Brown University faculty members will reflect on the impact of George Floyd’s death and the broader issues of policing, race, and social justice.

• Jonathan E. Collins, Assistant Professor of Education
• Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, Associate Professor of Sociology
• Bonnie Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Political Science
• Brandon DL Marshall, Associate Professor of Epidemiology
• Emily Owens, David and Michelle Ebersman Assistant Professor of History

• Donnell A. Williamson, Jr., Ph. D. student, Religious Studies

Please register to attend. Open to members of the Brown University community. 
 

Panelist Bios

Jonathan E. Collins is an Assistant Professor of Education and Political Science (by courtesy). His research focuses on urban school reform, local politics, race and ethnicity, civic engagement, and deliberative democracy. His research has been published or is forthcoming in the American Political Science Review, the Peabody Journal of Education, Political Behavior, the Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and Local Government Studies.

Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Brown University and an affiliated scholar with the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, IL. She is the author of the acclaimed book, Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America’s Largest Criminal Court, which is the winner of 11 awards or finalist distinctions for its contribution to the areas of sociology, law, criminal justice, and media. She is the winner of her discipline’s highest book honor, The American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Book Prize as well as an NAACP Image Award Finalist in the category of “Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author.” Her new book, The Waiting Room, is part of the series The Southside from Amazon Original Stories and is a collaboration with the Pulitzer Prize–winning team at The Marshall Project.

Bonnie Honig is Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Modern Culture and Media (MCM) and Political Science at Brown University, and (by courtesy) religious studies (RS) and theater and performance studies (TAPS). She is the author of several books, most recently: A Feminist Theory of Refusal (Harvard, 2021) and Shellshocked: Feminist Criticism After Trump (Fordham 2021).

Brandon DL Marshall is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. He is also founding director of the People, Place & Health Collective at Brown University. He received a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. In 2011, he completed postdoctoral training at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Professor Marshall focuses on substance use epidemiology, with a specific emphasis on harm reduction research and overdose prevention. His team evaluates programs and policies that aim to improve the health and well-being of people who use drugs. He has published more than 275 scientific publications and three book chapters. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2016 Early Career Award from the Society for Epidemiologic Research, and the 2019 Early Career Public Health Research Award from the Association of Schools & Programs of Public Health.

He has served on numerous task forces to address the nation’s overdose crisis and is an ad hoc member of the FDA drug safety and risk management advisory committee. Professor Marshall also serves as an expert advisor to the Rhode Island Governor’s Overdose Prevention & Intervention Task Force.

Emily Owens is the David and Michelle Ebersman Assistant Professor of History at Brown University and works on histories of race, gender and sexuality. Her first book, The Fantasy of Consent: Violence and Survival in Antebellum New Orleans surfaces the survival strategies of women of color whose lives were bound by sexual labor under slavery, and is forthcoming from the University of North Carolina Press. Her work has appeared in Louisiana History, Feminist Formations, The Black Scholar, differences, and Signs: Journal of Women, Culture and Society. In addition to her appointment in history, Owens also acts as a faculty fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.

Donnell A. Williamson, Jr. is a Ph.D. student in Religion and Critical Thought at Brown University. His scholarship focuses on both modern religious thought and historical philosophy. His primary research interests include philosophy of religion, religion and politics, and African American religious traditions with an emphasis on the intellectual histories of Søren Kierkegaard and Frederick Douglass. Donnell’s research examines the realities of death and despair in relation to Christianity’s various, often disparate, ethical dispositions. He holds a B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College and an M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing tennis, and listening to music.