds and those who have been historically disadvantaged.

Additional partners include the Walter Rand Institute (Camden), the Cornwall Center (Newark), the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (New Brunswick), the Center for Urban Research & Education (Camden), the Rutgers Law School Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity, Kean University and New Jersey Institute of Technology. 

 

Posted in News.