The Faces of Poverty in North Carolina with Gene Nichol

Odum Institute 95th Anniversary Speaker Series
 
 
In honor of our 95th anniversary, the Odum Institute is organizing a speaker series to highlight the interdisciplinary impacts of social science research. As part of this series, Professor Gene Nichol will hold a talk about the research behind his book The Faces of Poverty in North Carolina: Stories from Our Invisible Citizens, followed by a Q&A session. Refreshments will be provided.

From the UNC Press description:

“Since 2012, Gene R. Nichol has traveled the length of North Carolina, conducting hundreds of interviews with poor people and those working to alleviate the worst of their circumstances. Here their voices challenge all of us to see what is too often invisible, to look past partisan divides and preconceived notions, and to seek change. Only with a full commitment as a society, Nichol argues, will we succeed in truly ending poverty, which he calls our greatest challenge.”
 

Bio:

Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina. He was director of the UNC Poverty Center (2008-2015) until it was closed by the Board of Governors for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly. Nichol was president of the College of William & Mary (2005-2008), law dean at the University of Colorado (1988-1995), and dean at UNC from 1999-2005.
 
Nichol is author of THE FACES OF POVERTY IN NORTH CAROLINA: Stories From Our Invisible Citizens (UNC Press, 2018); FEDERAL COURTS (West, 2015, with Marshall & Wells); and (co-author) WHERE WE STAND: Voices of Southern Dissent (NewSouth, 2004). He’s published articles in the Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Duke, California, and Virginia law reviews. He has been a political columnist for the Rocky Mountain News and hosted a public affairs television show, Culture Wars, for KBDI in Denver. He’s been an columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer for fifteen years and writes frequently for The Progressive Populist. He has also written for The Nation and the Washington Post. He is executive producer of the documentary, “A Generation of Change: Bill Friday, Terry Sanford and North Carolina” (UNC-TV, 2016).
 
In 2003, Nichol received the ABA’s Edward Finch Award for delivering the nation’s best Law Day address. In 2004, he was named Carolina’s pro bono professor of the year. The next year, he was inducted into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor; and Equal Justice Works named him Pro Bono Dean of the year. In 2008, he received Oklahoma State University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award; the “Courage to do Justice Award” from the National Employment Lawyers Association; and the Thomas Jefferson Award for defense of religious liberty from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. In 2013, the NC Council of Churches gave Nichol its Faith Active in Public Life Award; the NC-ACLU named him its W.W. Finlator Award winner; and UNC gave him its Thomas Jefferson Award – the university’s highest faculty honor. In 2014, he received the McCall Teaching Award from the UNC Law School and the University of Colorado’s Joanne Arnold award for courage in defense of civil liberty. In 2018 Nichol was invited by the faculty of the University of Michigan to give the annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Academic Freedom Lecture.