The Feb. 26 Conversations on Race and Policing will feature Paloma Villegas, CSUSB assistant professor of sociology, and Dylan Rodríguez, UC Riverside professor of Black study and media and cultural studies. Both are experts in a wide range of topics related to race, ethnicity, migration, colonialism, law enforcement and the intersection of these themes and others.

The program, free and open to the public, will take place at noon Wednesday, Feb. 26, on Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/csusb-race-and-policing-2025. 

Villegas was born in Mexico and migrated to California as a child. A first-generation college student and immigrant, she researches and teaches at the intersection of migration, citizenship, borders, race and gender. She is the author of “North of El Norte: Illegalized Mexican Migrants in Canada,” published in 2020.

Rodríguez has taught at UC Riverside since 2001, and he is a faculty member of the recently created Department of Black Study and the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He is the author of three books, “Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime,” "Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition,” and most recently “White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide,” which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

The Conversations on Race and Policing program began after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and its aftermath. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer, triggering extensive protests, demands for systemic reform in policing, and profound dialogues on race and racism. This also led to the inception of Cal State San Bernardino’s Conversations on Race and Policing, abbreviated as CoRP.

In subsequent court cases, three other former Minneapolis police officers implicated in Floyd’s death were given prison sentences.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 110 forums have taken place since, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

Upcoming programs, which take place at noon on Wednesdays (unless otherwise noted) include:

  • March 5, Madeleine Hamlin, Colgate University assistant professor of geography, whose work focuses on housing, policing, race, class, and punishment in U.S. cities. She is currently working on a book project, under contract with University of Chicago Press, “Policing the Project: Crime, Carcerality, and Chicago Public Housing.”
  • March 12, Keeonna Harris, CSUSB alumna and author of “Mainline Mama: A Memoir,” which recounts her experience as a “mainline mama, a parent facing the impossible task of raising a child — while still growing up herself — with an incarcerated partner."
  • March 13 (Thursday), Cat Brooks, activist, performer, organizer, and radio host of KPFK’s “Law & Disorder.”
  • March 19, Eric Avila, UCLA professor of history, who studies the intersections of racial identity, urban space, and cultural representation in twentieth century America.
  • March 26, Madeline Stenersen, St. Louis University assistant professor of psychology, and Cassandra Young, University of Denver assistant professor of gender and women’s studies.
  • April 9, film screening of “Breaking Barriers,” with Danny Murillo, co-founder of the Berkeley Underground Scholars, which  creates a pathway for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and system impacted individuals into higher education.

The series organizers currently include CSUSB faculty, staff, alumni, and community members, as well as collaborators from other institutions: Amber Broaden (CSUSB and CSU Dominguez Hills, psychology), Stan Futch (president, Westside Action Group), German (Brennan Center for Justice), Robie Madrigal (Pfau Library), Jeremy Murray (CSUSB History), Matt Patino (Crafton Hills College adjunct faculty and CSUSB alumnus), and Mary Texeira (CSUSB sociology).

For more information, contact Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Also visit the Conversations on Race and Policing webpage.