Conversations on Race and Policing - California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB)

A conversation with Mac Muir, co-author of "Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing" (2025). Mac Muir was raised in Oakland, California. From 2016 to 2022 he rose to become a Supervising Investigator at the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. From 2023 to 2025, Mac served as Executive Director of Oakland’s Community Police Review  Agency. Book Description for Cop Cop, fr...

A conversation with Father Gregory Boyle , author of Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times (Simon and Schuster, 2024) Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 From the book's webpage:  In a world increasingly marked by division and discord, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle offers a transformative vision of community and compassion—a perfect message for readers of...

A conversation with Dr. Yelana Sims is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina . She earned her PhD from University of Massachusetts, Amherst in African American Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Public History; her B.A. is from Vanderbilt University in African American and Diaspora Studies.   From her faculty page : "A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Dr. Yel...

Join us in conversation with Gisela Perez Kusakawa, Executive Director of the Asian American Scholar Forum , and Mike German, formerly of the Brennan Center and the ACLU , and former FBI special agent. Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/csusb-corp2026 Our guests will discuss the so-called "China Initiative," launched in the first Trump administration. Of this effort, German wrote , "Ostensibly designe...

  Peggy Cooper Davis is John S. R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics Emerita at New York University . She joined NYU in September 1983 after having served for three years as a judge of the Family Court of the State of New York and having engaged in the practice and administration of law during the preceding 10 years. Her scholarly work has been influential in the areas of child welfare, const...

  Dr. Justin Randolph is Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M .   His recent book, Mississippi Law: Policing and Reform in America's Jim Crow Countryside (University of North Carolina Press, 2025) , examines how American police power shaped fights for Black freedom.    "In the segregated American South, policing was war. Rampant police violence came to the back roads and cattle pastures...

Join us for a conversation with two-time Pulitzer prize winning author and investigative reporter, Eric Lichtblau, who writes about national security and law enforcement affairs. Find his website here , and find his most recent book here: American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate (Hachette, 2026) . Lichtblau was featured in an extended interview on Jan. 7 on NPR's...

Tuesday, February 10, 1pm PST (3pm CST) Join us in the  Conversations on Race and Policing series for a discussion with author, Shannon Gibney, and scholar, Dr. Myrl Beam, two voices from Minnesota who have experience in movements for justice and can help us understand recent developments there including mass detentions and killing of protestors by federal agents. Veteran activist and artist, Cat...

Dr. Bocar A. Ba is Assistant Professor of Economics at Duke University, and Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He is an applied microeconomist studying law enforcement, crime, and inequality. His research examines policing as a critical entry point into the legal system, particularly for marginalized communities, and explores how different stakeholders—police, civilians, un...

In Conversation with Dr. Brianna Nofil (William & Mary), author of "The Migrant's Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration" (Princeton, 2024)   Thanks to Pfau Library, Project Rebound, and the Information Technology Services team for making this event possible!   Dr. Brianna Nofil is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at William & Mary .   Her recent book, The Migrant'...

In Conversation with Dr. Menika Dirkson (Morgan State), author of "Hope and Struggle in the Policed City: Black Criminalization and Resistance in Philadelphia" (NYU Press, 2024)   Dr. Menika Dirkson is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Geography at Morgan State University in Maryland. Dr. Dirkson is a Philadelphia native, and earned her PhD in History at Temple University. Find...

In Conversation with Dr. Stefan M. Bradley (Amherst College), author of "If We Don't Get It: A People's History of Ferguson" (The New Press Press, 2025)         Dr. Stefan M. Bradley is Charles Hamilton Houston '15 Professor of Black Studies and History, and is the Department Chair of Black Studies at Amherst College. This event will be hosted and moderated by Dr. Marc Robinson of the CSUSB Histor...

In Conversation with Dr. Rahim Kurwa (U. of Illinois at Chicago), author of "Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing" (UC Press, 2025) Dr. Rahim Kurwa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).   His new book, Indefensible Spaces: Policing and th...

Join us in conversation with Georgia State's Dr. Thaddeus Johnson , Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Reducing Community Violence to Close the Racial Gap in U.S. Imprisonment Drawing on a comprehensive analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice (covering 2000–2020), this session will offer an in-depth examination of racial dispar...

Join us for a discussion with Dr. Simon Balto (University of Wisconsin-Madison, History) . Find Dr. Balto's personal page here , and more information about his extensive scholarly writing and journalism. Dr. Balto's book, Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power (U. of Chicago, 2019) won the 2019 Hooks National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for So...

A presentation and discussion with Professor Alison Phipps (Sociology), Newcastle University, UK, on "Sexual Violence as a Pretext for Disposal: Rape, Race and Carcerality." Professor Alison Phipps is a political sociologist and scholar of gender with interests in feminist theory and politics, the body and violence and neoliberal racial capitalism. She has pursued these in various areas including...

Join us for a screening and discussion of "Breaking Barriers," a short film Danny Murillo , who is featured in the film and is a co-founder of the Underground Scholars at Berkeley will join us to discuss the film. Notes below from the film website , and find the Berkeley Underground Scholars Initiative here . "Breaking Barriers follows a group of system-impacted students at Cal-Berkeley who face s...

In Conversation with Drs. Madeline Stenersen (Psychology, Saint Louis University) and Cassandra Young (Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies; University of Denver) Join us on Zoom for a discussion with Drs. Madeline Stenersen (Psychology, Saint Louis University) and Cassandra Young (Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies; University of Denver). Drs. Young and Stenersen are experts in a wide range...

Join us for a conversation with Cat Brooks on the eradication of state violence and a pathway to true public safety. Cat Brooks is host of Law & Disorder on KPFA (link) and a long-time performer, organizer, and activist. She played a central role in the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, and spent the last decade working with impacted communities and families to rapidly respond to police vi...

Join us in conversation with  UCLA Professor of History and Chicana/o Studies, Dr. Eric Avila . Dr. Avila is an urban cultural historian, studying the intersections of racial identity, urban space, and cultural representation in twentieth century America. He is the current holder of the Waldo E. Neikirk Term Chair in Undergraduate Education at UCLA. After earning his doctorate at UC Berkeley, Dr....

Join us for a conversation with  Dr. Lydia Pelot-Hobbs (University of Kentucky, link). Recording Here "We Deserve Better": Contesting Racialized Sexual and Gender Policing This talk traces the New Orleans grassroots organization BreakOUT!'s "We Deserve Better" campaign (2010-2013) to reign in the everyday racial and gender profiling and state sanctioned sexual violence of the New Orleans Police De...

Join us on Zoom for a conversation with  author and CSUSB alum (Sociology), Dr. Keeonna Harris  about her new book,  Mainline Mama: A Memoir  (HarperCollins, 2025). Dr. Harris recounts her experience as a “mainline mama, a parent facing the impossible task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner."  Learn more about Dr. Harris here . From the  memoir publisher...

Join us on Zoom for a discussion with  Dr. Madeleine Hamlin (website) ,  Assistant Professor of Geography at Colgate University (faculty profile) . Dr. Hamlin's work focuses on housing, policing, race, class, and punishment in U.S. cities. Some of her writings can be  found at this link . In addition to her many publications, she currently has a book project under contract with University of Chica...

Join us in conversation with Chief Amy Barden (Ed. D) of Seattle's Community Assisted Response & Engagement (CARE) Program Learn more about the  CARE Program at its website here , and find  a PBS news item about the program and Chief Barden here . From the above news item: "The new CARE Department — short for Community Assisted Response and Engagement — was born out of the 2020 protests agains...

Join us for a discussion with Drs. Paloma Villegas (CSUSB Sociology)  and  Dylan Rodriguez (Dept. of Black Study & Media and Cultural Studies) . Drs. Villegas and Rodriguez are experts in a wide range of topics related to race, ethnicity, migration, colonialism, law enforcement, and the intersections of these and other themes. Series organizers (alphabetical) are Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU D...