Down to Earth: Making Community Connections

Multicultural Center

Wednesdays, 5:30-7pm

Down to Earth is a dinner series where students can learn from the diverse experiences and research of staff and faculty in a relaxed environment.

• Connect with more people  who are here to support you
• Explore your own identity and experiences with others
• Learn about subjects outside your major
• Develop relationships with potential mentors
• Start making connections…

Wed. Sept. 9: Lee Baker
Trinity Dean, Cultural Anthropology Professor, Race, Culture, African-American experience

Wed., Sept. 23: Sean Metzger
Professor, Asian/American cultural production, film, theater and performance, gender, sexuality, race

Sean Metzger is an Assistant Professor of English and Theater Studies, working at the intersections of Asian American studies, film, gender/sexuality and performance. In fall of 2008, he was the inaugural Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in North American Society and Culture at Concordia University in Montreal. His recent publications include two edited collections: with Gina Masequesmay, Embodying Asian/American Sexualities (Lexington, 2009) and with Olivia Khoo, Futures of Chinese Cinema: Technologies and Temporalities in Chinese Screen Cultures (Intellect, 2009). A special issue of the journal Cultural Dynamics, edited with Michaeline Crichlow, is also in press. He's currently finishing a long term project called Looks Chinese: Fashioning Asian/American Spectatorship.

Thurs., Oct. 8: Diane Nelson  *Held in Prism, 5:30pm (FEW GG Commons 301), in collaboration with Prism Multicultural SLG

5:30pm, FEW GG Commons 301. Diane Nelson is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology.  Her research concerns the Guatemalan Civil war and its impact on the more than 100,000 people made into refugees and 200,000 people murdered in what the United Nations has called genocidal violence.  Her newest projects focus on human cyborgs and medical technology in Latin America and with health care in the midst of neo-liberal reforms and popular demands.  She is currently teaching Anthropology and Film as well as Medical Anthropology.  She has published many books including A finger in the wound: body politics in quincentennial Guatemala (1999) and Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala (2009).  She has also published articles titled "Review of Latin American Cyberculture and Cyberliterature." The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology.

Wed., Oct. 14: Malinda Maynor Lowery
UNC-CH Professor, film maker, Native American cultural identity, NC Lumbee tribe member.

Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee) was born in Robeson County, North Carolina.  She holds a Ph.D. in History from UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research concerns Native American identity and politics in the late 19th and 20th centuries in North Carolina. She has published articles about migration and identity, school desegregation, and religious music in books and journals such as American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2005), Southern Cultures (2004), and Confounding the Color Line: Indian-Black Relations in a Multidisciplinary Perspective (2002). Lowery has produced three documentary films about Native American issues, including the award-winning In the Light of Reverence, which showed on PBS in 2001 to over three million people (http://www.sacredland.org) and in 2005 won the Henry Hampton Award for social change documentary from the Council on Foundations. Her two previous films, Real Indian and Sounds of Faith, both concern Lumbee identity and culture.

Thurs., Oct. 21: Akosua Darkwah.  *Held in Prism, 5:30pm (FEW GG Commons 301), in collaboration with Prism Multicultural SLG

Dr Akosua K. Darkwah's research has focused on women in the informal economy, specifically traders in global consumer items. In this research, she has explored the nature of trading in global consumer items and the meanings that women attach to this form of work. She has published a number of articles/book chapters in this area, the most recent of which appears in a book titled Women's Labor in the Global Economy: Speaking in Multiple Voices, edited by Sharon Harley and published by Rutgers University Press in 2007. Currently, she is working on two research projects. In the first, she is investigating studying gender dynamics in the export processing zones of Ghana. Second, along with Nana Akua Anyidoho, also a member of CEGENSA, she is also exploring the changing conceptions of mothering in the Ghanaian context.

Wed., Oct. 28: Kim Reyes
Duke Latino Student Recruitment Coordinator, Trinity ‘03, active in Latino life when Duke student

Kimberly Reyes, Trinity ’03, is an Assistant Director and Coordinator of Latino Student Recruitment at Duke Undergraduate Admissions. Kim came to Duke from Los Angeles, CA after attending the first Latino Student Recruitment Weekend (LSRW) and instantly fell in love with trees, seasons, and Bojangle’s sweet tea. While in school, Kim explored her intellect with a major in Comparative Area Studies for Latin America and North America, a minor in both English and Spanish, and the pre-med program. She also became highly involved with Latino life at Duke through leadership in Mi Gente and Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Inc. Her time at Duke uncovered a passion for education, so upon graduation, Kim returned to year-round sunshine in Florida to work for Teach For America Miami and eventually ended up on the admissions staff at the University of Miami. While at Miami, Kim worked with multicultural recruitment, staff development, and scholarship finalists. Kim also continued to serve her Sorority as the National Vice President of Expansion and Southeastern Regional Director. Kim returned to her alma mater in 2007 to oversee the very LSRW program that sparked her journey and is also responsible for applications from Southern California, Hawai’i, Nevada, and Puerto Rico.

Wed., Nov. 4:  Jennifer Ho
UNC-CH, Asian American literature, race in American culture, racial ambiguity, mixed race Asian Americans

Jennifer Ho, a transplanted Californian by way of New England, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English & Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches courses on Asian American literature, contemporary American literature, and American Studies that examine race in American culture. Her research interests focus on racial ambiguity and mixed race Asian Americans, which is also the topic of her current book project, “What ARE you?”: Racial Ambiguity in Contemporary Asian American Culture. Three things about her that you can’t find on her faculty webpage are (1) if she hadn’t gotten into a PhD program in English she would have applied to culinary academies because cooking is the road not traveled for her, career wise (2) to keep sane while writing her dissertation she took up quilting and has made over a dozen small quilts, all sewn by hand (3) she loves golf and loves to play, although she does not keep score, which makes this the only activity she participates in where she is not competitive.

Wed., Nov. 18: Jessi Bardill
Graduate student in English, American Indian Studies

Jessi Bardill is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English at Duke University.  She focuses her research on American Indian Studies, American literature, with a current focus on the risks and benefits of genetics research for indigenous communities.  Her interests in these areas derive from her Cherokee heritage and her undergraduate education where she double majored in Biology and English at Emory University.  Jessi has been active in the Native American Student Alliance, and is now focusing on her dissertation.