with Ruha Benjamin, PhD, Professor in the Department of African American studies at Princeton University as well as an internationally recognized writer and speaker

Viral Justice is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day. Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions.

Vividly recounting her personal experiences and those of her family, Benjamin shows how seemingly minor decisions and habits can spread virally and have exponentially positive effects in our healthcare, education, policing, work culture, and more. Of Viral Justice, Angela Davis writes, "As Ruha Benjamin narrates her life story, we come to see in detail how structures-carceral, racial, gender-affect individuals and communities and how, through small acts of justice, we can navigate these structures, prefiguring the world that we want and need."

Ruha Benjamin is an internationally recognized writer, speaker, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code and editor of Captivating Technology, among many other publications. Her work has been featured widely in the media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, The Root, and The Guardian.

After the lecture, we will host a book signing with Dr. Benjamin. We will have her latest book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want for sale.

Zoom Option

If you are unable to join us in person, you can join us on zoom. You must register in advance using this link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Calendar:

http://www.omsi.edu/sciencepubportland

Website:

http://www.omsi.edu