BY ZOLTAN HAJNAL Most of the calls for reform in the wake of Ferguson have focused almost entirely on the criminal justice system. That focus is certainly warranted given the specific events that spurred the protest. Moreover, there are many positive steps that President Obama’s new Task Force on [...]

BY DIANE WONG When the Ferguson protests began in August, I had open conversations with friends about the extent to which we should engage our own politics in the classroom. How do we navigate the classroom in response to Ferguson? How do scholars of color talk about Michael Brown’s death in a [...]

BY RODOLFO ESPINO There are many topics that can be discussed regarding the recent uprisings surrounding a grand jury’s decision in St. Louis County, Missouri. I will simply focus on the problematic issues related to policing our communities, policing our borders, and the intersection of the [...]

BY CHRISTIAN DAVENPORT As people around the world attempt to fathom what has recently taken place when US police officers shot and killed young, African American men, it is important to take a step back from the specifics of each situation and think a bit more broadly about what is involved. When [...]

BY ADRIANO UDANI, TYLER CHANCE, DAWNA WILLIAMS, and DAVID KIMBALL Many anticipated the public release of evidence that a grand jury considered in its decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson who fatally shot Michael Brown. Photos of Officer Wilson revealed no serious injuries. Yet, an exit [...]

BY A. RAHMAN FORD The Ferguson episode has been instructive in many ways. On the one hand, the protest and catharsis are inspirational and invigorating. On the other hand, there is also that residue of concern that it will become troublingly illustrative of a much larger malady plaguing post-Civil [...]

BY TERRI E. GIVENS The murder of Michael Brown has raised a variety of issues around policing, including excessive force, but perhaps more importantly, institutional racism. The initial reaction by police, to paint the victim as a “thug” or somehow violent has been a consistent theme in the [...]

Watch this space for reactions to Ferguson from scholars of race, ethnicity, and politics         Photo Credit: McGill Vigil for Ferguson (Montreal, 2014) by Gerry [...]