Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University, will present a talk titled “Economy and Equity: Strategies for Cities and Massachusetts” on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. in Gordon Hall 302-304.
Bluestone is the dean of Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He co-founded the Economic Policy Institute and currently writes a blog called “Economy and Equity” for Boston.com. Along with the late Bennett Harrison, Bluestone is the author of The Deindustrialization of America; The Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America; and Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the Twenty-First Century. In 1995, he served as a special policy advisor to then House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt.
Since the early 1970s, Bluestone has researched, taught and written about the political economy, labor economics, urban studies and labor relations. His blog aims to make readers think about the connections between the economy and public policy in Massachusetts and beyond.
This event is hosted by the Center for Public Policy and Administration, the hub of interdisciplinary public policy research, teaching and engagement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The CPPA program is the 2011 recipient of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration’s Social Equity Award, created to honor a public administration, affairs or policy program with a comprehensive approach to integrating social equity into its academic and practical work.
Later this month, long-time women’s rights advocate Kim Gandy will serve as the 
Van Jones, a prominent environmental advocate and civil rights activist, will speak at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Thursday, October 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Mahar Auditorium.
On Oct. 1, Gretchen Gano will discuss her recent work in a talk titled “Hearing and Heeding Citizen Voices in the Global Governance of Biodiversity.”
Madeleine M. Kunin, former governor of Vermont and ambassador to Switzerland, told an audience of about 80 on Tuesday that it’s high time women were able to fully realize the goals that feminists set in the 1960s. And, she said in an upbeat message, achieving those goals is possible.
On Sept. 24, Joya Misra will discuss her recent work in a talk titled “Family Policies, Employment and Poverty among Partnered and Single Mothers Cross-Nationally,” regarding research conducted with Stephanie Moller, Eiko Strader and Elizabeth Wemlinger.
M.V. Lee Badgett will kick off the Five College Queer and Sexuality Studies Lecture Series on Tuesday, September 25 at 4:30 p.m. She will present a talk titled “Assessing the Case for Diversity: The Value for LGBT Workers and for Employers.” The lecture will take place at the UMass Stonewall Center, located in Crampton Hall.
CPPA is honored to host a talk by Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse on Sept. 27 at 4 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union.
UMass alumna 
In The New Feminist Agenda, Kunin highlights the advancements that feminists made in the 1960s and 1970s and shows how those have allowed for improved rights and freedom for women in the United States today: Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of college undergraduates and half of all medical and law students. Most women today work outside the home, and families with two wage earners are the norm. While women have changed, though, social structures surrounding work and family have remained static. Affordable, high-quality childcare, paid family leave, and equal pay for equal work are still out of reach for most women.