Abstract: 
This presentation examined the trajectory of economic inequality in the United States over the past decade, from the gains of the Biden era–-tight labor markets that disproportionately benefited disadvantaged workers, and pandemic-era social policies that sharply reduced child poverty—through their rapid unwinding as benefits expired and inflation surged, to the accelerating retrenchment under the second Trump administration. Dr Newman outlined the social science research agenda demanded by resurgent inequality, before confronting the obstacles to executing that agenda in the current political and academic context in the US. 

About the presenter:
Katherine Newman joined the University of California in January 2023 as systemwide Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology at UC Berkeley and her B.A. in Philosophy and Sociology from UC San Diego. Provost Newman has held leadership and academic appointments at Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UMass Amherst, Columbia University, and the School of Law at UC Berkeley. She is the author of 16 books, the most recent of which is Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor. Provost Newman is working on a new project, in collaboration with Evelyn Bellew in the Sociology Department, on the campaigns to unionize foreign car manufacturers in Alabama.