UCLA (Audio)

D'Artagnan Scorza wears many hats - from lecturer in the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA to Founder and Executive Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute, a non-profit organization that works to help communities achieve health and educational equity. D'Artagnan talks about his life journey and the meaningful work that he is doing in his own backyard and across the country to empower people and communities to thrive. Series: "LiveWell" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 35690]

UCLA history professor Brenda Stevenson studies slavery and the Antebellum South, some of our country’s most painful moments and eras. Because there is not much in the way of documentary evidence of the lives of women of color, enslaved women and women from the South, Stevenson must work as an investigator to discover their inner lives and experiences. This is often done through stories told through the age, some of which she shares in this UCLA Faculty Lecture. Series: "UCLA Faculty Research Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 35126]

This panel discussion features former elected officials, legal and political experts discussing the role of late UCLA professor Leo Estrada in redistricting in California. They say Estrada's work was integral ensuring people of color achieved equal representation in the legislature. Not only was his expertise and data collection essential in understanding the makeup of California communities, but it also proved invaluable in recruiting the best candidates to represent those communities. Series: "American Politics" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 34994]

Quality data is paramount to ensuring equal representation. If we don’t know who is living in our communities, we can’t create and maintain the systems needed to care for and support those people. In this panel discussion, experts on data collection, Chicano studies and urban planning discuss the challenges of getting good data, and how to turn data into action. This panel was part of a day long symposium celebrating the life and legacy of Leo Estrada, who spent 40-years at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA. Series: "American Politics" [Public Affairs] [Education] [Show ID: 34993]

The history of the U.S. census is riddled with examples of efforts to exclude immigrants and minorities. Arturo Vargas, president and CEO of the NALEO Educational Fund discusses that history, and the ongoing fight to make sure everyone living in the country is counted fairly and accurately. Vargas focuses much of his talk on the controversial proposal to require undocumented immigrants to identify themselves, which he calls a scare tactic aimed at decreasing representation in Washington. He details other challenges ahead, and what must be done to overcome them. Series: "Immigration" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 34954]

Higher education has long lacked diversity. This panel of academics, who crossed path with late UCLA professor Leo Estrada at various points in their lives, discusses the lessons learned from his unique form of mentorship. They explain how making it in academia can be especially difficult for people from underrepresented communities, and how Estradas methods could be used to help get more students from those communities through higher education. Series: "Education Policy" [Public Affairs] [Education] [Show ID: 34995]

For four decades, UCLA’s Stephanie Jamison has been somewhat defiantly seeking the stories of women among some of the oldest texts in the world. Jamison shares some of what she has unearthed, the names and stories of women we have likely never heard of before. Jamison’s expertise lies in Indo-Iranian, especially Sanskrit and middle Indo-Aryan languages with an emphasis on linguistics, literature and poetics, religion and law, mythology and ritual, and gender. Series: "UCLA Faculty Research Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 34409]

This panel explores the relevance of race, citizenship, immigration status, and community context in explaining lethal violence and criminal case outcomes, both currently and historically. Drawing from a variety of data sources and employing a wide range of analytical approaches, the panel illuminates largely overlooked and underappreciated racially-contingent micro- and meso-level processes and their enduring consequences for Latinx defendants, Latinx victims, and Latinx communities. Moderator: Alicia Virani, UCLA School of Law. Panelists: Klara Stephens, University of Michigan Law School/ National Registry of Exonerations; Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Jeffrey Ulmer, Penn State; Ramiro Martinez, Northeastern University Series: "Immigration" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 34539]

This panel explores how statewide direct democracy measures, including ballot initiatives, have propelled affirmative criminal justice reforms in jurisdictions with large Latinx populations. Panelists discuss the ways in which Latinx people were and were not meaningfully incorporated into the campaigns and subsequent implementation efforts for Florida’s Amendment 4, California’s Propositions 47 and 57, and a handful of drug referendums. This discussion focuses on lessons learned and highlight best practices as they relate to the ballot box and criminal justice reform. Ultimately, this discussion informs the capacity for meaningful reforms to integrate the needs of the Latinx community, including the potential for scale in other jurisdictions with large Latinx populations, like Arizona. Moderator: Sonja Diaz, UCLA Luskin School of Public Policy. Panelists: Tomas Robles, LUCHA; Juan Cartagena, LatinoJustice PRDLEF; Marisa Arrona, Californians for Safety and Justice. Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium " [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 34538]

This panel focuses on questions surrounding the influence of race and ethnicity on the imposition of capital punishment. The Supreme Court struck down unitary standardless capital punishment statutes in the early 1970s. Only a few years later the Court upheld two forms of bifurcated, more structured death penalty statutes relying in part on an assumption that the narrowing required by such statutes would eliminate the influence of racial bias. None of the cases considered the possibility of racial bias against any group other than African Americans. This panel examines the evidence that racial and ethnic bias continues to influence the imposition of the death penalty under modern statutes. Moderator: Devon Carbado, UCLA and Harry Pregerson, UCLA Schoolof Law; Sheri Lynn Johnson,Cornell Law School; Martin Urbina, Sul Ross State University; Catherine Grosso, Michigan State University College of Law. Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium " [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 34540]