By Mike Greife,
March 15, 2016
WARRENSBURG, MO 鈥� Nationally acclaimed author Jonathan Kozol will be the keynote speaker
for the 2016 Politics and Social Justice Week, planned for the week of March 31-April
6 at the 欧美视频.
Kozol will speak at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, in Nahm Auditorium in the W.C. Morris
Science Building, followed by a book signing opportunity. Kozol鈥檚 presentation will
focus on the theme of Politics and Social Justice Week, 鈥淭he Global Dream: the Pursuit
of Life, Liberty and Equality.鈥� His presentation will be one of the more than a dozen
presentations and a forum scheduled throughout the week.
An advocate for low-income children and equality in education, Kozol鈥檚 work has focused
on the areas of inequality, poverty, race and education for all children. As a Harvard
graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, his work among young children started with the
American civil rights movement in the mid-1960s when he left an academic career to
become an elementary school teacher in a poor neighborhood of Boston.
鈥淒eath at an Early Age,鈥� his description of his first year of teaching in Boston,
received the 1968 National Book Award in Science, Philosophy and Religion. His additional
works include 鈥淩achel and Her Children,鈥� a study of homeless mothers and children
that received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and 鈥淪avage Inequalities,鈥� which was
a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.
His 1995 best-seller, 鈥淎mazing Grace: the Lives of Children and the Conscience of
a Nation,鈥� received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1996, an honor also bestowed
upon the works of Langston Hughes and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His book, 鈥淔ire
in the Ashes,鈥� describes the impact of 鈥渟eparate, but equal鈥� education on a group
of young adults he had known since they were children. In his most recent book, 鈥淭he
Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time,鈥� he details the descent of his
father, an eminent physician, into dementia.
Topics scheduled for presentation and discussion for Thursday, March 31, include 鈥淚ncome
Inequality, Mobility, and the American Dream,鈥� 鈥淗istory of Racism,鈥� and 鈥淔ree Speech
on College Campuses.鈥� Topics for discussion on Friday, April 1, include an open forum
with Rep. Denny Hoskins, and 鈥淕lobalization in the 21st Century.鈥�
In addition to Kozol鈥檚 keynote address, 鈥淢edia in the 21st Century-A View of Inequality鈥�
will be a topic of discussion on Monday, April 4. Presentations planned for Wednesday,
April 6, include 鈥淐uba in Review鈥� and 鈥淕lobal Religion and Its Impact on Poverty.鈥�
Bringing the week of discussion and examination to a close will the annual Oxfam Hunger
Banquet, planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Elliott Student Union atrium.
For a full schedule of Politics and Social Justice Week events, visit ucmo.edu/politicalscience/pandsjweek.cfm.
Politics and Social Justice Week at UCM is made possible through sponsorship and support
of the Department of Government, International Studies and Languages; Students for
Political Action; Department of Communication; Department of Sociology, Gerontology
and Cross-Disciplinary Studies; Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society; Student Government Association,
and the Office of the President.
