Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse

Join the Center for Racial Justice in welcoming Airea D. Matthews, acclaimed poet, educator, and Ford School Alumna, to discuss her latest work Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification, through a personal lens. This event is part of our Fall 2023 Racial Foundations of Public Policy speaker series and is open to U-M students, faculty, staff, and community partners.

About the speaker

Airea D. Matthews’ first collection of poems is the critically acclaimed Simulacra, which received the prestigious 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Matthews is also the author of Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification, through a personal lens. Matthews received a 2020 Pew Fellowship, a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and was awarded the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Matthews earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. In 2022, she was named Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College where she directs the poetry program.

The Injustice of Place

Join for a conversation with Kathryn Edin, Luke Shaefer, and Tim Nelson, the co-authors of The Injustice of Place; alongside Michigan Congressman Dan Kildee. Shaefer is the faculty director of Poverty Solutions at U-M, the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy, and a social work professor.

Released in August 2023, The Injustice of Place sheds light on America’s most disadvantaged communities, tracing the legacies of our nation’s places of deepest need—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse.

The book’s co-authors will reflect briefly on the book, followed by an armchair conversation drawing from Congressman Kildee’s own work to combat poverty in the city of Flint and beyond.

This event is open to the public, and people can register to attend in person at Weill Hall or to watch a livestream online.

Creating Green Energy and Equitable Enterprise in Detroit

Part of the Real World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions Speaker Series which introduces key issues regarding the causes and consequences of poverty through an in-person lecture series featuring experts in policy and practice from across the nation.

PSC Brownbag Series: The 2021 Child Tax Credit, housing affordability, and the living arrangements of families with low incomes

“The 2021 Child Tax Credit, housing affordability, and the living arrangements of families with low incomes.”

Access to safe and stable housing is important for child and adult wellbeing. Yet many low-income households face severe challenges in maintaining stable housing. In this paper we examine the impact of the 2021 temporary expansion to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) on the living arrangements and housing affordability of families with low incomes. We employ a parameterized difference-in-differences method and use national data from a sample of parents who are receiving, or recently received, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (N~20,500). We find that the monthly CTC is associated with a higher likelihood that parents reported a change in their living arrangements as well as reduced household size, an effect largely driven by fewer mothers living with a partner (and not a reduction in doubling up). We also find that the credit reduced parents’ likelihood of reporting potential moves due to difficulties affording rent/mortgages as well as the amount and incidence of back-owed rent/mortgages. We find some differences in effects by race and ethnicity and income. Our findings illustrate how the monthly credit allowed parents to gain residential independence from partners, reduce the number of people residing in their household, and reduce their past-due rent/mortgage.

Natasha Pilkauskas is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Pilkauskas’ research considers how demographic, social safety net, and economic shifts in the U.S. affect low-income families with children. Specifically, her work examines children’s shared living arrangements, economic insecurity among vulnerable populations, and the effects of cash transfers, such as tax credits, on low-income families. Much of Pilkauskas’ research focuses on early childhood, a time when poverty and instability are known to have long-lasting detrimental effects on children’s health and development, and when social policies have been shown to have some of the strongest impacts on improving children’s life chances. Pilkauskas holds a Ph.D. in social welfare policy from Columbia University, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A in Economics and Sociology from Northwestern University.

Join us in person at ISR (Thompson Street) Room 1430.

Or online: Join Zoom Meeting
https://umich.zoom.us/j/95418610585?pwd=Z0cvdkF1T0R2cG1lRDEvVmlnbVdlZz09

Meeting ID: 954 1861 0585
Passcode: 818420
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,95418610585# US (Washington DC)
+13092053325,,95418610585# US

The Injustice of Place book talk and alumni reception

Join the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs for a joint alumni book talk and reception with the authors of the book The Injustice of Place:

H. Luke Shaefer, Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan
Kathryn J. Edin, William Church Osbourne Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University
Timothy Nelson, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology and Lecturer of Public Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Leading scholars on poverty, the three authors will share key insights from the book, followed by a networking reception and book signing.

About the book

Three of the nation’s top scholars – known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America – turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America’s most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there.

This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, pouring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the “internal colonies” in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse.

The unfolding revelation in The Injustice of Place is not about what sets these places apart, but about what they have in common—a history of raw, intensive resource extraction and human exploitation. This history and its reverberations demand a reckoning and a commitment to wage a new War on Poverty, with the unrelenting focus on our nation’s places of deepest need.