PROGRAM

Public conversations about poverty and welfare, even today, rarely acknowledge the nexus between racialized gender inequality and the economic vulnerability of single-mother families. Felicia Kornbluh will gather with panelists to discuss this topic featured in her book Ensuring Poverty: Welfare Reform in Feminist Perspective. Professor Michael A. Lewis, of the Silberman School of Social Work of Hunter College will moderate the conversation featuring: Sanford Schram, Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center; Frances Fox Piven, author of Regulating the Poor and Poor People’s Movements; and Dillonna C. Lewis, Co-Executive Director of the Welfare Rights Initiative and lecturer in the Women and Gender Studies Department at Hunter College.

This provocative conversation will touch on the politics of gender, race, nationality and poverty, which have shaped the modern Democratic Party as much as they have shaped the GOP. This discussion will also explore the history and politics of welfare reform in modern America. The panelists will share new research, interpretations and their ideas for what political trends matter most for the future, and will encourage audience dialogue.

This event is cosponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Department and PhenomenalWomen at Hunter College.