Former White House advisor Van Jones will give a lecture titled "Beyond Green Jobs: The Next American Economy and The Politics of Hope" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27, in McCosh Hall, Room 50, on the Princeton University campus. The talk is free and open to the public.
Jones holds a joint appointment at Princeton as a distinguished visiting fellow in the Center for African American Studies and as a visiting lecturer in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
"We live in a time of both ecological and economic crisis; jobs prospects are going down and global temperatures are going up. The economy that failed us was characterized by consumption, excessive credit and ecological destruction," Jones said. "The next American economy should be characterized by production, thrift and ecological restoration. But can our political system meet the challenge of helping America transition to a green economy? Or will a politics of fear ultimately derail the politics of hope?"
Jones will discuss the prospects for putting America back to work -- and pulling America back together -- by making clean energy innovation the cornerstone for our national renewal.
An expert in human rights and the clean-energy economy, Jones is a co-founder of three non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All. He also is the author of the book "The Green-Collar Economy." He served as the green jobs advisor in the White House in 2009.
Jones currently is a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress and a senior policy advisor at Green For All.
For information regarding this event, please contact Jennifer Loessy at the Center for African American Studies at jloessy@princeton.edu or (609) 258-3216.
*Media interested in attending the lecture must contact Jennifer Loessy at the Center for African American Studies by emailing jloessy@princeton.edu no later than 5 p.m. Sept. 23.