2018
|
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Stephen J. Trejo, Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin
Olin, Room 102 4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5 We document generational patterns of educational attainment and earnings for contemporary immigrant groups. We also discuss some potentially serious measurement issues that arise when attempting to track the socioeconomic progress of the later-generation descendants of U.S. immigrants, and we summarize what recent research has to say about these measurement issues and how they might bias our assessment of the long-term integration of particular groups. Most national origin groups arrive with relatively high educational attainment and/or experience enough improvement between the first and second generations such that they quickly meet or exceed, on average, the schooling level of the typical American. Several large and important Hispanic groups (including Mexicans and Puerto Ricans) are exceptions to this pattern, however, and their prospects for future upward mobility are subject to much debate. Because of measurement issues and data limitations, Mexican Americans in particular and Hispanic Americans in general probably have experienced significantly more socioeconomic progress beyond the second generation than available data indicate. Even so, it may take longer for their descendants to integrate fully into the American mainstream than it did for the descendants of the European immigrants who arrived near the turn of the twentieth century. |
|
Monday, September 17, 2018
Thomas A. Guglielmo, Associate Professor of American Studies, George Washington University
Olin, Room 102 4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Anyone with a passing knowledge of the World War II–era U.S. military likely knows that it was segregated. Less well known, surprisingly, is who was segregated from whom, exactly, and how the military made these decisions. Neither was simple or straightforward. My talk will explore a long-forgotten chapter of this larger story: the fraught and complex struggle over inductees’ “proper” racial classification and placement in the segregated World War II–era military. Drawing on a variety of federal records from the army, the Selective Service System, and the courts, I trace the stories of an eclectic mix of Americans —Waccamaw Siouans, Chickahomines, Creoles, Puerto Ricans, Cape Verdeans—who fit neatly into neither of the military's catchall categories of “white” and “colored.” In the process, I shed light on the evolving meaning and boundaries of race—from official state policy down to ordinary people’s attitudes and actions. |
|
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Olin, Room 102 4:45 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Based on demographic projections, most Americans believe that their society will transition soon to a majority-minority one. But the projections fail to adequately account for a major social and demographic phenomenon of the early 21st century: the rise of a group of young Americans with mixed minority-white ancestry. In a departure from the one-drop regime of past racism, these individuals appear to be growing up in mixed family settings, but because of the binary, zero-sum rigidities that still guide our thinking, they are mostly classified as minorities in demographic data. Without this classification, however, the emergence of a majority-minority society in the foreseeable future is far from certain. Moreover, the evidence we possess about the characteristics, social affiliations, and identities of mixed individuals contradicts an exclusively minority classification, except for partly black individuals, who suffer from high levels of racism. Taking into account the ambiguous social locations of most mixed minority-white persons, I suggest that, even should a majority-minority society appear, it will not look like we presently imagine it. |
|
Friday, April 6, 2018 Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium 10:00 am – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Speakers include: Kevin Duong (Bard) David Kettler (Bard) Zak Rawle (Bard) Jane Glaubman (Cornell) Joseph Sheehan (Bard) Simon deBevoise (Bard) Zeke Perkins (SEIU) Ed Quish (Cornell) Maggie Dickinson (CUNY) Joy Al-Nemri (Bard) Ella McLeod (Bard) Laura Ford (Bard) Holger Droessler (Bard) |
|
Thursday, April 5, 2018 Staff Attorney, Special Litigation Unit Legal Aid Society Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium 4:40 pm – 6:00 pm EST/GMT-5 Governments have swiftly embraced automated decisions about policing and criminal justice despite very little evidence that these tools are fair or accurate. We will survey the various stakeholders investing in, using, and subject to these tools, as well as the types of decisions that are being automated, and examine how these tools are created. The discussion will then move to the training data that these tools are built on, how human bias gets baked into the automation, and how competing stakeholders’ definitions of fairness struggle to define success. |