Intersections Book Discussion - Poverty, by America

All UR faculty, staff, and students are invited to join Intersections this Fall as we read Matthew Desmond’s book: Poverty, by America. We will begin with a discussion of the Prologue and Chapter on Wednesday, September 2, at noon.

Join us via Zoom: https://urichmond.zoom.us/j/87506113154?pwd=CDfWUsuXDjsGx98L0XVNVDFCq1PbDt.1

Desmond opens the book with a deceptively simple question: Why is there so much poverty in America?

Before attempting to answer it, he asks us to consider what poverty actually is. Chapter 1 pushes beyond income and the official poverty line to examine poverty as an experience of instability, physical pain, diminished choices and liberty, shame, and persistent scarcity. Desmond also asks us to consider how poverty intersects with race, housing, health, work, neighborhoods, and the criminal justice system.

Perhaps most importantly for where this book will take us, Desmond turns the lens outward. He asks whether understanding American poverty requires us to look not only at people experiencing poverty, but also at those of us who are economically secure and the systems in which we all participate.

For our first conversation, please read:

Prologue & Chapter 1: "The Kind of Problem Poverty Is" (pp. 3-23)

As you read, consider:

• What challenged or expanded your understanding of poverty?
• What do you make of Desmond's description of poverty as a "tight knot" of interconnected problems?
• What questions does the reading raise for you?
• How do you respond to Desmond's invitation for economically secure Americans to examine our own relationship to poverty?

You do not need to arrive with answers. Bring your questions, reactions, agreements, disagreements, and lived experiences. Our purpose at Intersections is to explore together, listen with curiosity, and make room for different perspectives.

For more information, contact Dr. Keith W. McIntosh at cio@richmond.edu.