SESP/IPR Winter 2024 Distinguished Lecture: An Evening with Ruha Benjamin
January 23, 2024
ABOUT RUHA BENJAMIN
A highly regarded public speaker, Benjamin’s talks have focused on ensuring that AI does not deepen historical discrimination and that technological fixes don’t become substitutes for wider social change.
Benjamin’s research examines how advancements in science, medicine, and technology intersect with social issues. She’s especially interested in the link between innovation and inequality, health and justice, and the dynamics of knowledge and power.
Sociologist and author Ruha Benjamin, whose latest book argues that seemingly small efforts can help build a more just and joyful world, is the featured speaker for Northwestern University’s Nancy and Ray Loeschner Leadership Lecture Series and its Distinguished Public Policy Lecture Series at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Benjamin, the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, is known for her original research on race, technology, and justice. She’ll be in conversation with School of Education and Social Policy Dean Bryan Brayboy, a scholar of race, diversity, and Indigenous experiences in education.
The community-wide event is co-sponsored by the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) and Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research (IPR), led by sociologist Andrew V. Papachristos, who studies gun violence, social networks, and urban poverty and inequality.