While serving as Director of the Race and Public Space workshop at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge in Spring 2018, Michael hosted a series called the Reparations Project to explore the prospect of reparations for Transatlantic slavery and colonialism, widely recognized as one of history's gravest atrocities.
This inquiry included common readings to explore and frame the central issues, lectures by experts to interrogate the stakes, legal research to evaluate the case, and economic and statistical analysis to explore the feasibility of reparations for peoples and nations victimized by colonial slavery in distinct, intersecting contexts.