March 21 | Humanitini: The Humanities and the Police [SP]

Join us for a conversation on how disciplines like African American Studies, History, Sociology, Law and Politics are being used as tools for training police. This panel features three local educators who are working with police in settings such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Anacostia Community Museum, and local college campuses.

What are the goals of these programs, and are they having an impact? How do they align with the overall mission and culture of the Metropolitan Police Department in a city where black residents are the target of more than 90% of arrests, but comprise just 47% of the population? 

Panelists
Bahiyyah Muhammad, Ph.D, of Howard University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology, teaches Policing Inside-Out: Building Trust Through Transformative Education. Launched in the fall of 2016 in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs in Police, this semester-long course brings together students, community members and law enforcement officers to engage in open dialogue about critical social justice issues. 

Christy Lopez, J.D., co-leads Georgetown Law’s Program on Innovative Policing and, in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department, helps lead the Police for Tomorrow program. This fellowship for new MPD recruits includes seminars on implicit bias, use of force, over-criminalization and alternatives to arrest, the history of the District of Columbia, youth, homelessness, mental illness and more. 

Bernard Demczuk, Ph.D., in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Academy, co-leads programs for MPD officers and civilian personnel at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and conducts a historic U Street walking tour for new recruits. With 60-80 employees trained each week since January 2018, more than 2,300 MPD employees have participated in the program. 

Discussant 
Ronald E. Hampton served as a Community Relations Officer for DC's Metropolitan Police Department for 23 years. As the former director of the National Black Police Association, he helped design and deliver community policing and problem solving training for public housing residents and oversaw an alternative community sentencing project. He has also assisted the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service, has worked with the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and has lectured at American University on criminal justice. He also helped develop an anti-racism and organizational change program for Amnesty International USA. 

Moderator
Natalie Hopkinson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Howard University’s graduate program in communication, culture and media studies and a fellow at the Interactivity Foundation. A former staff writer, editor, and culture critic at the Washington Post and The Root, she is the author of A Mouth Is Always Muzzled: Six Dissidents, Five Continents and the Art of Resistance (2018), as well as Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City (2012) and Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation (with Natalie Y. Moore, 2006). 

This event is free and does not require registration in advance, but it would be helpful to know how many to expect!