Past Events

Meet the Mayors creating opportunity and prosperity in America’s cities.

Nine in 10 Americans live in metropolitan areas. These cities offer great opportunities, but they they also face grand challenges. Throughout Texas and the rest of the country, our cities require fresh ideas, innovative partnerships, and feasible and affordable policies to address growing challenges. Meet the Mayors series at the LBJ School brings together the Mayors building the cities of the future.

The Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs will be hosting an evening of conversation with author and journalist Keri Blakinger, as she discusses her new acclaimed memoir, Corrections in Ink, with LBJ School Professor Michele Deitch. This moderated discussion will provide a forum for discussing prison conditions, women in custody, and the potential for redemption among justice-impacted people.

Following the event, there will be a book signing.

About Corrections in Ink

Keri Blakinger always lived life at full throttle. Growing up, that meant throwing herself into competitive figure skating with an all-consuming passion that led her to nationals. But when her skating career suddenly fell apart, that meant diving into self-destruction with the intensity she once saved for the ice.

For the next nine years, Keri ricocheted from one dark place to the next: living on the streets, selling drugs and sex, and shooting up between classes all while trying to hold herself together enough to finish her degree at Cornell. Then, on a cold day during her senior year, the police caught her walking down the street with a Tupperware full of heroin.

Her arrest made the front page of the local news and landed her behind bars for nearly two years. There, in the Twilight Zone of New York’s jails and prisons, Keri grappled with the wreckage of her missteps and mistakes as she sobered up and searched for a better path. Along the way, she met women from all walks of life—who were all struggling through the same upside-down world of corrections. As the days ticked by, Keri came to understand how broken the justice system is and who that brokenness hurts the most.

After she walked out of her cell for the last time, Keri became a reporter dedicated to exposing our flawed prisons as only an insider could. Written with searing intensity, unflinching honesty, and shocks of humor, Corrections in Ink uncovers that dark, brutal system that affects us all. Not just a story about getting out and getting off drugs, this galvanizing memoir is about the power of second chances; about who our society throws away and who we allow to reach for redemption—and how they reach for it.

Speakers

Keri_Blakinger_Headshot_Color

Keri Blakinger is an investigative reporter based in Texas. She covers prisons and jails, criminal justice and injustice for The Marshall Project and writes Inside Out, a regular column published in collaboration with NBC News. She previously covered criminal justice for the Houston Chronicle, and her writing has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, VICE, the New York Daily News and The New York Times. She is the organization's first formerly incarcerated reporter. Her memoir, Corrections in Ink, published in June 2022. 

Dietch_Michele_Headshot_color

Michele Deitch holds a joint appointment as a distinguished senior lecturer at the LBJ School and the Law School, and she directs LBJ's Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL), a policy resource center focused on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody. She is an attorney who has worked for over 35 years on criminal justice and juvenile justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections administrators, judges and advocates. She specializes in independent oversight of correctional institutions, prison and jail conditions, managing youth in custody, and youth in the adult criminal justice system. Deitch co-chairs the American Bar Association's Subcommittee on Correctional Oversight, and helped draft the ABA's Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. Her publications include a report on the status of correctional oversight in the United States; a report about COVID deaths in custody in Texas; a report on COVID's effects on women in prisons and jails; and many reports on juvenile justice that have helped change the treatment of youth tried as adults.

On Saturday, September 17, the Polish Club at UT will host Radosław Sikorski, Former Polish Speaker of the House, Foreign Affairs Minister, Defense Minister, and current member of the EU Parliament, for a talk on "The Making of a European Union Military." The Clements Center for National Security, the Center for European Studies, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the McCombs School of Business Department of Business, Government and Society, Liberal Arts Honors, Texas Global and the Department of Government are cosponsoring this event. Join us on Zoom at 11:00 am. 

 REGISTER 

Radosław (Radek) Sikorski is a distinguished statesman with the Brzezinski Institute on Geostrategy at CSIS. He is also currently a senior fellow at the Center of European Studies at Harvard University. He was formerly Poland’s minister of defense (2005–2007), foreign minister (2007–2014), and speaker of parliament (2014–2015). Born and raised in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Mr. Sikorski led a student strike committee there in 1981 as part of the Solidarity movement. He graduated from Oxford University with a B.A. and an M.A. in politics, philosophy, and economics. He then served as a war reporter in Afghanistan and Angola. In 1988, he was awarded the World Press Photo for spot news. Mr. Sikorski returned to his home country in 1989. From 2001 to 2005, he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. As minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Sikorski was the Polish signatory of the Treaty of Lisbon, in 2007. Together with Carl Bildt, he launched the EU Eastern Partnership. He proposed and helped to set up the European Endowment for Democracy. He negotiated and signed the Poland-Russia regional visa-free regime, Poland-U.S. missile defense agreement, and—together with foreign ministers of Germany and France—the accord between the pro-EU opposition and Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013. In 2012, Foreign Policy named him one of its 100 global thinkers for “telling the truth even when it’s not diplomatic.”

For more information on this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

Save the date for LBJ School's Picnic on the Plaza! We'll celebrate Dean JR DeShazo's first year as dean and hear his vision for the future of the LBJ School; celebrate our 2022 outstanding alumni award winners; and gather together for an evening of fun and fellowship.

RSVP opens in September, invitation only. We can't wait to see you there! 

The 15th International Conference on Aging in the Americas (ICAA) Cognitive Aging in Mexico and Latinos Communities in the United States: Deconstructing Resilience is the 2022 iteration in the ICAA series focusing on aging and health in the Americas (CAA). The 2022 ICAA will focus on how cumulative and persistent structural social and economic disadvantage in the Mexican-origin population affects cognitive aging, brain health, and dementia.

The increasing prevalence of cognitive impairment and dementia, especially early-onset decline in the Mexican-origin population, increases the urgency of understanding the causes and consequences of cognitive aging for individuals, families, and society. The conference papers will address the following issues:

The meaning and theoretical and practical usefulness of the concept of resilience in understanding important aspects of cognitive aging.

Interventions that can be introduced earlier in life to increase cognitive reserve.

Ways in which cognitive research be enhanced throughout the life course and in later life? and

Identification of the cultural and social resources that can be mobilized to promote brain health and enhance the quality of life?

The 2022 ICAA Call for Abstracts is available here y para español aquí.

CLICK TO VIEW THE CURRENT LIST OF PRESENTERS. 

Speakers

Jacqueline_Angel_Headshot

Jacqueline L. Angel is professor of public affairs and sociology and a faculty affiliate at the Population Research Center and LBJ School Center for Health and Social Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. She did her postdoctoral training in mental health services research at Rutgers University and at the Pennsylvania State University Program in Demography of Aging. Her research examines health and retirement issues in the U.S., with a focus on older minorities, the impact of social policy on the Hispanic population and Mexican-American families. Dr. Angel is author/co-author/editor of 80 journal articles, 30 book chapters and 10 books. Her recent publications include Latinos in an Aging World, Challenges of Latino Aging in the Americas and Handbook of the Sociology of Aging.

Dr. Angel is a fellow of the behavioral and social sciences section of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and a senior fellow at the UTMB School of Medicine's Sealy Center on Aging. She has been honored with the GSA Senior Service Scholar Award and the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize. In Austin, she is a member of the President's Council at Family Eldercare and was a 2013 recipient of the Jackie Lelong Visionary Leader Award.

On Wednesday, September 14, the Asia Policy Program is hosting Katie Stallard, Global Fellow at the Wilson Center and Senior Editor of China and Global Affairs at the New Statesman, to discuss her latest release, Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea. This talk will be moderated by Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, director of the Asia Policy Program and Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, at Robert L. Patton Hall, RLP 1.302B at 12:15 PM. The Asia Policy Program is a joint effort of the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. 

 History didn't end. Democracy didn't triumph. America's leading role in the world is no longer assured. Instead, autocrats and populist strongmen are on the rise, and the global order established after 1945 is under attack. This is the phenomenon Katie Stallard tackles in Dancing on Bones, as she examines how the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea manipulate the past to serve the present and secure the future of authoritarian rule.

Russia has annexed Crimea, started a war in eastern Ukraine, and repeatedly massed troops on its borders. China has stepped up war games near Taiwan and militarized the South China Sea, while North Korea has resumed missile testing and blood-curdling threats against the United States. These three states consistently top lists of threats to US and European security, and yet the leaders of all three insist that it is their country that is threatened, rewriting history and exploiting the memory of the wars of the last century to justify their actions and shore up popular support. Since coming to power, Xi Jinping has almost doubled the length of China's World War II, Vladimir Putin has elevated the memory of the Great Patriotic War to the status of a national religion, and Kim Jong Un has invested vast sums in rebuilding war museums in his impoverished state, while those who try to challenge the official version of history are silenced and jailed. But this didn't start with Putin, Xi, and
Kim, and it won't end with them.

Drawing on first-hand, on-the-ground reporting, Dancing on Bones argues that if we want to understand where these three nuclear powers are heading, we must understand the stories they are telling their citizens about the past.

BIOGRAPHY

Katie Stallard is Senior Editor for China and Global Affairs at the New Statesman and author of the book Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea, published by Oxford University Press. She has written for Foreign Policy, The Diplomat, Asan Forum and others, and appeared as an analyst for multiple media outlets.

Previously based in Russia and China as a foreign correspondent for Sky News, she has reported from more than twenty countries to date, covering conflicts, natural disasters, and some of the world’s most repressive regimes. From Beijing, she reported extensively on North Korea, traveling to Pyongyang, the DMZ, and the China-North Korea border, and covering multiple missile and nuclear tests. As well as covering Chinese domestic politics, she travelled out into the disputed waters of the South China Sea and to the front line of the battle for the southern Philippines city of Marawi, where she reported under sniper fire from ISIS-linked militants. 

During her time in Russia, she led the channel’s coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, covering the Maidan revolution in Kyiv, the annexation of Crimea, and the subsequent conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Please join us for the University of Texas at Austin’s National Security Career Fair on Monday, September 12, 2022 from 10:00AM to 3:00PM at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center. This event is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin’s Clements Center for National Security, Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and Intelligence Studies Project, in partnership with Texas Career Engagement and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. The event is open to all UT students and the general public. 

Meet with federal, state, and private employers from the national security and intelligence enterprise. Learn about their missions and internship and full-time employment opportunities. Participating employers currently include:

• Air Force Office of Special Investigations
• Central Intelligence Agency 
• Consolidated Nuclear Security
• Defense Intelligence Agency
• Department of Homeland Security – U.S. Secret Service
• Federal Bureau of Investigation 
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Marine Corps Intelligence Activity
• Martin+Crumpton Group, LLC
• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 
• National Ground Intelligence Center 
• National Nuclear Security Administration 
• National Security Agency
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence – National Counterterrorism Center
• Office of Naval Intelligence
• RANE Network
• Sandia National Laboratory
• Strategic Insights Group
• Texas Department of Public Safety (Intelligence/Counterterrorism Division)
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• U.S. Department of State

        REGISTER        

*Registration is RECOMMENDED. Registrants will receive any updates regarding the event.

Please plan to bring resume copies and to dress professionally. Paid visitor parking is available at the Manor Garage, Brazos Garage, and the San Jacinto Garage. 

Questions?  Email:  intelligencestudies@austin.utexas.edu

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Shaun Harper, an eminent scholar of race, education, and equity in America. 

About this event

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at The University of Texas at Austin brings you a keynote lecture and conversation with Dr. Shaun Harper, an eminent scholar of race, education, and equity in America. Dr. Harper will reflect on the contemporary state of public education, the moral and political imperative to shape equitable policy solutions, and how the current crisis of education inequality offers opportunities for transformational change.
 

About The William C. Powers, Jr. Speaker Series

Honoring the memory of former UT President William C. Powers, Jr., this speaker series invites thought leaders to present research in American politics and public policy in reflection of his commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Speaker

Shaun_Harper_Headshot

Shaun Harper is one of the nation’s most highly respected racial equity experts. He is a Provost Professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. He also is the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, and immediate past president of the American Educational Research Association. He also served as the 2016-17 Association for the Study of Higher Education president, and was inducted into the National Academy of Education in 2021.

The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and several hundred other news outlets have quoted Dr. Harper and featured his research. He has interviewed on CNN, ESPN, NBC News, Black News Channel, and NPR. He also has testified twice to the United States House of Representatives and spoken at numerous White House convenings. Dr. Harper served on President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Advisory Council; on the national education policy committee for the Biden-Harris Campaign; and on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s statewide task force on education, racial equity, and COVID-19 recovery. The recipient of dozens of top honors in his field and two honorary doctorates, Dr. Harper has been repeatedly recognized in Education Week as one of the 10 most influential scholars in the field of education.

On Thursday, September 8, the Clements Center for National Security, the Clements-Strauss Asia Policy Program and the Clark Center for Australian & New Zealand Studies will host Charles Edel, the inaugural Australia Chair and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a talk on "A Plan of Pacific Strategy: The Future of Australian – American cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region." Join us in RLP 1.302B, Patton Hall. 

Charles Edel is the inaugural Australia Chair and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously taught at the University of Sydney, where he was also a senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre. Prior to that, Dr. Edel was a professor of strategy and policy at the U.S. Naval War College and served on the U.S. secretary of state’s Policy Planning Staff from 2015 to 2017. In that role, he advised the secretary of state on political and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. He has also been a global fellow at the Wilson Center and a Henry Luce scholar at Peking University's Center for International and Strategic Studies, and he was awarded the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship. He is the coauthor of The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order (Yale University Press, 2019) and author of Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic (Harvard University Press, 2014). Currently, he is working on a book examining the United States' history of dealing with authoritarian regimes. In addition to his scholarly publications, his writings appear in the Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and various other outlets. He is a New York native and former high school history teacher in New York City, as well as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Dr. Edel holds a PhD in history from Yale University and received a BA in classics from Yale College.

For more information on this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie at elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.

Join us for a community conversation about affordable housing issues and solutions in the Austin metroplex.

About this event

The RGK Center, in collaboration with Texas Grants Resource Center, invites members of the community to join in conversation about affordable housing issues and solutions in the Austin metroplex.

The event structure will be based off of the User Experience Fishbowl liberating structure where a subset of people with direct field experience can quickly foster understanding, spark creativity, and facilitate adoption of new practices among members of a larger community. Attendees are invited to participate in small group discussions and share observations/questions with the larger group.

Join us from 8:30 - 9:00 a.m. for breakfast and networking in the breezeway outside of the Briscoe Center. Programming will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the Hatfield Room. Parking is provided for all attendees.

"Fishbowl" Participants

Gabriela Garcia, Project Coordinator at BASTA (Building and Strengthening Tenant Action) - Gabby organizes and supports Austin renters in developing tenant associations so that neighbors can work collectively to improve the conditions of their homes and ensure that all Austinites have access to safe and affordable housing. Over the past 20 years she has worked in the nonprofit sector as an organizer, paralegal and advocate for employment, immigration, and housing justice. She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas where she helped open the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project. Gabby graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A in Psychology.

Wayne Gerami, Chief Operating Officer at Austin Habitat for Humanity - Wayne has an extensive career in the mortgage, real estate, and affordable housing fields, first working in mortgages at age 16. After a two-year stint with Austin Habitat as an AmeriCorps volunteer doing home repairs for low-income households in East Austin, he received his M.P.Aff. from the LBJ School at UT Austin in 2011. He returned to Austin Habitat in 2013 and has served in many leadership roles across the organization. As COO, Wayne leads the ReStore, Client Services, and HomeBase teams. He has been involved in the pre-development, construction, financing, and sale of hundreds of affordable homes in Austin and has worked on the leading edge of long-term affordability programs that are now replicated by Habitat affiliates across the state and the country.

Nora Linares-Moeller, Executive Director of HousingWorks Austin - Nora Linares-Moeller has served as the Executive Director of HousingWorks Austin since August of 2017. She became involved in the affordable housing world in 2013 raising money for the successful 2013 housing bond campaign. In 2014, she began consulting with HousingWorks. HousingWorks Austin is a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to conduct research,educational initiatives and advocacy around housing affordability.

Gregory Smith, President and CEO of Austin Revitalization Authority - Gregory L. Smith is a life-long resident of Austin, Texas, who has been involved with community development work for over thirty years. Gregory managed the Community Development programs for nearly eighteen years with the City of Austin prior to retiring from the city in 2005. During his tenure he was responsible for: the implementation of the East 11th and 12th Street Redevelopment Program, in addition to numerous development projects serving child care, youth, homeless, elderly and low-income families; preservation of historic resources; and, the implementation of several small business development programs focused primarily in the East Austin community.

As President and CEO of the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA), since 2009, Gregory has continued his community development work by carrying out ARA’s mission, which is “to engage in commercial, residential and cultural development that promotes community well-being, while respecting the people, institutions and history of East Austin and other underserved communities”. ARA has been and continues to be instrumental in the redevelopment of the East 11th Street corridor including owning and managing over 64,000 square feet of office and retail space on the corridor. ARA’s office is located in the historic restoration and two-story addition of the Herman Schieffer House, locally known as the East Room.