There is one reading specifically for the Thursday seminar that is available upon request.

Lois Weis is Distinguished Professor of Sociology of Education at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. She is the author and/or editor of numerous books and articles relating to race, class, gender, schooling and the economy. Her most recent volumes include Class Reunion: The Remaking of the American White Working Class (Routledge, 2004) and Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, race and gender in United States Schools (edited with Michelle Fine, SUNY Press, 2005). She sits on numerous editorial boards and is past President of the American Educational Studies Association.

URIEL LEVIATAN (Ph.D., Organizational Psychology, University of Michigan) is a past director of the Institute for Social Research of the Kibbutz and Professor of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has been a member of Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz for many years where he held various central leadership positions, including the offices of General Secretary and Finance Manager. His current research interests focus on organizational behavior and functioning, kibbutzim, and social gerontology.  He is the author or co-author of dozens of articles and book chapters, as well as three books, including Crisis in the Israeli Kibbutz: Meeting the Challenge of Changing Times (Praeger, 1998).

MARTA SOLER (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Professor of Sociological Theory and Director of CREA, the Center for Research in Theories and Practices for Overcoming Inequalities, at the University of Barcelona. CREA engages in research projects that contribute to theoretical and practical developments in the social sciences. It is chiefly concerned with the analysis of, and the development of measures aimed at overcoming, social inequalities in relation to gender relations, Roma people (also known as gypsies), migration, labor markets, and culture, among others. The author of Lenguage y Ciencias Sociales (2004), Professor Soler was a member of the research project “Workalo, which led to the European Parliament’s official recognition of the Romà in Europe.

JOHN ATLAS is the author of Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Anti - Poverty Community Organizing Group.  In this talk he will look at ACORN and anti-poverty organizing since ACORN’s demise. For over 35 years, Atlas has been a public interest lawyer, activist, radio talk show host, and organizer. Holding a law degree from Boston University and a master of law from George Washington Law Center, he is an alumnus of Columbia University and recipient of the Charles Revson Fellowship. John is founder and board president of the New Jersey-based National Housing Institute/Shelterforce (NHI), a national think tank that promotes concrete strategies leading to affordable housing, urban revitalization, and a more robust and engaged civil society.