On Friday, March 11, five members of the CPPA community traveled to NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service to attend the NYU-UCLA Social Justice Regional Dialogue.
CPPA Director Lee Badgett, Associate Director Satu Zoller, and students Christa Drew, Jennifer Smith, and Jeff Hofer joined representatives from thirteen other higher education institutions in a fruitful discourse on incorporating social justice as a core aspect of graduate education in public policy, social work, urban planning, public affairs, leadership, and nonprofit management.
Part of a larger initiative led by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and funded by the Ford and Kellogg Foundations, the event assembled faculty, staff, and students to discuss the importance of including a social justice lens as an essential analytical tool in public policy and administration training.
The event’s proceedings included speakers on social inequality and social change, exercises on innovative leadership for the public good, and small group discussions on the roles that faculty, staff, and students play in advancing social justice within their programs.
Participants took advantage of many great opportunities to make connections and exchange knowledge on a variety of topics such as curriculum, community engagement, and extra curricular activities.
CPPA’s participants emerged with new ideas and renewed commitments for supporting The Center’s mission “to realize social change and solve problems for the common good” through teaching and conducting research.
The Center’s five attendees developed an idea to host “social justice cafés” at which CPPA community members could congregate for larger inter-departmental conversations on social justice while enjoying healthy local foods. Thoughts about advancing plans for the concept are welcome!
A corresponding West Coast regional dialogue is scheduled to take place on March 28 at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. More information about the initiative can be found athttp://publicaffairs.ucla.edu/content/social-justice-initiative-0.