Today's economic crisis is all around us. Millions of Americans are facing housing foreclosures across the country. Along with losing their homes, families are losing access to the American dream and will suffer the consequences for many generations to come.

Prof. Anita Hill, senior advisor to the provost and professor of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, addresses these growing inequalities and hardships in her latest book, Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home. Released Oct. 4, the book is a collection of stories about women and the challenges they face as they try to develop the meaning of home in their own lives.

Hill spoke about her book release and her motivations for writing it at an event sponsored by the Heller School in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall on Nov. 2.

"One of the questions I get is what motivated me to write this. What's the personal motivation, how did I get to this issue?" Hill said during the opening of the event. "The pivotal issue is the foreclosure crisis," she explained.

Her hope is that the book will "help people to think about how we can change our course and how we can build more inclusive communities and a stronger democracy by changing the way we think about home," she said in an interview with the Justice.

"[The home] is in fact a determinant of our access to so many opportunities," Hill said. It determines where our children will be educated, who will represent us in local and state offices and nationally in the federal congress. Where we reside for many people determines our access to basic needs," she said.

The home therefore plays a pivotal role in determining access to opportunity. And in the United States, access to opportunity determines access to equality, Hill explained.

Therefore, one of the most important aspects of this book is the concept of the American dream and what it means to people, especially those affected by the downturn of the economy.

Due to the rising cost of the standard of living and the decrease in the average wage, Americans will continue experiencing the hardships we face now if we don't address these issues, according to Hill.

"I see a lot of people being priced out of the market, and unless we start thinking about how to create better communities, people are going to be pushed into communities where they have little access to safety, public services, to commercial services."

If this current trend of families losing their homes and access to things as simple as education continues, the nation as a whole will suffer, according to Hill.

Until people are removed from these situations, the root of the problem will not disappear, and it will continue "into second and third generations. Their grandchildren will be feeling the impact of this unless we get back on course," Hill said.

"We can't say to all of the people who are living in devastated communities, ‘If you just move, you will get to equality.' We must now address those individuals where they are," she said.

Her book therefore aims to capture the perspective of African Americans, "not from movement, but from staying and building. What are the stories of people who stay and build?" Hill asked.

Inspired by her mother who never left her home on a rural farm in Oklahoma despite segregation and hardships, Hill explains that her personal and academic experience were not separate in writing the book.

"I really have the luxury of having my academic work driven by who I am as a woman, an African American [and] as a lawyer," she said in the interview.

"I couldn't really separate, or I didn't really want to separate, my life work and my research. So this book, Reimagining Equality, is just that."

Hill's personal connection can be traced back to the story of her great-grandmother, who was enslaved for the first 19 years of her life. Despite this, her son, Hill's grandfather, was able to build a better life for himself and his family as a free, land-owning man.

Once he was freed, her grandfather was able "to homestead 80 acres of land in Arkansas," creating a home for him and his family. Hill largely attributes this establishment of a home to where she is today.

She therefore hopes Reimagining Equality will help people rethink how we see the issues of equality and the factors that affect it.

"If you're interested in policy, in social change, really your children's future and their ability to establish themselves in this country and achieve to their full ability, I think you should read this book. … And of course, I would love for [President] Barack Obama to read it," she added with a smile in the interview.

In addition to her experience in law, Hill says her exposure to women's issues and public policy during her time at Brandeis was instrumental to the writing of her book.

"I don't think that I could have written this book had I not moved to Brandeis because being here allowed me to really take advantage of the liberal arts faculty and thinking," she said.