Watch: "Exploiting Identity: When Insiders Use Diversity to Their Advantage"
Speaker Series
The Meltzer Center offers an annual speaker series featuring leaders from academia and the public and private sectors on a range of topics relating to diversity and inclusion. Speakers for the 2022-23 academic year are:
- Loretta J. Ross, Professor at Smith College in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender and author of several books on reproductive justice. [October 6, 2022]. Watch the recording.
- Dolly Chugh, Jacob. B. Melnick Term Professor at NYU Stern School of Business and author of A More Just Future (forthcoming, 2022). [October 27, 2022]. Watch the recording.
- Suzanne Nossel, Chief Executive Officer of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (2020). [March 7, 2023]. Watch the recording.
- Heather McGhee, Author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (2021). [April 19, 2023]. Watch the recording.
Sponsors
The Meltzer Center is grateful for the support of our speaker series sponsors. This year's sponsors are:
| Corporates | Law Firms | Public Interest Organizations |
|---|---|---|
| Deloitte* | Davis Polk & Wardwell | Black Theatre United |
| Microsoft* | DLA Piper* | Catalyst |
| Morgan Stanley* | Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson | Coqual |
| Thomson Reuters* | Latham & Watkins | Earthjustice |
| Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | Legal Defense Fund (LDF) | |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | Out Leadership | |
| Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | ||
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | ||
| White & Case |
*These organizations are also Principal Donors to the Meltzer Center.
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the Meltzer Center’s speaker series, please contact David Glasgow at david.glasgow@nyu.edu.
Past Speakers
Speakers for the 2021-22 academic year were:
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. [October 13, 2021] Watch the recording.
- Jennifer Richeson, Yale social psychologist and expert on political and psychological dynamics of increasing racial and ethnic diversity. [November 11, 2021] Watch the recording.
- Katy Milkman, Wharton professor and author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (2021). [February 15, 2022] Watch the recording.
- Nancy Leong, University of Denver law professor and author of Identity Capitalists: The Powerful Insiders Who Exploit Diversity to Maintain Inequality (2021). [April 5, 2022] Watch the recording.
Speakers for the 2020-21 academic year were:
- Pamela Newkirk, Professor of Journalism at NYU Arthur Carter Journalism Institute and author of Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business (2019) [September 17, 2020]. Read about the event. Watch the video.
- John Sides, and Michael Tesler, authors of Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America (2018) [October 8, 2020]. Watch the recording.
- Robin Ely, Harvard Business School professor and renowned organizational behavior scholar on issues of gender inequality and work/family narratives. [October 27, 2020] Watch the recording.
- Jill Filipovic (JD '08). [April 8, 2021]. Watch the recording.
Speakers for 2019-20 academic year were:
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU School of Law [September 26, 2019]. Watch the video.
- Katherine Phillips, Reuben Mark Professor of Organizational Character at Columbia Business School, and Director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership & Ethics at Columbia Business School [October 29, 2019]. Watch the video.
- Dolly Chugh, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at NYU Stern School of Business and author of The Person You Mean To Be: How Good People Fight Bias (2018) [February 20, 2020]. Watch the video.
Speakers for the 2018-19 academic year were:
- Chai Feldblum, Commissioner at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [September 12, 2018]. Watch the video.
- Julie Fink, Managing Partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink [October 17, 2018]. Watch the video.
- Lauren Rivera, Professor at Kellogg School of Management and author of Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (2015) [March 5, 2019]. Watch the video.
- Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab [April 4, 2019]. Watch the video.
Speakers for the 2017-18 academic year were:
- Arlie Russell Hochschild, Professor Emerita at UC Berkeley Sociology Department and author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016) [November 6, 2017]. Read about the event.
- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court [February 5, 2018]. Watch the video.
- Chris Hayes, Emmy Award-winning host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and author of A Colony in a Nation (2017) [March 22, 2018]. Watch the video.
- Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University and author (with Anthony Greenwald) of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (2013) [April 12, 2018].
Speakers for the 2016-17 academic year were:
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court [November 10, 2016]. Read about the event.
- Brian Welle, Director of People Analytics at Google [February 15, 2017].
- Iris Bohnet, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and author of What Works: Gender Equality By Design (2016) [March 2, 2017]. Read about the event.
- Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund [April 21, 2017]. Read about the event. Watch the recording.
Other Events
To watch some of our other events, go to our playlist on the NYU Law YouTube channel.
The Meltzer Center is delighted to partner with groups at the Law School on events consistent with our mission. If you would like the Meltzer Center to co-sponsor an event with your group, please complete a survey.