Thank you for providing travel funds to graduate students! This year, I used the funds that the Alumni Advisory Board provided to attend the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies in St. Louis. I presented a poster about racial inequities in the bankruptcy system, and more specifically, how professionals in the field perceive these inequities. We find that even though African Americans are twice as likely to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy (which usually involves repayment and can be finally disadvantageous) than persons of other races, professionals within the bankruptcy system fail to notice this racial disparity and actually believe that it runs in the opposite direction. We hope that this research can point out that any system is subject to effects in which insiders fail to notice disparities. To overcome this, insiders should monitor their own systems and use hard data to perceive inequities. Thank you again for making travel funds available so that graduate students can present their work!

Faith is a part of the Social-Personality Program