Past Events

2020-2021

2019-2020

• Indigenous Peoples’ Day
  October 14 & 16: Two special events allowed the campus community to engage deeply on the topic of indigeneity. The first event on October 14th featured a panel of Tribal Nation representatives who spoke on historic and contemporary issues. The second event on October 16 was a lecture by Professor Ned Blackhawk who drew from his current manuscript called “The Rediscovery of America: American Indians and the Unmaking of U.S. History.”
  • In addition to co-sponsoring these events, CCSRE partnered with consultants from Akomawt Educational Initiative to raise awareness on campus for Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the land Connecticut College sits on. Two 4 ft X 9 ft banners hung outside Crozier Williams Student Center and inside Walter Commons.
• Two Part Film Series: Watch. Learn. Discuss
  November 14: bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation (1997)
  November 21: Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian (2009)
• Dr. John Asher Johnson, "This is not a diversity talk"
  November 18: The American discourse on the various disparities present in society generally, and academia specifically, focuses primarily on observations of the state of a given situation---e.g. a lack of diversity---rather than on the actions that lead to such a state. This approach is just as dissatisfying and ultimately ineffectual as observing that certain stars are "bright," rather than describing any of the physical principles that lead to the observed properties of a star. In this talk I'll argue that there exists a longstanding crisis in STEM that can only be addressed through an honest discourse on the historical and present-day actions that have led to the current state of affairs, and that a sustainable solution requires radical change in the culture of STEM. I'll offer a useful framework for discussing the problem and exploring solutions. I'll also share examples of solutions we have implemented in the Harvard Astronomy department, that have dramatically reshaped the demographics of a graduate program over a very short time.
• A Reception Commemorating The 1619 Project at Connecticut College
  December 5: 22 posters were displayed around the room with excerpts from the 1619 project. The agenda included a welcome from John McKnight and Sufia Uddin, followed by an introduction about the 1619 project and slave narratives from Cherise Harris, the Negro National Anthem by Persephone Hall, and readings by Prof. Hubert Cook and Prof. Kate Rushin. There were announcements about the DIEI and CCSRE events, and guests enjoyed soul food and thoughtful conversation.
  Conn College Homepage Article The Day Article
• IBRAM X. KENDI: How to be Anti-Racist (Co-Sponsored by CCSRE)
  February 12: New York Times bestselling author and professor of history and international relations, Ibram X. Kendi, discussed the subject matter of his third book, How To Be An Antiracist. Khalil Gibran Muhammad Looking back at 1619, and Thinking about the Present/Future of Criminal Justice Reform in America February 24: Dr. Muhammad’s award-winning book, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (2019/2010), is a deep dive into how progressive reformers, academics, and policy-makers wrote criminal justice policy based on biased social science research that created a myth of Black criminality. The impact of this history is clear when Dr. Muhammad says in his updated preface: “By population, by per capita incarceration rates, and by expenditures, the United States exceeds all other nations in how many of its citizens, asylum seekers, and undocumented immigrants are under some form of criminal justice supervision. The number of African American and Latinx people in American jails and prisons today exceeds the entire populations of some African, Eastern European, and Caribbean countries” (xi-xii).
  • Muhammad also wrote a stunning piece in the New York Times’ “1619 Project,” which chronicles the history of sugar plantations and the current inequalities of the sugar industry. The article begins: “The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the ‘white gold’ that fueled slavery.” Conn College Article
• February Film Series
  Every Friday in February. The four part film series explored black revolutionary thought in honor of Black History Month by following individual black thinkers, activists, and organizations alike in order to illuminate a part of black history and activism that is often hidden away by mainstream media. These screenings occurred every Friday: I am not your negro: James Baldwin and Race in America, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Concerning Violence, and Whose Streets?: An Unflinching Look at the Ferguson Uprising.
• Holiday Dinners and Other Awkward Conversations about Race: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk of Being a White Ally
  March 24 (POSTPONED due to Covid-19): Professors Madden and Rudolph planned an event to discuss what it means, concretely, to be a White Ally (or to support the aspiring White ally in your life) in the struggle against systemic racism. They planned to review how to move past White guilt to embrace an anti-racist stance in relation to both day-to-day comments and larger institutional issues.
• On Fire: A Community Discussion about Police Brutality and Uprisings
  June 8: Professors Eastman, Harris, Madden, Rudolph, and Uddin hosted a conversation on police brutality and how we respond. Race is not biologically real, but it really affects how our communities have historically and presently experienced police killings and their related uprisings. During part of the session you will have an opportunity to break out into one of three+ groups to discuss these racially disparate experiences: White folx, Black folx, and Folx of Color (IPOC). To help pre-sort the groups answer the questions that follow after you register for this event. Resources on anti-racism were compiled and available to all.

2018-2019 

• Film Series: Hidden Figures, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Black Panther, A Wrinkle in Time
• Hollywood Cinema: Science & the Representation of Black Girls and Women in Recent Films
• Fall Keynote, Dr. Mae Jemison, Science, Race and Power. 
• Black Feminist Struggle for Democracy in Brazil 
• Inclusive Teaching with Bryan Dewsbury 
• Film Screening of The Hate U Give 
• American Studies Seminar: Medical Bondage 
• Being Underrepresented in STEM: Cultivating Resilience, and Introspection 
• Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens "Lest We Forget: Slavery, Race, and The Birth of American Gynecology.”
• Evelynn Hammonds “Diversity in Science and Medicine” 
• Carl Zimmer “Heredity, Race and Ethnicity?”
• Indigenous Language of New England & Native Studies at Conn Discussion 
• Education Department Portfolio Fair, featuring Angela Crawford 

2017-2018 

• Artist Talk: Mohamad Hafez
• #Charlottesville: Race and Racism in America
• "Intersections: A Benefit Exhibition for the Immigration Advocacy and Support Center, 
• A Conversation with Yaa Gyasi, author of “Homegoing”
  
  

2015-2016 

• "Capitalism Works for Me!" public art piece exhibition and discussion with Artist, Steve Lambert
• A faculty debate, “Inequality, Capitalism, and Racial Justice” 
• Keynote speaker Cornel West, "Race and Justice Matters"

2014-2015 

• Photovoice Project with the Eastern Pequots
• Global Warming Event poster, Delegation from Peru, "Using Local Knowledge to Address Global Warming." How five Andean communities use traditional local knowledge to address global warming on highland farms.
• Pequot Museum Fall Panel Series, Mashantucket, 
• Latino Heritage Month at Connecticut College

2013-2014 

• Social Justice, Decolonization and Activism: Latin America and the World 
• Incarcerated America
• Beyond the Pale: Pedagogical Strategies for Addressing Assumptions about Race and Whiteness
• ConnWorks - "Bodies in a Globalizing World:" Panel of speakers from two books edited by Afshan Jafar, Assistant Professor of Sociology
• Latin@ Studies Lecture Series

2012-2013 

• Residency of Cuban writer Roberto Zurbano talk on "Afro-Cuban History and Culture"
• "Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of a Community of Women" talk and documentary film screening by Roxana Walker-Canton
• Annual Celebrations of Latino, Black, and Asian Pacific Islander Heritage months
• Reunion 2013's "Revisit and Rediscover" CCSRE open house

2011-2012 

• Rightly Dividing the America-Africa Nexus: Challenges Facing a Challenged Scholarship
• Faculty Workshop, Research on the history of slavery, racial ideology, and feminist theory
• Women’s Education as a Feminist Project: Iranian Women Today
• The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World
• The Archive of an Unimagined Past: The ‘Black’ Presence in New Spain’s Recorded History
• Pelosi to Bachman: Women in U.S. Politics
• Should Div I College Athletes Be Paid?
• Causes of Violence on US-Mexican Border: Neoliberal Policies, Maquiladora Economies, and Migration
• Faculty Workshop, Research on the Great Migration, the history of jazz, and black women writers
• Race, Gender, and LBGTQ in the Revolution
• Faculty Workshop, Research on capitalism and slavery in the 19th century North

2010-2011

• Centennial Diversity Conference
• The Health Gap: Inequality in U.S. Health Care Symposium

2009-2010

• Rushing to Judgment: Limbaugh and the NFL
• Using Social Entrepreneurship as a Vehicle to Respond to the Changes of Global Sustainability
• The Problem of Egypt, Professor Troy Allen

2008-2009

• "Of all the Nerve: Speaking Back in History and Literature.” Saidiya Hartman
• Alissa Quart, author of Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, and Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
• Tera Hunter, associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, and author of the award-winning book To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War
• Remembering Sakia Gunn on Matthew Shephard Day
• Obama or McCain in '08: Journalism Panel

2007-2008

• 2007-2008 CCSRE Events (pdf)
• "Race, Space and Memory" Symposium

2006-2007

• 2006-07 CCSRE Events (pdf)

2005-2006

• 2005-06 CCSRE Events (pdf)
• Inaugural Event A Symposium on Cornel West's Democracy Matters. View the slide show.