Sociologist to Discuss Societal Impact of Poverty at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Timothy Black, associate professor of sociology and director of the University of Hartford’s Center for Social Research, will speak about his latest book When a Heart turns Rock Solid (Pantheon, 2009) on Wednesday, March 24 at 7 p.m. in Hogan 519.  Black will reflect on how society and poverty shaped and impacted the lives of three Puerto Rican brothers in Springfield, Mass.  The talk is free and open to the public.

Black’s research focuses on poverty, issues of race and ethnicity, social welfare, human service program development and assessment.  He has studied home visitation programs and fatherhood initiative programs to strengthen vulnerable families.

Selected by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2009, When a Heart Turns Rock Solid, is based on an 18-year study where Black followed three brothers and their families through encounters at jobs, school, and prisons.  He analyzes how outside forces including street life, GED programs, court rooms, drug treatment programs, and the struggle for employment shaped the brothers’ lives.  The brothers speak for themselves and provide a powerful voice to the pressures of living on the social and economical margins.

Herbert J. Gans, professor emeritus of sociology at Columbia University praises Black’s work: “This is sociology and ethnography at its finest: as graphic as a documentary and as spellbinding as a novel. In a time of wide¬spread economic troubles, Black reminds us dramatically of how much worse the permanently poor have it every day of their lives.”

The event is part of the Alexander F. Carson Lectures in American History.