Boswell events - Tim Cullen on Janesville, and Paul Florsheim, in conversation with Taran Powell

Here's what's happening at Boswell next week.

Wednesday, February 12, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Tim Cullen, author of Disassembled: A Native Son on Janesville and General Motors - A Story of Grit, Race, Gender and Wishful Thinking and What It Means for America

Former Wisconsin state senator Tim Cullen, a Janesville native, tells the inside story of what happened after General Motors closed its plant in Wisconsin and what it means for the future not only of Janesville, but cities across America.

Cullen, who co-chaired the governor’s task force that tried to save the Janesville plant, provides a sweeping history of the plant from its boom years to the abyss, while noting the struggles African Americans and women faced in getting hired and treated fairly. Along the way, he finds some heroes, including an early African American GM employee, a woman who insisted on gender equity in the plant, and legendary labor leader Walter Reuther.

Cullen worked in the Janesville GM plant as a college student and he was there, decades on, when presidential candidate Barack Obama told a hopeful gathering of GM employees and other stakeholders he could do what he could to ensure its success. Less than a year later, the plant closed. With Disassembled, Tim Cullen reveals what happened.

Thursday, February 13, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Paul Florsheim, author of Lost and Found: Young Fathers in the Age of Unwed Parenthood, in conversation with Taran Powell, Race and Ethnicity Reporter for WUWM News.

Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion at UWM’s Joseph J Zilber School of Public Health Florsheim discusses his latest work, which examines the challenges and joys facing adolescent fathers and how adolescent fathering manifests in the context of the changing family institution, race, gender, and social class.

Over the past six decades, there have been dramatic changes in the dynamics of family life in the United States. Today, about half of all babies born to mothers under the age of 25 will not live with their fathers for much of their childhood. Lost and Found tells the stories of young men as they struggle to become fathers and outlines a strategy for helping young fathers remain constructively involved with their partners and children.

Drawing from their research with over 1,000 young parents in Chicago and Salt Lake City, Florsheim focuses on a group of about 20 young fathers, whose stories, conveyed in their own words, help the reader make sense of what is happening to fatherhood in America. Lost and Found provides concrete recommendations for strengthening fathers' roles and helping young fathers and mothers create stable home environments for their children, whether the parents are together or not.

More on our upcoming events page.