The Life Course Center brings together an stimulating group of scholars who are doing cutting edge research on issues of race, incarceration, stratification, criminal justice, youth, and the life course. The keynote speaker, Bruce Western, is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His books include Punishment and Inequality in America and Between Class and Market:
Postwar Unionization in the Capitalist Democracies. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.