Philly Leader

University of Pennsylvania Law School issued the following announcement on Nov. 11.

Prof. Roberts will draw from her forthcoming book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families — And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.

As part of the 2021-2022 Lecture Series on Race and Regulation, Dorothy E. Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, will present “Black Families Matter: How the U.S. Family Regulation System Punishes Poor People of Color.” The lecture will be held on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET via Zoom.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Roberts’ book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, a groundbreaking study of family regulation. Drawing on decades of new research, including her latest and forthcoming book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families — And How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, Roberts will examine in this lecture the fundamental racism of the child welfare system, which collaborates with law enforcement to police families in ways that disproportionately and negatively affect people of color. She will also discuss why this system of family regulation should be dismantled.

Roberts, an acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law, joined the University of Pennsylvania as its 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She is also the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies.

The Race and Regulation Lecture Series is organized by the Penn Program on Regulation and co-sponsored by the Law School’s Office of Equity and Inclusion as part of the “Achieving Racial Justice” colloquium launched last year. This lecture is also co-sponsored by The Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Original source can be found here.