William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard, will speak on “Race and Inequality in Urban America” at 7p.m. Sunday (Jan. 27) in Room 101 DeBartolo Hall.
Wilson, a sociologist and author of the book, “There Goes the Neighborhood,” will address some 250 Notre Dame students who spent part of their winter break on an Urban Plunge studying the causes of urban poverty while living with the urban poor. His lecture will particularly concern the proposals made by the 2008 presidential candidates to combat poverty in America.
Wilson is one of only 19 University Professors, the highest professional distinction for Harvard faculty. After earning a doctoral degree from Washinton State University in 1966, he taught sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Chicago before joining the Harvard faculty in 1996. He has received 42 honorary degrees and was selected by Time magazine in 1996 as one of America’s 25 most influential people.
Wilson’s lecture is a component of the 25th anniversary celebration of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. Since 1983, more than 17,000 students have participated in the center’s service-learning courses, and more than 6,000 of these students have participated in the Urban Plunge program. The center also provides community-based research and service opportunities for Notre Dame students and in recent years has been ranked among the top 25 service-learning and community-based research programs in the nation.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is cosponsored by the Poverty Studies interdisciplinary minor and the Department of Economics and Policy Studies.
Contact: Bill Purcell at 574-631-9473 or wpurcell@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 22, 2008.