Alice Goffman

Alice Goffman is an urban sociologist.

TED Speaker Bio
"As an undergraduate studying sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Alice Goffman was inspired to write her senior thesis about the lives of the young people living in the historic African-American neighborhood that surrounded the school. She lived side-by-side with a group of young men in one of the US's most distressed communities, experiencing a troubling and rarely discussed side of urban policing -- the beatings, late night raids and body searches that systematically pit young men against authority... Goffman spent six years in the community, the work transforming into her dissertation at Princeton and then into the book, On the Run. In it, Goffman weaves groundbreaking research into a narrative amplifying neglected and often-ignored voices into a stirring, personal indictment of the social, economic and political forces that unwittingly conspire to push entire communities to the margins of society... Goffman is now an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a vocal advocate for change in America." – Source: TED

Talks

 * Alice Goffman: How we're priming some kids for college — and others for prison (March 2015)

TED Links

 * Just and Unjust: A recap of the powerful talks of Session 9 at TED2015 by Thu-Huong Ha, Kate Torgovnick May and Cynthia Betubiza (March 19, 2015), TED Blog

Additional Resources

 * Alice Goffman at Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison