Identities in Movement: Placing race, culture, and agency at the center of politics and social change.
In this year long series of speakers, films, and other events, we will investigate the relationship between identities and social change in an effort to create a meaningful analysis of the interrelation of race, gender, sexuality, and class. As we think about social justice and change for our own lives, we will critically examine various multicultural and diversity discourses, paying special attention to the kind of subjects that these discourses and institutions call into being,
We will also explore various political traditions whose diverse and creative ways of rebelling have been rooted in their particular circumstances of struggle—traditions in which race, gender, and sexuality were central to their efforts to create dignity, justice, and democracy in their lives. What kinds of identities did/are movements construct(ing)? What kinds of subjectivities were/are produced in the collective daily strategies of survival and resistance in these communities?
2008-09 Events
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2007-08 Events:
Film Showing: SAN FRANCISCO STATE: ON STRIKE
Tuesday, Sept. 4, 5:30pm
Recounts how students of color led a six month long strike in the Fall of 1968 at San Francisco State to make their university's curriculum and admission policies more relevant to their communities and succeeded in creating the the first Ethnic Studies department in America (25 min).
Anti-Racism on the Campus Ground: Caught Between the Social and Our "Selves"
Monday, Sept. 10, 5:30pm
Wahneema Lubiano, Duke Professor of Literature and African & African-American Studies
We will look at two contradictory ways of understanding racism and racial identity in the university context. The first attempts to make life on campus comfortably reflect the individuals who are seen to constitute "diversity." The second prioritizes providing critical tools for understanding a social context that frames us in ways not only NOT governed by our individuality but which contradict a focus on the individual—ethnic studies programs that focus on the group.
Film Showing: THE TAKE
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 5:30pm
In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. A movement of workers self-organize to occupy bankrupt businesses and create jobs in the ruins of the failed system (1 hr 30 min).
The Color of Whiteness: Identity, Politics, Power
Friday, Sept. 28, 5:30pm
This discusssion led by Abigail Langston will begin with a loaded question: "What does it mean to be white?" By retracing the origins, formations, and reflections of white identities, race and culture in America, we may begin to answer this question. Perhaps a more useful question, however, is this: how does whiteness function? We will examine the forces by which whiteness is produced and deployed in society, and its implications for the possibility of white anti-racism.
Film Showing: PALANTE SIEMPRE PALANTE!
Tuesday, October 2, 5:30pm
This film captures the compassion and militancy of the Young Lords as they implemented their own health, educational, and public assistance programs in their Puerto Rican, Latino, and African-American communities, and fought back against social injustice.
A Radical Rainbow Coalition
Friday, Oct. 12, 5:30pm
White Lecture Hall, East Campus
Denise Oliver-Velez is a former member of The Young Lords Party, the first woman on the Central Committee, and also a former member of The Black Panther Party. Oliver-Velez will discuss their approach to community organizing and politics as part of a larger multiracial movement for democracy and dignity.
Diversity without Domination
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 5:30
Michael Hardt, Duke Professor of Literature
Capital and white supremacy perhaps increasingly thrive on certain forms of diversity and even some kinds of hybrid identities. How can a politics of liberation practice diversity in a context where the forms of domination it confronts also rest fundamentally on diversity? Hardt will explore this question and highlight movements in Bolivia that simultaneously address race and class differences.
Film Showing: QUILOMBO
Tuesday, Nov. 13, 5:30pm
Runaway slaves in Brazil who have freed themselves from violent and brutal bondage build new lives and communities for themselves in the context of their own music, language, and belief systems. The most well-known of these socieites, called "Quilombos," is Palmares, depicted in the film (2 hrs).
DOIN' TIME: Through the Visiting Glass
Friday, Nov. 30, 7pm
Doin' Time examines the impact of incarceration on families. Weaving together personal experience and creative writing along with interviews with, and letters from, prisoners' family members, former prisoners, and prison activists, Ashley Lucas wrote a one-person show which she performs herself. The play beautifully highlights the experiences of the unrecognized community of prisoners' families. Location: Coffee House, East Campus.