All Events
The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella
MCC
Join us in celebrating the publication of Sameer Pandya’s first book of stories The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella, which follows the lives of first and second generation South Asian Americans in contemporary California. All of the characters share a similar sensibility: a sense that immigration is a distant memory, yet an experience that continues to shape their decisions in subtle and surprising ways as they go about the complicated business of everyday living. Pandya will read excerpts from the book and conduct a Q&A session along with Prof. Erin Ninh of the UCSB Dept. of Asian American Studies.
Cup of Culture
A Place to Stand
MCC THEATER
This is the story of Jimmy Santiago Baca’s transformation from a functionally illiterate convict to an award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter. A Place to Stand is inspired by Jimmy’s memoir of the same name, and tells the story of an extraordinary life that is both inspiring and haunting, simultaneously an indictment of our current criminal justice system and a model of the potential for human transformation. Daniel Glick, 85 min., English, 2014, USA.
Race Matters Series
Remapping Race in Suburban California Wendy Cheng
MCC LOUNGE
One of the significant shifts in 21st century California and its new, polyethnic majority is greater and more pervasive spatial and class diversity in metropolitan regions. In fact, people of color now constitute the majority of the suburban population in a large number of metropolitan areas nationwide. How is regional racial formation taking shape today in SoCal, and in the US overall? What are ethnoburbs and why are they developing all over? This talk address these trends, exploring the changing dynamics of space, place, and racial formation in the US today. Dr. Wendy Cheng is assistant professor of Justice and Social Inquiry and Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University.
American Muslims and the Reform of Islam with Zareena Grewal
MCC THEATER
This talk is based on ten years of research for Prof. Grewal's book Islam is a Foreign Country, which explores how the question of who defines Islam today is intertwined with American Muslim's identity as a national religious minority and as part of the umma, a global majority. Dr. Grewal is associate professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University.
