Featuring john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, in conversation with Aspen Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield. Their talk will explore the newly published Structural Racism Remedies Repository, an archive of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism and advancing racial equity.
john a. powell (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify”) is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy. He is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute that brings together scholars, community advocates, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world. john has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism, racial justice, concentrated poverty, opportunity-based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
Dan Portfield, Ph.D., is president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He previously served for seven years as president of Franklin & Marshall College. Earlier in his career, he was senior vice president for strategic development and an English professor at his alma mater, Georgetown University, and a senior public affairs official in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Recognized as a visionary leader and advocate for expanding educational opportunity and improving the human condition, Dr. Porterfield was named a White House Champion of Change in 2016. He was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities from The City University of New York Graduate Center, where he earned his PhD.
