The Laboratory for Comparative Social Research announces the next  regular seminar, which will be held in Saint-Petersburg (Sedova st., 55-2, room 303) on March, 1 at 18-00 p.m. Dr. Samuel Richards, Teaching Professor of Sociology, Penn State University; Dr. Laurie Mulvey, Executive Director, World in Conversation Center for Public Diplomacy will deliver a report “Racial and Cultural Relations in Trump’s America”.

Race relations in the United States are now more polarized than at any time since the late 1960s. Nearly half of all white Americans believe that blacks and other minorities are “more privileged” than white people, and black Americans are increasingly likely to refer to the United States as a “White supremacist system.” Both the rhetoric that people use and the actions they take to address race relations increasingly contain the threat of violence. Similar to what we’re seeing throughout Western Europe, there is a growing right-wing nationalist movement (the Alt-Right) and it is being counterbalanced by an increasingly intolerant anti-racist coalition on the left. Clearly fueling all of this is an administration in the White House that gains strength from provocation. As is always the case with sociology reality, however, the underlying factors and forces shaping these events are immensely complex. As the co-founders and directors of the largest university-based cross-cultural dialogue program in the United States, we have been having dialogues about race relations for the past twenty-five years. We are uniquely positioned to observe the shifts in narrative and beliefs over time and we will discuss what we are currently seeing on the ground.

Everyone interested is invited!

Working language is English.

Videoconference with Moscow office of the LCSR (Krivokolenny Pereulok , 3, room 3-333) will be provided. Guests from Moscow are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Tereza Tonyan (ttonyan@hse.ru)  by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Guests from St. Petersburg are invited to make a request for a pass to the building to Olesya Volchenko (ovolchenko@hse.ru) by 12 am of the seminar’s day.

Also after the seminar a videotape will be put up after the summary of the presentation.