Meeting Topic: Dr. Ravi Perry, Chair of the Political Science Department at Howard University, will provide a briefing on the idiosyncrasies of American culture and society. Among the topics that may be covered: the meaning and mythologies of the “American Dream,” what a multi-cultural society looks like in the American context, gun culture, individualism, and the place of religion in U.S. society.

Meet Your Speaker

Dr. Ravi K. Perry

he/him/his

Chair, Political Science Department

Howard University

ravi.perry@howard.edu

Dr. Ravi K. Perry joined the Department of Political Science at Howard University in August 2019 as Chair and Professor. Previously, he was Chair of the Department of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and was a member of the faculty at Mississippi State University and Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Perry holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, each in political science. An expert on Black politics, minority representation, urban politics, American public policy, and LGBT candidates of color, Dr. Perry is the editor of 21st Century Urban Race Politics: Representing Minorities as Universal Interests, a book that discusses the efforts of African American, Latino, and Asian mayors to represent the interests of minorities in historically White cities in the United States. Currently, he is finishing a book that introduces the lives and campaigns of Black and openly lesbian and gay elected officials in the United States. Dr. Perry is Immediate Past President of the Association for Ethnic Studies and a member of the Executive Council for the Urban Politics Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. He is a former member of the Executive Council for the Sexuality and Politics Organized Section of the American Political Science Association and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Previously, Dr. Perry served as a member of the Board of Directors and Affiliate Equity Officer for the ACLU of Mississippi and was also one of the first openly gay branch presidents of color in the history of the NAACP in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Perry is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including being recognized as one of the Andrew Goodman Foundation’s 50 “Hero Citizens;” Out Magazine’s “Hidden 105,” and The Advocate’s “193 Reasons to Have Pride,” and “40 under 40.”

About the Organization

Howard University is a private university founded in 1867 by an Act of the United States’ Congress during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War. While it embraces persons of all colors, religions and creeds, its historical mission was the education of newly emancipated slaves and their descendants. Howard offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional curricula in 17 schools and colleges; its current enrollment is 12,000 full-time students. The University is ranked a level one research institution by the Carnegie Foundation, one of only 88 such institutions in the United States designated at this level. Among Howard's distinguished alumni are the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Nobel Laureate novelist Toni Morrison.