UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs launches new lecture series on social justice

The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs is marking the start of a new lecture series dedicated to social justice, public policy, urban planning and social welfare tonight with a lecture from Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree.

The lecture series is endowed by UCLA alumni Meyer and Renee Luskin, who made a $100 million donation to UCLA’s School of Public Affairs last year.

Meyer Luskin specified that part of the gift should be used to finance the lectures, said VC Powe, executive director of external programs for the Luskin School.

The lecture series, which is free and open to the public, is intended to help give UCLA students and faculty the tools to carry out effective projects for change, Powe said.

Powe said she hopes faculty and students will leave the inaugural lecture equipped with concrete strategies for social justice that they can apply in the real world.

In tonight’s lecture, Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree will speak at the California African American Museum in Exhibition Park about the execution of Troy Davis.

Davis was executed in 2011 in Georgia after being convicted of the murder of an off-duty police officer, despite controversy surrounding new and possibly exonerating evidence that came to light after he had been sentenced to death.

Ogletree described Davis’ death as “the latest example of sacrifice” in the history of activism for social justice.

His lecture will focus on what worked and what failed in the movement protesting Davis’ execution, and what can be done differently in the future.

The Harvard professor and legal theorist said he also plans to discuss the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chávez in the arena of social justice.

The UCLA School of Law’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy is co-sponsoring Ogletree’s lecture.

Kim Spencer, a social welfare graduate student, said she plans to attend the event.

“The material is relevant to what we study,” she said, “These issues of race and discrimination inform our practice in ways that are really foundational.”

Melissa Bersofsky, the Luskin School’s associate director of development, said she hopes that the lectures will create a dialogue in the Luskin School’s community.

“We want to showcase that the School of Public Affairs is a place where these kinds of discussions happen,” Bersofsky said.

Powe and Bersofsky are currently working to get high-profile speakers for future lectures on topic areas including but not limited to social justice.

The lecture series coordinators hope to host former U.S. Cabinet members and top-level economists for the series, Powe said.

The coordinators also said they want to figure out which speakers their audiences want to see hosted in the future.

“We want to know what people want to know,” Bersofsky said.