Since 2007, RIC has sponsored a campus-wide speaker series organized around thematically-driven interdisciplinary initiatives. These international, interdisciplinary, and inter-divisional events provide an ideal forum for bringing together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines and institutional sites from around the world, as well as various disciplines at Johns Hopkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In keeping with its multidimensional commitment to tackling scholarly problems, the RIC speaker series includes a number of special engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Theme Freedom Education<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday, January 21, 2022, 1pm\u20132:30pm<\/strong> This is a community gathering to remember those who were enslaved at Homewood on the Johns Hopkins University campus and the legacy of Black labor that has made institutions thrive for centuries in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Join Ur<\/a>ban Fol<\/a>i<\/a> traditional African drumming and dance, contribute to a participatory art project, hear what researchers have learned of the ancestors\u2019 stories, leave a note on the wall of remembrance, and name the ancestors as people and not slaves on the walk of remembrance. All are welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, March 10, 5pm-6:30pm<\/strong> Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted over five years in twelve states, Jack Norton will present an overview of county jail expansion in the rural U.S., examining how local political realignments have coalesced around jail construction and the criminalization of poverty. More information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday, March 11, 11am-12:30pm<\/strong> Jack Norton will lead a workshop on using humanities and social science PhD training to launch a career in a policy research and advocacy to reduce mass incarceration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Freedom Writers program will consider the various sides of clear, direct scholarly writing and intentional, academic obfuscation. Attendees will also look at how writing for the news cycle differs from academic communication, both in voice and in how one describes the workings of power. There will be four meetings, convened by Dr. N.D.B. Connolly<\/a><\/strong>, director of the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship. Meetings will be held in the Berber Room of Charles Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theme: Freedom Education<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, October 14, 2021, 4:30pm-5:30pm<\/strong> Description: Please join the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship as we celebrate the launch of our new publishing initiative with Public Books<\/a><\/em>, \u201cFreedom Education.\u201d Featuring interviews conducted by JHU graduate students in History, Political Science, and Sociology, this published series includes poet Nikki Giovanni, historian Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, political scientist Michael Hanchard, among four others. The panel will include two of the student interviewers, Raychel Gadson and Pyar Seth, speaking about their experiences conceiving, conducting, and editing their interviews. This panel launches the AY21\u201322 event series for RIC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, November 4, 2021, 5:00pm\u20136:30pm<\/strong> Description: The 2021 roundtable seeks to advance the comparative and global study of racial politics through an emphasis on the relations between racialized groups within the United States and beyond. Specifically, the roundtable will explore the historical tensions between Black and Asian communities within various localized contexts, as well as alliances and camaraderie across these differences, helping to develop visions of global, anti-racist solidarity against the rising tide of white supremacy. The roundtable discussion will consider how anti-Black and anti-Asian Racism have historically played out in Baltimore, interrogating the role of institutions such as Johns Hopkins in structuring and enabling the perpetuation of such forms of discrimination, as well as the possibilities of new institutional commitments to interrupt such racism. Panelists will also speak to the omnipresence of anti-Black and anti-Asian racism across the world as global structures of oppression, focusing on these dynamics across the Atlantic World, East Asia, and the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, November 11, 2021, 5:00pm-6:30pm\u00a0<\/strong> Description: What is anti-racist art? How can artistic expression embody a force of resistance? What is the importance of aesthetics to power, politics, and social change? This panel discussion brings together Baltimore-based artists, activists, and educators whose work traverses the fields of arts practice and aesthetic theory, engaging issues of social and racial justice. This panel will explore the power of the arts to enact transformative social change, specifically asking how art might be leveraged to bridge divides among racialized groups, especially across the unequal terrain of Baltimore City. The discussion further develops RIC\u2019s programmatic focus for the Fall semester of anti-racist alliances and Black-Asian solidarities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday, November 19, 2021 11:00am to 12:30pm<\/strong> Description: Dr. Katy Walker will discuss her work for the Louisiana Center for Children\u2019s Rights, particularly its long-running campaign to abolish sentences of juvenile life without parole. This campaign has achieved significant success in reducing death-in-prison sentences for juveniles, first in 2017 with the abolition of juvenile life without parole for second-degree murder, and again in 2020 with the abolition of virtual life sentences. Despite these gains, the work to achieve complete abolition is ongoing. Dr. Walker will explain how she has used her PhD to guide her legislative work and discuss her experiences working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people in Louisiana. She will also address some of the challenges and rewards of working with legislators to overcome strong legacies of racism in the criminal punishment system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuesday, December 7, 2021 <\/strong>The theme for this first symposium is Entanglements and Solidarities<\/strong>. Through the symposium, we seek to bring together junior and senior scholars from across the university to build a multidisciplinary coalition of scholars equipped to advance and enrich the study of social justice, broadly construed, at Hopkins. The one-day symposium will allow JHU graduate students to present their work and receive feedback from faculty members and peers affiliated with RIC in an intensive, deeply engaged, seminar-like fashion. The deadline to submit abstracts is Friday, November 5, 2021. RIC is currently planning to provide a small honorarium to graduate students selected to present at the symposium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday, February 3 through Sunday, February 7 <\/strong>(afternoons)
Location: Outside of Homewood Museum
Co-sponsored by the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts, Center for Africana Studies, Center for Social Concern, and Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy Is Mass Incarceration Booming in the Rural U.S.?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Location: Gilman 50
Dr. Jack Norton, Senior Research Associate, Vera Institute of Justice
Co-sponsored by Dept. of Political Science<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbolitionist Research: A PhD Professional Development Career Workshop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Location: Mergenthaler 266
Dr. Jack Norton, Senior Research Associate, Vera Institute of Justice<\/p>\n\n\n\nFreedom Writers<\/strong> Series<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Co-sponsored Spring 2022 Events<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
A Conversation with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor<\/strong>
Thursday, January 27, 2022, 4:00pm-5:30pm<\/strong>
Location: TBD (hybrid)
Professor Taylor is a scholar of anti-Black racism, public policy, radical politics, and social movements. She was written three award-winning books, including Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership<\/em>, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2020. Taylor has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for work on her next book. She is also a recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Foundation \u201cGenius<\/em>\u201d Grant. Taylor is a contributing writer at The New Yorker<\/em>.
Check out RIC\u2019s interview with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor<\/a>, conducted by PhD student Raychel Gadson, in Public Books<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Panel Discussion
Thursday, March 31, 2022 5:00pm-6.30pm<\/strong>
Sponsored by the Program in Islamic Studies
The Johns Hopkins University Program in Islamic Studies invites you to a virtual conversation on Islamophobia in the United States two decades after September 11, 2001. We focus on a new book by scholar and organizer, Dr. Maha Hilal, who tells the powerful story of two decades of the War on Terror, and how the official narrative has justified the creation of a sprawling apparatus of state violence rooted in Islamophobia and its worst abuses.
Panelists:
Dr. Maha Hilal (Researcher and writer on institutionalized Islamophobia and author of Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9\/11<\/em>)
Dr. Nazia Kazi (Stockton University)
Dr. Homayra Ziad (Johns Hopkins University)
Lubna Azmi (Johns Hopkins University)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nFall 2021<\/h2>
Freedom Education: A Launch Celebration for the RIC\/Public Books <\/em>Interview Series <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Co-sponsored by JHU Center for Africana Studies
Location: Hodson 210
Panel discussion featuring Raychel Gadson<\/strong> (Political Science) and Pyar Seth<\/strong> (Interdisciplinary Humanistic Studies) <\/p>\n\n\n\nLiving Hopkins Roundtable: Black-Asian Solidarities: Confronting Anti-Black and Anti-Asian Racism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Location: Hodson 210
Panel discussion featuring Erin Aeran Chung<\/strong><\/a> (Political Science), H. Yumi Kim<\/strong><\/a> (History), Minkah Makalani<\/strong><\/a> (Center for Africana Studies and History), and Robbie Shilliam<\/strong><\/a> (Political Science), moderated by Quinn Lester<\/strong> (Political Science).<\/p>\n\n\n\nArt, Power, Politics: Bridging Divides in Baltimore City <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Location: Hodson 210
Panel discussion featuring\u00a0Lady Brion<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(independent artist-activist),\u00a0Margaret Huey<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(independent artist),\u00a0Cori Dioquino<\/strong>\u00a0(Asian Pasifika Arts Collective), moderated by\u00a0Alessandro Angelini\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>(Anthropology)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nLobbying and Legislative Action to Reduce Incarceration
A PhD Professional Development Career Workshop <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Location: Zoom
Workshop featuring Katy Walker<\/strong> (Louisiana Center for Children\u2019s Rights) in conversation with Christy Thornton<\/a><\/strong> (Sociology and Latin American Studies)<\/p>\n\n\n\nEntangled Solidarities Graduate Symposium<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Registration required
Graduate Symposium for JHU graduate students<\/p>\n\n\n\nCo-sponsored Fall 2021 Events<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\u201cOn the Politics and Promise of Hate in Anti-Racist Work\u201d
October 27, 2021, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Zoom
Speaker: Kandice Chuh, CUNY, English and American Studies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cHostile Terrain\u201d<\/strong>
November 2021\u2013December 2021<\/strong>
A participatory art project<\/a> sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project and Dr. Jason De Le\u00f3n
Location: Milton S. Eisenhower Library
Description: This exhibition offers a visual, forensic and intimate way to think about the human cost of migration and immigration policy along the US-Mexico border. The nature of the exhibition makes possible a visualization of the under-recognized lethal effects of a U.S. immigration strategy unfolding since 1994 known as \u201cPrevention Through Deterrence,\u201d and provides a literal forensics of immigration policy.
More information about the exhibit here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Bones of Strangers: On Violence, Grief, and Asian-American Kin-making\u201d
November 10, 2021, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Zoom
Speaker: Eileen Chow, Duke University, Chinese and Japanese Cultural Studies<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Roundtable: \u201cBuilding an Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program\u201d
November 17, 2021, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Zoom
Speakers: Ji-Yeon Yuh, Northwestern University, History; Fariha Khan, University of Pennsylvania, Asian American Studies; Heidi Kim, University of North Carolina, English and Comparative Literature<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2018Anti-Asian Violence\u2019 in Conditions of (U.S.) Domestic Warfare: :Toward an Abolitionist Rethinking of Coalition, Intersection, and Justice\u201d
December 1, 2021, 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Zoom
Speaker: Dylan Rodriguez, UC Riverside, Media and Cultural Studies <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2019So my voice could be heard, even much louder\u2019: Collective Acting and the Politics of Youth Performance in Liberia\u201d
December 7, 2021, 4:00pm-5:30pm
Location: Mergenthaler 426
Speaker: Jasmine Blanks Jones, RIC Postdoctoral Fellow <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nSpring 2021<\/h2>
JHU Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine Conference:
Critical Conversations on Reproductive Health\/Care: Past, Present, and Future
Details about this major conference here<\/a><\/em>
Co-sponsored by RIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n