Join social psychologist Nilanjana Dasgupta and scholar Carrie N. Baker in conversation about Nilanjana's new book, Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities.

About the book: A social psychologist reveals how to nudge local cultures toward positive structural change by moving people from individual action to collective action. How can ordinary people fight for social justice? Can individual actions change structural inequality?

In Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities (published January 7, 2025) social psychologist Nilanjana Dasgupta offers a science-driven approach to achieving social change, arguing that small changes to the “wallpaper”—the local cultures around us—are far more effective in producing structural change locally than seeking change through bias awareness training, symbolic acts, or relying solely on good intentions.

About the speakers:

• Nilanjana Dasgupta is provost professor of psychology and inaugural director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of many articles; the winner of the Hidden Bias Research Prize from the Kapor Foundation; and the recipient of multiple U.S. government research grants. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and other major outlets. She lives in Northampton, MA.
• Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D., is the Bauman professor of American Studies and Chair of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Smith College. Her research and teaching focus on gender, law, public policy, and feminist social movements. Baker has written five books, including her recent open access book, Abortion Pills: U.S. History and Politics (Amherst College Press). She is a regular writer and contributing editor at Ms. magazine and has a monthly column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Books will be available to purchase at the event from Broadside Bookshop. 

This event will also be livestreamed on the Forbes YouTube channel. Click here to view.