The City and Regional Planning Department will be co-sponsoring Mitchell Duneier’s visit to Cornell. Mitchell Duneier is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of “GHETTO: The Invention of a Place, The History of an Idea”, which traces the concept of the ghetto from its inception in the early sixteenth century. The book discusses the instances of reviving the ghetto through several different events, from the Nazis to present day. Duneier’s piece has gone to be recognized by the New York Times as ‘Notable Book of 2016’ and winner of the ‘Zocalo Public Square Book Prize’.
Mitchell Duneiner implores that we cannot comprehend race, poverty, and place issues in America without recognizing the ghettos of Europe and earlier manifestations of them in the country. Ghetto tells the perspective of several different scholars, activists, and professionals who try to dissect that understanding. It provides an assessment of several thinkers who have thought about urban poverty and the terminological usage of the word ghetto in the American context.
The lecture will be held on April 11th, 2018 at Klarman Hall. Sponsored by the Jewish Studies program, the event will also be co-sponsored by the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, the Cornell American Studies Program, the Department of Sociology, and the Center for the Study of Inequality. The lecture will be open to the public, with a reception to follow with Mitchell Duneier.