Public Scholarship
Changing Face of OC Lecture Series
2005-06 Lectures
Fall 2005 - Envisioning Real Utopias
Erik Olin Wright
Lecture by Erik Olin Wright, Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thursday, November 10, 2005 |
Capitalism seems to have triumphed and its defenders declare confidently,
“there is no alternative.” This presentation explores a general strategy for
renewing the sense that “another world is possible,” through the cultivation
of “real utopias" that affirm our deepest aspirations for a radical egalitarian
and democratic understanding of human emancipation and that attend to
the pragmatic problem of robust institutional design.
Winter 2006 - Gated Communities: Security, Segregation, and the Politics of Fear
Setha Low
Lecture by Professor Setha Low, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Thursday, February 23, 2006 |
Professor Low will provide a
revealing account of life inside suburban fortresses that explains why many in America seek heightened security, fear diversity, and strive to hold on to "Pleasantville" like notions of community.
Spring 2006 - The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics Reexamined
Expert Panel
Lecture by William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University
Thursday, May 11, 2006 |
Professor Wilson will offer a straightforward, and crucially important
diagnosis of the problem of rising social inequality in the United States. He
will examine how a broad-based political constituency of working and mid-dle
class Americans must be developed, sustained, and energized to deal
with the eroding strength of the nation's equalizing institutions, including
public education, unions, and political structures that promote the interests
of ordinary families.