Civil Rights in the Trump Era Teach-Out

In the next presentation, we'll be hearing the thoughts of sociology professor Sandra Levitsky on the legacy of the Cold War in the realm of civil rights.

Professor Sandra Levitsky’s research lies at the intersection of sociology of law, political sociology, and social movements. Her work considers the ways in which contemporary social welfare problems are changing cultural understandings of what types of social needs or interests ought to be protected as “rights” or “entitlements” in the U.S. context. Her recent book, Caring for Our Own: Why There Is No Political Demand for New American Social Welfare Rights (Oxford 2014), inverts an enduring question of social welfare politics. Rather than ask why the American state hasn't responded to unmet social welfare needs by expanding social entitlements, this book asks: Why don't American families view unmet social welfare needs as the basis for demands for new state entitlements? Her current research focuses on the case of state-funded preschool. By examining state programs that have “taken over” early childhood responsibilities formerly relegated to families and the private sector, the study seeks to understand why policymakers would want to engage in a visible expansion of the state in a time of increasing state delegation of social welfare provision to the private sector, and how such an expansion of public provision shapes American support for the welfare state.

You can read more about Professor Levitsky at her faculty page.