Antiracism and Liberation in the Academy

In this seminar, we take up the emergence, development, and evolution of Black and ethnic studies departments and programs (including Native American/indigenous, Latinx/Chicanx, Asian American, Arab American, Critical Muslim studies) in the contemporary U.S. universities.

We revisit the student strikes which engendered the emergence of Black and ethnic studies as fields of study at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley in 1968-69, as well as the calls for a Third World College and calls for Third World Liberation which were central to the strikers’ demands.

In our workshop, we ask, how have Black and ethnic studies have emerged as fields of study in the half-century since, and how this development has been shaped by shifting terrains of politics and culture, as well as those of region, resources, and the increasing corporatization of U.S. universities?

Friday, October 27, 2023

Ruth Dill Johnson Crocket Conference Room

162 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ

Schedule & Lineup

1:00-2:00 pm - Lunch/Welcome Reception for Dr. Brendane Tynes, Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Scholar in Black Liberation Studies

2:00-2:15 pm - Welcome Remarks, Dr. Ethel Brooks, Chair, WGSS

2:15-3:45 pm - Panel One: Race and Liberation in the Academy

Dr. Carmen Alvaro Jarrín (College of the Holy Cross), Dr. Gary Okihiro (Yale), Dr. Dylan Rodriguez (UC Riverside), Dr. Nitasha Sharma (Northwestern), Moderated by Dr. Brittney Cooper (RU-NB)

3:45-4:00 pm Coffee Break

4:00-5:30 pm Panel Two: Race and Liberation at Rutgers Dr. Maya Mikdashi (WGSS), Dr. Edward Ramsamy (Africana), Dr. Maurice Wallace (English), Dr. Donna Auston (Wenner-Gren Foundation), Moderated by Dr. Sylvia Chan-Malik (RU-NB)

5:30-6:30 pm Wine & Cheese Reception