Mark L. Joseph, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

Our next-to-last Friday Lunch discussion of Spring 2007 features one of the big questions about urban renewal policy.

For years, the problems of the poor were addressed with programs for the poor. So, for example, housing programs emphasized providing units for the people who needed help most. Need was the primary criterion for priority to receive housing subsidies.

This seems eminently sensible. Unfortunately, the result was to create housing projects in which the residents were disproportionately victims (or, in some cases, perpetrators) of social pathologies that made managing the projects difficult and the odds that people who grew up in the projects would have a healthy start to their lives quite low. For about 15 years, therefore, analysts and advocates have sought to alter the demographics of public housing, creating more of a socioeconomic mix within the communities.

How is that working? Our Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences has a long history of involvement in these issues, with the late Art Naparstek being a nationally-known leader in housing policy. Mark Joseph joined MSASS this past Summer after completing his dissertation on this policy area, at the University of Chicago. He’ll lead our discussion this Friday. As usual, hot beverages from the SAGES café are kindly provided by the Office of University Communications, and cookies by generous souls.

This semester’s Friday lunches conclude on April 27 as Christine Cano, Associate Professor of French, and Vincent E. McHale, the Marcus A. Hanna Professor of Political Science, discuss the French elections.

Best regards,
Joe White

More About Our Guests

Mark L. Joseph is graduate of the University of Chicago, and joined the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences faculty as an Assistant Professor on July 1, 2006. Mark L. Joseph provides Mandel students with even greater opportunities for study in community development, one of the most important areas of study in the field of social work.

Mark L. Joseph earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, was a visiting scholar at Oxford University, and earned his PhD from the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy Studies. Dr. Joseph has a commitment to social justice and experience in community development in the context of social problems and the role of community in the lives of individuals and families.

Spring Semester Schedule

Beginning on February 2, the Friday Lunch will move back to Crawford Hall, in ROOM 9. Room 9 is within the Inamori Center, on the basement level of Crawford.

It is very kind of Bill Deal, Director of the Inamori Center, to make this room available on a regular basis. Thank you, Bill!

Room 9 seats 35, with a central table and also chairs along the wall. It should be a better setup than Guilford. If we expect a large crowd, we may be able to open a partition and join up with Room 11.

There will, however, be a class in the room until 12:20. Therefore it will not be possible to get there much before the lunch begins. On the other hand, people who are a bit early should be able to hang out in the Tomlinson food court. I believe the underground passage from Tomlinson to Crawford will be restored when construction is finished.

Coffee will be provided from the SAGES Cafe’. Which should mean very good coffee.

The tentative schedule of speakers, so far:

January 26: Phil (Perkins Professor of Physics-Case Western Reserve University) and Sarah Taylor, Wind Power and All of It’s Aspects – Environmental, Energy,  Economic, Aesthetic, and Maybe More.

February 2: Ken Grundy, Marcus Hanna Professor Emeritus of Political Science, on subject to be determined

February 9: Paul Schroeder, Visiting Lecturer in Political Science and from Families of the Fallen for Change, on what to do in Iraq

February 16: Mark Turner, Professor of Cognitive Science, on cognition and politics

February 23: Mel Goldstein, Professor of Anthropology, on why the Chinese are winning in Tibet

March 2: Susan Helper, Professor of Economics, on strategies for American workers within the current global competition.

March 9: Baiju Shah, President, Bioenterprise Corporation, on the new economic prospects in Cleveland.

March 16: Break

March 23: Mike Aronoff of Cuyahoga County on the evaluation of sexual predators for the courts―are they really dangerous, and can we predict if they will reoffend?

March 30: Lewis R. Katz, John C. Hutchins Professor; Director of the Master of Laws in U.S. and Global Legal Studies program at Case Western Reserve University, on the Ups and Downs of Running for Congress.

April 6: Horst von Recum, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Insoo Hyun, Assistant Professor of Bioethics; and Greg Eastwood, Interim President of Case Western Reserve University on Stem Cell Research.

April 13: Marixa Lasso, Assistant Professor of History: Drugs, War, and Coffee in Colombia

April 20: Mark Joseph, Assistant Professor, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences: Mixed-Income Development as an Approach to Addressing Urban Poverty

April 27: Christine Cano, Associate Professor of French, on the French elections (this date falls between the first round and the runoff election)

Parking: Normally 6 parking spaces are reserved in the CWRU visitors lot off of Euclid Avenue for the Friday Public Affairs Discussion Group lunches.