The first of a four-part series on the fight for social justice in Texas will focus on fair access to housing — including historical roots in the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Panelists will discuss the realities that have influenced housing policy in the past as well as housing issues that municipal governments still grapple with today, including public policy, discriminatory lending practices and urban development.

Location: Bob Bullock Museum, 1800 N. Congress Avenue, Austin, TX, 78701 (Congress and MLK)

Journalist Dave Zirin and Professor Jules Boykoff will discuss “The Politics and Potential of Sport” in a conversation moderated by British TV journalist Keme Nzerem.

For more information, contact UT Professor Ben Carrington, bcarrington@austin.utexas.edu.

Location: Liberal Arts Building, CLA 1.302B, University of Texas, Austin

After a long career as one of India’s leading newspaper reporters, P. Sainath is building an online archive of the diversity of rural India. In this talk, Sainath will explain how the recently launched People’s Archive of Rural India is documenting the culture and politics of a countryside that is too often ignored.

In a 35-year career as a journalist, Sainath has won dozens of global and national awards and been called “the conscience of the Indian nation” by other journalists. In 2007, he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award—Asia’s most prestigious prize, often referred to as the “Asian Nobel”—for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communications Arts for his “passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India’s national consciousness.” Sainath’s recent reporting on the epidemic of farmers committing suicide in India as a result of the collapse of the rural economy forced other journalists to cover the story and government officials to act.

The event is sponsored by the School of Journalism and the South Asia Institute. For more information contact Robert Jensen, rjensen@austin.utexas.edu, and see “Sainath’s Challenge.”

Location: Belo Center for New Media Auditorium (BMC 2.106), 300 W. Dean Keeton, Austin

Arun Gandhi has many stories to tell of his grandfather, the Mahatma, and how his lessons set Arun on a path of teaching nonviolence. One of those stories, told in 2001 at the spiritual center Unity of New York, led Bethany Hegedus to work with Gandhi to craft a picture book that would speak to readers of all ages. More information about the book online.

Hegedus is an author and the director of The Writing Barn in Austin. Gandhi is a writer and speaker who has traveled the world spreading the message of non-violence.

The event is free for children and $5 for adults. To ensure seats, purchase tickets online. For more information, contact Heather McLeod, hamcleod@gmail.com.

Location: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 14311 Wells Port Drive (exit off I-35, west on Wells Branch Parkway) http://www.staopen.org/

“The Mask You Live In” examines contemporary masculinity. What messages do boys and men receive from popular culture, sports, and the media? What happens to kids when the traits that have been feminized are devalued over and over again? In this film, men from various backgrounds share the impact of their upbringing, relationships with their fathers, their struggles, and the deliberate choices they’ve made in raising their own children. Being expected to “man up” from a very young age exacts a heavy price on boys—and thus on girls living in a patriarchal culture.

More information about the film and director Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s previous documentary, “Miss Representation,” is online. A trailer also is online.

Admission is $10. For more information about the screening, contact Heather McLeod, hamcleod@gmail.com.

Location: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 14311 Wells Port Drive (exit off I-35, west on Wells Branch Parkway)