Friday, March 4, 2016
5–7 pm (Reception at 5 pm; Panel Discussion at 5:30 pm)
LIGHT HORS D’OEUVRES
LIVELY CONVERSATION
Re-Seeing Race in the 21st Century
What does it mean to live in a “post-racial” America? Can museums and other cultural organizations help change how we see and think about race? This Salon is presented in conjunction with the 2016 UConn Reads theme of Race in America. The university-wide program encourages the reading and discussion of the The New Jim Crow: Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander.
PANELISTS
William Jelani Cobb is a staff writer for The New Yorker and an Associate Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Africana Studies at UConn. He writes frequently about race, politics, history, and culture. His articles and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, the Washington Post, Essence, Vibe, The Progressive, and TheRoot.com. He written several books and has contributed to a number of anthologies including In Defense of Mumia, Testimony, Mending the World and Beats, Rhymes and Life. He has also been a featured commentator on MSNBC, National Public Radio, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CBS News and a number of other national broadcast outlets. Cobb is the author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress (Bloomsbury 2010) and To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press 2007) which was a finalist for the National Award for Arts Writing. His collection The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays (Thunder’s Mouth Press) was also published in 2007.
Shayla C. Nunnally is Associate Professor with a joint appointment in Political Science and Africana Studies at UConn. She specializes in public opinion and political behavior, race and politics, and black political development. Her research has appeared in The Journal of Politics, The Journal of Black Studies, The Du Bois Review, The Journal of African American Studies, and several encyclopedias and edited volumes. She also has a published book Trust in Black America: Race, Discrimination, and Politics (NYU Press 2012). Her current research focuses on the transmission of memory across generations and communities of black Americans and what this transmission means for cultural trauma, group remembrance, group politics, and institution-building. She was awarded the 2009 Fannie Lou Hamer Award for Outstanding Community Service by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Additionally, in 2009, she was awarded the Outstanding Young Professionals Member for the Eastern Region of the National Urban League.
MODERATOR
Cathy Schlund-Vials is Associate Professor of English and Asian and Asian American Studies, and Director of the Asian/Asian American Studies Institute at UConn. Widely published and author of War, Genocide and Justice: Cambodian American Memory Work (2012), her research covers 20th-century US literature, multi-ethnic literature, transnationalism, trauma, human rights, memory studies, immigrant/refugee narratives, Asian American studies, American cultural studies and comparative ethnic studies. Schlund-Vials is also President Elect of the Association for Asian American Studies.
See what attendees say about the Salons here.
—————————————————————————————-
*Admission to the Salon is free. Donations are gratefully accepted.
RSVP appreciated by March 2. Click on RSVP link or call 860-486-5084.