Provost's Lecture on Diversity - "Power from Margins and the Promise of Democracy”
Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow, Jamila Michener, will deliver the lecture. Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. will introduce Dr. Michener, who is Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy and Inaugural Director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures at Cornell University.
Pundits, scholars and ordinary people alike lament the troubling decline of democracy in the contemporary United States. Trust in democratic institutions is at a nadir while political cynicism and support for authoritarianism are on the rise. In this broader context of political malaise, where are the avenues for building a more robust democratic polity? Drawing on insights from qualitative research, Dr. Michener will highlight how building power within racially and economically marginalized communities around issues directly related to their material interests (like health and housing) is a promising pathway. Grassroots political organizing is (perhaps unexpectedly) an antidote to the social cleavages that accelerate democratic backsliding. What’s more is that such organizing can forge a route to transforming both the polity and the political economy it is embedded within such that both are more attuned to communities that teeter at the margins of the existing power structures.
The event is open to Penn faculty, students, and staff (Penn ID is required for entry into Penn Carey Law). Questions regarding the event may be directed to provost-fac@upenn.edu.
