Author, professor and social justice advocate john a. powell will deliver the 2019 Charles Causier Memorial Lecture at the School of Architecture & Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Powell is director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California, Berkeley and author of “Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.” Powell’s Causier Lecture is titled “Racial Equity and Economic Justice in Urban Planning Practice and Community Building.”
Associate Professor of Urban Planning and attorney Kirk E. Harris worked with UWM Vice Chancellor of Global Inclusion & Engagement Joan Prince and a host of community partners to recruit powell for the Department of Urban Planning’s annual keynote lecture.
“Urban planning seeks to identify strategies and approaches that bring social justice to urban space as our democracy requires. Dr. john a. powell presents a framework for addressing these inequities within American cities and regions,” Harris said. “When governmental entities, social service agencies and citizens come together to revise policies and practices together, using an equity framework, transformation can happen. An equitably transformed city is a healthier and more socially just city.”
In addition to teaching and researching in the Department of Urban Planning, Harris is co-founder of Fathers, Families and Healthy Communities, a Chicago-based nonprofit that works to advance equity-based family strengthening policies and socially just community development.
Harris is available for media interviews in advance of the Causier Memorial Lecture. Powell is based at UC Berkeley and has some availability for phone interviews. Media appearances for both can be coordinated with Harris. A post-lecture reception from 8:30-10 p.m. is open to community partners, urban planning students, alumni and those who have questions about the Department of Urban Planning at UWM and related career opportunities.
Additional co-sponsors of the 2019 Causier Memorial Lecture are: Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission; Urban Studies Programs, Urban Affairs Association and the Department of Geography in the UWM College of Letters & Science; UWM Partners for Health, including the College of Health Sciences, College of Nursing, Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare; and, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council.