Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture - Katherine S. Newman, Ph.D.
Renowned scholar and author Katherine Newman is best known for her richly documented, fine-grained portraits of the working poor. Her presentation "Failure to Launch? Delayed Departure from the Family Home in Western Europe and Japan" takes place here at the University of Massachusetts Amherst as part of the 2008 Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series.
Formerly Dean of Social Sciences at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Newman has also been the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Urban Studies in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and has taught at Columbia University. She is the author of eight books on topics ranging from urban poverty to middle-class economic insecurity to school violence. Her most recent (in collaboration with Victor Chen), The Missing Class (Beacon Press, 2007), is an analysis of the condition of the near poor in American society. With colleagues at the Indian Institute for Dalit Studies, Newman has recently completed work on four related projects on labor market discrimination.
In 2006, Newman completed a five-country study on the prolonged stay of young people in their parents’ homes in Western Europe and Japan, which is the basis of her Tay Gavin lecture and a forthcoming book. The recipient of several awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize and the Hillman Book Award, Newman appears frequently on public radio and television.
The Center for Research on Families’ Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series brings nationally recognized speakers with expertise in family research to campus each year. The forum began in 1999 though an endowment established in memory of Tay Gavin Erickson. The speakers provide public lectures, highlighting the importance of research on the family and its implications for public policy. CRF at the University of Massachusetts Amherst actively supports and disseminates social and behavioral sciences research on issues relevant to families. Newman's lecture is co-sponsored by the Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA), a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research and teaching center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.