LIU Brooklyn Panel Discussion to Examine Challenges Facing Latino Men and Boys in America - Friday

Social, economic and political challenges facing Latino men and boys in American society will be the focus of an interdisciplinary panel discussion at LIU Brooklyn on Friday, April 20.

Edward Fergus, Ph.D., co-editor of “Invisible No More: Understanding the Disenfranchisement of Latino Men and Boys,” will be the featured speaker.

Free and open to the public, the event will be held Friday, April 20, from

10 a.m.–12 p.m. at Kumble Theater. Limited seating is available with RSVP at info@kumbletheater.org.

Dr. Fergus, deputy director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University, will be joined by a panel that includes: Lester Young, member of the New York State Board of Regents; Gladys Carrión, Esq., Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children & Family Services; Dorita Gibson, deputy chancellor for Equity and Access, New York City Department of Education; Julian Johnson, vice president of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity; José Ramón Sánchez, Ph.D., a professor at LIU Brooklyn and board chair with the National Institute for Latino Policy; and Xavier Donaldson, Esq., Donaldson, Chilliest & McDaniel. Featured guests include U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

The panel will discuss and analyze the relational spheres of intervention that  influence the success of Latino men and boys, including community and parents, peer networks, pro-active mentoring, re-structuring education and a critical examination of the criminal justice system.

The event will stream live via a link on the LIU Brooklyn website, www.liu.edu/brooklyn.

About the book:

Latino men and boys in the United States are confronted with a wide variety of hardships that are not easily explained or understood. They are populating prisons, dropping out of high school, and are becoming overrepresented in the service industry at alarming degrees. Young Latino men, especially, have among the lowest wages earned in the country, a rapidly growing rate of HIV/AIDS, and one of the highest mortality rates due to homicide. Although there has been growing interest in the status of men in American society, there is a glaring lack of research and scholarly work available on Latino men and boys.

This groundbreaking interdisciplinary volume, edited by renowned scholars Pedro Noguera, Aída Hurtado and Edward Fergus, addresses the dearth of scholarship and information about Latino men and boys to further our understanding of the unique challenges and obstacles that they confront during this historical moment. The contributors represent a cross section of disciplines from health, criminal justice, education, literature, psychology, economics, labor, sociology and more. By drawing attention to the sweeping issues facing this segment of the population, this volume offers research and policy a set of principles and overarching guidelines for decreasing the invisibility and thus the disenfranchisement of Latino men and boys.