Dear RSF: 

Please join us next Wednesday, May 29th, at 11 in the library and on Zoom for Guest Speaker Jamila Michener’s presentation. 

Michener is an Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University. She holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of Chicago and an AB in Politics from Princeton University. Prior to working at Cornell, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics(Cambridge University Press) examines how Medicaid–the nation’s public health insurance program for people with low income–affects democratic citizenship. Unpacking how federalism transforms Medicaid beneficiaries’ interpretations of government and structures their participation in politics, Fragmented Democracy assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.   

Michener is Senior Associate Dean for Public Engagement at the Brooks School Public Policy, inaugural director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures, and board chair of the Cornell Prison Education Program.