2021 Graduate College Distinguished Lecture: Canceling Student Debt is Anti-Racist (and Why We Must Do It)

Join the Graduate College and noted educator, journalist and scholar, Dr. Andre M. Perry, for this year's 2021 Graduate College Distinguished Lecture. Perry’s research focuses on race and structural inequality, education and economic inclusion. He will discuss how centering student debt policy around students of color would help to combat historic systemic racism that has prevented Black people and people of color from gaining the wealth they were denied for centuries. As a result, it is more difficult for Black Americans to pay back their student loans, acquire homes and start businesses. 

Following Dr. Perry’s lecture, he will sit down with special guest Dr. Battinto Batts Jr., dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University for a question and answer session to include questions from the audience. Questions for Dr. Perry can also be submitted in advance through your in-person or virtual registration.

The event is free and open to the public. The lecture will be livestreamed and limited in-person seating is available. Registration is required for both event formats.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Andre M. Perry, noted educator, journalist and scholar, is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Perry is nationally known and respected in the fields of race and structural inequality, education and economic inclusion. He is the author of "Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities".

Prior to Brookings, Perry worked in education in the Louisiana government, founded the College of Urban Education at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, MI, and was an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of New Orleans.

A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Perry earned his PhD in education policy and leadership from the University of Maryland College Park.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER:

Dr. Battinto L. Batts Jr., dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU, is an award-winning journalist and journalism educator with deep experience in philanthropy and nonprofit administration. As the school’s top leader, he supervises approximately 170 full-time and part-time faculty, 50 staff members and 2,300 students. He also oversees 13 intensive full-immersion professional programs as well as all undergraduate, graduate and online curriculums.

Batts holds a master’s degree in media management from Norfolk State University and a doctorate in higher education management from Hampton University.