MISJT 2009 Fall Series: Incarceration, Communities and Families

Please RSVP to Nancy Michaels at, nmichaels@roosevelt.edu

Refreshments will be provided at all events.

ISSUES OF INCARCERATION FILM SERIES

Join us for these moving & informative documentaries.   Discussion and Q&A will follow.

Wednesday November 18th at 5:30 PM: "A Sentence for Two" 

About six percent of women prisoners are pregnant, and most are sentenced for minor, nonviolent crimes.  What are their options?  Mothers and babies who are separated can never regain those crucial early months of mother-infant bonding, affecting the child for life.  The foster care system often permanently cuts off a mother from her baby.  Join us for a screening of A Sentence for Two, followed by a discussion led by Gail Smith from Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM) and a formerly incarcerated mother.

Thursday, December 3rd at 6:00 PM: "Tulia Texas"

Tulia Texas tells the story of a small town's search for justice and the price Americans pay for the war on drugs.  Discussion after the film will be moderated by Kathie Kane-Willis, Interim IMA Director & Director, Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy. Event co-sponsored by the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs

OTHER MISJT SPONSORED & CO-SPONSORED EVENTS:

ACTIVISM 101 Workshop

Co-sponsored by RU Sociological Society and MISJT

Workshops are from 5:00 pm to 7:00pm in the SPertus Lounge, Rm 211

Workshop #1 Thursday, February 4th: THE HISTORY AND TOOLS OF STUDENT ACTIVISM

Angus Johnston from studentactivism.net

Workshop #2 Thursday, February 11th: TOOLS FOR STRUGGLE

Learn the range of activism tools fromfrom advocacy work to direct action.  Michael Pitula, Little Village Enviromental Justice Organization

Workshop #3 Thursday, February 18th: WHAT DO COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS DO?

Robert Clack, Metropolitan Tenants Association

Workshop #4 Thursday, February 25th: WHAT CAN WE DO?

Strategic planning session for RU student groups

The 2nd Annual Social Justice in a Changing World Conference Call for Papers

Call for Papers
Second Annual
Social Justice in a Changing World
Undergraduate and Graduate Student Conference
Roosevelt University
Chicago, Illinois
April 23, 2010

The Sociological Society and Department of Sociology at Roosevelt University invite undergraduate and graduate students to the second annual Social Justice in a Changing World Conference. We seek to foster discussion on both the nature of challenges confronting local and global communities as well as possible solutions that can be pursued or are already being advanced by social justice movements.

Events We Support!

National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness is looking for student leaders to get involved in launching the upcoming:

Resolve to Fight Poverty at the Resolve 2009 conference in Chicago on November 5-8, 2009.

MISJT Mission Statement

The Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation, created in 1999 through a generous gift from the Mansfield Foundation, gives Roosevelt University a unique opportunity to develop an integrated program of curriculum, research, and outreach focused on social justice issues.

It is our goal to elevate and foster social consciousness among our students, faculty and members of our community, through a pedagogy of transformational learning and through rich social justice programming in the areas of human rights, social and political action, and the arts.

MISJT INITIATIVES:

Transformational Learning

• To develop and implement Transformational Learning across the curriculum at Roosevelt University in ways that enhance and complement the University’s social justice mission.  This initiative will include building sustainable relationships with community partners and social justice allies both locally and nationally.  These partnerships will provide students with opportunities for learning beyond the classroom and will lead to an elevated sense of civic and social responsibility.   Ongoing support and resources for faculty to design and implement courses will be provided to insure a transformative experience for all involved. 

Social Justice Programming

• To provide innovative Social Justice Programming that raises consciousness within and beyond the Roosevelt University community, and inspires the realization of social justice and human rights. Ultimately, our goal is to foster an expanded thought process focused on possibilities for transformation, through collaboration with individuals and groups engaged in the struggle to promote social justice and human rights.

 

Sociology professor receives Fulbright to study multiracial issues in South Africa • Read Professor Dalmage's blog Heather Dalmage, director of the Mansfield Institute, professor of sociology at Roosevelt University and an expert on multiracial issues in the United States, has been awarded a scholarship from the U.S. Department of State's Fulbright Program to study multiracial issues in Durban, South Africa in January 2009. Dalmage, who has written extensively about America's growing multiracial movement and the resulting shift in thinking about whiteness, blackness and racial politics, will travel to Durban, South Africa, in January 2009 to give lectures and conduct research on multiracial family members in post-apartheid South Africa. "My work will focus on determining how definitions of whiteness and blackness are shifting in South Africa. By understanding the experiences of multiracial family members we will be able to better understand the role of racial politics in post-apartheid South Africa and the workings of race in the processes of globalization. Racial production is clearest at the boundaries of racial categories," said Dalmage. Read more

Homeland: Photos by Nina Berman Feb 12-May 22, 2009 | Gage Gallery Roosevelt University's Gage Gallery is pleased to present the spring exhibition "Homeland - Photos by Nina Berman" - at the Gage Gallery, 18. S. Michigan Avenue, from February 12 - May 22, 2009. Berman's photos tell the story of post-911 America. The exhibition is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation, the Joseph Loundy Human Rights Project and the Department of Communication.

View the Spring 2008 Mansfield Lecture Video provided by CAN TV

Fall 2008 Mansfield Lecture: Katha Pollit Thursday, October 30, 2008, the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation presented its annual "One Book — One University Distinguished Lecture" with this year's writer, Katha Pollitt, author of Virginity or Death! And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time. The lecture was free and open to the public. Event details Originally published in The Nation, these essays showcase Katha Pollitt's keen insights and mordant wit as she skewers one hypocrite at a time from every side of the political spectrum. Copies available from the Roosevelt University bookstores and libraries. Call the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation for more information at: (312) 341-6484.