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With the proliferation of cell phone cameras and dashboard footage, media has been rife with reports of police appearing to use excessive force during seemingly routine interventions, especially in Black and poor communities.

Following the murder of George Floyd, there has been increased focus on how policing is practiced in America, ranging from demands to defund police departments entirely, to more moderate calls for reform, to staunch defenders of the thin blue line.

To contemplate and to reimagine the future of policing, including how policing has shaped conversations about race and reform, the University of 51С�Ƴ� will welcome , Ph.D., the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Colby College, and , Ph.D., assistant professor of criminology at the University of Southern Maine, for the next event in its President’s Forum series on Monday, Nov. 8.

Hosted by 51С�Ƴ�President James D. Herbert, Ph.D., and moderated by Anouar Majid, Ph.D., vice president for Global Affairs and director of the Center for Global Humanities at UNE, the President’s Forum fosters a marketplace of ideas that allows difficult conversations to take place with open-mindedness and respect.

“At its core, higher education seeks to encourage the pursuit of knowledge through diverse and open dialogue about all sorts of matters, including controversial and hard-to-talk-about subjects,” Herbert remarked. “Open debate and frank discussion illuminate issues we might not have considered and open our eyes to perspectives we may not agree with. From there, comes deepened understanding, and that is the essence of the President’s Forum. I am honored to host this event and to welcome Professors Gross and McQuade to UNE.”

In addition to his professorship, Gross is a former police officer whose current area of focus is the study of law enforcement. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times opinion pages, where he has presented ideas for police reform. Gross currently serves as senior editor at Theory and Society.

McQuade is the author of “Pacifying the Homeland: Intelligence Fusion and Mass Surveillance,” which earned a Paul Sweezy Marxist Sociology Book Award. His areas of interest are historical sociology, state theory, the critique of security, and social movements. His work argues for “abolition” and against increased surveillance, policing, and mass incarceration.

The President’s Forum, “Policing in America,” will take place at 6 p.m. at the Harold Alfond Forum on UNE’s Biddeford Campus on Monday, Nov. 8. The event is free and open to the public, and will be livestreamed at www.une.edu/live and . Masks are required to be worn indoors on UNE’s campuses regardless of vaccination status.