Dr. Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology, and African American Studies at Northwestern University is the author of the books "Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class" and "Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City", both published by the University of Chicago Press.
Lecture: Race, Poverty, and the Rise of Choice Policies
Dr. Matthew Gordon, Miami University Gives the Talk: Singers and Soldiers: Slavery in Early Abbasid Society
Brief Abstract: Individuals of slave descent led significant households in Baghdad and Samarra, the capitals of the Abbasid caliphate, the second great empire of the Muslim world. Elite singers (qiyan), properly considered courtesans, and officers (quwwad), men of Turkish/Inner Asian descent serving as commanders of the Abbasid caliphate's slave military, played prominent roles in society and politics. Both groups achieved significant social mobility and the established extensive, independent households.
