Sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh talked about his book, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, which was published the previous week by Penguin Press. In the book he described his experiences with a Chicago street gang. Professor Venkatesh had decided that the only way to really study street gang life was to actually interact with the gang members. He tells the story of meeting and getting to know gang leader J.T. and how that relationship enabled him to hang out with the gang. Video clips were shown from his documentary DisLocation about the Robert Taylor public housing project in Chicago in the days prior to its demolition when all the residents had to move. The documentary aired on PBS in 2005.

Professor Venkatesh is a faculty fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University and director of the Center for Urban Research and Policy and the Charles H. Revson Fellowship Program.


Some portions of this program contain offensive language.