Social Justice

2023 EPS Conference: Social Justice and Education

In the past as in the present, educational practices, policies, and spaces have been closely entwined with both patterns of domination and movements for equity and justice. This year’s Education Policy Studies conference will explore the complex and contradictory ways that education can simultaneously create, exacerbate, and undermine structures of oppression. How are schools and education linked to historical and contemporary issues in political economy, metropolitan development, the justice system, families and neighborhoods, health and well-being, foreign policy, and environmental crises?  How have students, teachers, parents, and communities used education as a site and source of activism, to what ends, and with what consequences? To what extent can education serve as a tool for creating a more just world?

Meaningless Citizenship: Iraqi Refugees and the Welfare State

Dr. Sally Bonet is an assistant professor of Educational Studies at Colgate University. Bonet is an anthropologist of education who specializes in the study of forced migration and citizenship education, with a focus on Arab, Muslim, and African refugees. Bonet will discuss her book, Meaningless Citizenship, an in-depth ethnography of recently resettled Iraqi refugees in Philadelphia.

MLK Symposium – An Evening with Benjamin Jealous

Join in community for an evening with Benjamin Jealous, a social entrepreneur, changemaker, and former NAACP president. Jealous will reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through the lens of his work as a civil rights leader, former investigative journalist, and educator.

Let’s Talk: Housing Justice with DaMontae January

This fall, the Willis L. Jones Leadership Center is excited to host speaker DaMontae January from Madison Community Cooperative and Casa del Rainbow in Madison. DaMontae is the Membership Coordinator for Madison Community Cooperative and has been in this position since 2020. Madison Community Cooperative is a non-profit housing cooperative that has over 200 members living in 11 different houses in downtown Madison. It’s mission includes being inclusive and accepting of all different groups and providing low-income residents with housing opportunities. Casa del Rainbow which strives to help young LGBTQ+ adults to be their authentic selves through community building and education. They offer young LGBTQ+ adults housing opportunities in Madison as well.

How to Lead as an Ally

This program is FREE to all UW Students. It is an interactive seminar in which students learn about the importance of understanding the constructs and value of certain privileges, the characteristics of an ally, and the impact of certain privileges and how that impact defines us.