Labor Café: Confronting the Racial Wealth Gap in the USA

Friday, April 19, at 5 pm
Geddes Hall, McNeill Library

The Labor Café will host a special session on April 19 in collaboration with the Notre Dame Initiative on Race and Resilience. The conversation will focus on “Confronting the Racial Wealth Gap in the USA” with guest Maliq Matthew, Ph.D.

Dr. Matthew is a sociologist and a financial services professional. Born and raised in New York City’s South Bronx community, he turned to sociology to critically examine the racial and socioeconomic inequality that he experienced growing up in the poorest community in the United States. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science at the City University of New York’s Lehman College in 2005 and his Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University in 2012. He was previously a faculty member in the sociology department at the University of Cincinnati with research specializations in race, social stratification, and social mobility, and has published in journals such as Sociology of Education, Social Currents, and Race & Ethnicity. Turning to a new career path during the recent pandemic, Dr. Matthew has worked full time in the financial services industry since 2021. He is a founding steering committee member for the American Sociological Association-based Sociologists Working Everywhere community and advocates for the relevance of the sociological imagination to professions both within academia and beyond.

The Labor Café convenes the Notre Dame community for casual conversation on contemporary questions about work, workers, and workplaces. What rights and protections should those who work for others have? What’s the proper role for government in the economy? How should we address enduring problems of inequality, poverty, and lack of opportunity? And what does Catholic social tradition have to say about these labor questions? Participants choose the concrete topics, all people are welcome, and all opinions are entertained.