As part of the Political Science Speaker Series, Michael Leo Owens, a political science professor at Emory University, will give a talk titled "Making Police Shootings More Public."

Abstract: Over the decades, some fatal police shootings in U.S. cities, mainly those of young, unarmed Black men, sparked public outrage and protest. Their deaths raised questions of justice and kicked off contentious political debates about policing. Most police shootings in cities, however, are nonfatal shootings. They go unnoticed by the public, receiving little of its attention. Why? The absence of public data on police shootings. That also explains why Americans collectively know less than we should about the occurrences, locations and subjects of urban police shootings, and the police officers who use it. Dr. Owens will overview findings from a multi-city, multi-year, NSF-funded project to collect and make sense of original data on police shootings in large cities and argue why political science must pay more attention to police shootings, as well as policing generally.

Bio: Michael Leo Owens, PhD, University at Albany-SUNY, 2001, is Professor of Political Science at Emory University, with a focus on urban politics and policies. His books include God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America (University of Chicago Press) and Deadly Force: Police Shootings in Urban America (Princeton University Press). His peer-reviewed articles appear in a range of journals (e.g., Journal of Politics, Nature Human Behaviour, Urban Studies, Journal of Urban Affairs and Urban Affairs Review). Media (e.g., The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, National Public Radio and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee) have shared his scholarly insights with global audiences. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs, an international corresponding editor of Urban Studies, and editorial board member of Politics, Groups, and Identities and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and the City, as well as a former president of the international Urban Affairs Association. His awards include Emory University’s Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, SPSA’s Joseph Bernd Award for Best Paper Published in the Journal of Politics, and the Nelson A. Rockefeller College’s Young Alumni Award.