All Events
Resilient Love
Boundless Love: Enduring Legacy of Cedric J. Robinson in Teaching, Research, and Activism
Dr. Françoise Cromer, Dr. H. L. T. Quan, Dr. Marisela Marquez, Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Dr. Jasmine Noelle Yarish, Moderator: Elizabeth P. Robinson, Chair/co-moderator: Albert Rice,
MCC Theater and Lounge
In the Fall of 2016, UCSB’s Division of Student Affairs launched the Resilient Love series to ask how we might respond ethically and honorably to hate and violence. The series features visiting artists and academics as it seeks to promote conversation and creative work that will forge a love-driven response to hate, hurt, and fear. Since its inception, we have hosted Kimberle Crenshaw, Favianna Rodriguez, David Kyuman Kim, Sharon Bridgforth, and Tim Wise.
This roundtable panel will celebrate the enduring legacy of Dr. Cedric Robinson from the
perspective of his former students and PhD alums in Political Science, Black Studies, and Chicana/o Studies, UC Santa Barbara. In addition to discussing impacts of Dr. Robinson’s teaching on their scholarship and career path, each panelist will share their story of resilience and love in the trajectories to promote feminist social justice.
Guest Bio:
Dr. Françoise B. Cromer is the Assistant to the Provost for Special Projects, and an Assistant Professor in the History, Culture and Politics Department at Saint Elizabeth University, in Morristown, New Jersey. Her research focuses on Black women’s health, complementary approaches to health and wellness, public policy, political participation, social movements, resistance, internationalism and the Black radical tradition. She was a 2024 Faculty Fellow at University of Connecticut, Storrs, in the Africana Studies Summer Institute to Advance Equity Through Research on Women and Girls of Color. In 2017, she received the Anna Julia Cooper Outstanding Publication Award for her journal article, “Black women take their health into their own hands.” Her collaborative teamwork in developing an award-winning summer bridge program (Fastrak) at Saint Elizabeth University with intensive first-year support services, resulted in the exceptional retention of program participants. Dr. Cromer earned her Masters and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara advised by Dr. Cedric J. Robinson. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics with a minor in African Studies from Saint Lawrence University.
Dr. Marisela Marquez is Executive Director of Associated Students, adjunct faculty of Chicano/a Studies, UC Santa Barbara. Hailed from Laredo, Texas, and Nova Laredo Tamaulipas, Mexico, Dr. Marquez received her B.A. in English and M.A. in Political Science at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and her Ph.D. in Political Science at UC Santa Barbara. Upon completing her dissertation, titled, “Political Tolerance in Higher Education: Identifying the Threshold of Support for Diversity Policies,” Marisela found a home to the rich legacy and history of student activism at UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. Over the years, and into her career now as the Executive Director of Associated Students, Marisela has transcended ivory tower’s boundaries by finding a balance in academia, philanthropy, and activism. (excerpted from
Dr. H. L. T. QUAN is a political theorist and an award-winning filmmaker. Currently she is an Associate Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She is also an affiliate faculty member in African/African American Studies, Asian Pacific American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at ASU. Her research & teaching focus on radical thought and praxis, including feminist consciousness, utopian thought, speculative living, data justice, movements for justice, and the Black Radical Tradition. Her works include Become Ungovernable (2024), Cedric J. Robinson (ed, 2019), Growth Against Democracy (2012), and with C. A. Griffith as co-Producer/co-Director, Queer, Broke & Amazing! (2024), América’s Home (2014), and Mountains That Take Wing (2009).
Dr. Tiffany Willoughby-Herard is Associate Professor in Global & International Studies at UC Irvine and Professor Extraordinarius in the Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair at the University of South Africa. Their forthcoming Oxford University Press book, ‘I meant for you to be free’ bridges contemporary youth movements for educational justice, return of the land, and ending femicide with the feminist, Pan Africanist, cross-generational and cross-genre politics of feminist sociologist Fatima Meer, jurist Motsoko Pheko, and militant activist Winnie Mandela. Willoughby-Herard has authored, edited and collaborated on numerous publications, is a former National Conference of Black Political Scientists President, a 2022-23 National Humanities Center (USA) Fellow, a Detroit-raised poet, a gender nonconforming lesbian, a friend, and a m/other. Their work is concerned with feminism, economic justice, the sacred, participatory action research, political education, publishing and poetics, and pedagogy in Continental Africa and the African Diaspora.
Dr. JASMINE NOELLE YARISH is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the District of Columbia. A first-generation student raised in the Appalachian hills of central Pennsylvania, her expertise is in the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and democratic theory. Since completing a Ph.D. with certificates in Black Studies and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara,her scholarship extends the idea of abolition democracy theorized by W.E.B. Du Bois to include political and intellectual contributions made by Black women in and around the city of Philadelphia during the era of Reconstruction in the mid to late nineteenth century. Additionally, Jasmine served as a program coordinator at the UCSB Multicultural Center from January - June 2017, when the very first Resilient Love Series was launched. Among other honors, she was recently a diversity scholar with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Dr. Yarish’s publications in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in edited volumes have placed her scholarship prominently in the growing literature on the “Third Reconstruction.”
Dr. Albert J Rice is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Broadly, his research examines Black politics, American political development, and social policy, with a focus on education, inequality and citizenship. His current book project, The Politics of Educational Reform: Race, Capitalism and American Democracy, examines the role that racial segregation and business interests play in eroding political equality and promoting education reform laws. He was previously a University of California President’s postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work has been published in a variety of venues, including, Perspectives on Politics, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, the Journal of Cultural Geography, and The Popular Culture Studies Journal. He received his PhD in African American and African Studies from Michigan State University in 2020.
Co-Moderator - Elizabeth P. Robinson
Elizabeth Peters Robinson is a Lebanese American journalist and community media activist. Born in Oak Ridge, TN, she moved with family to California and earned a bachelor’s degree in criminology from UC Berkeley. While at Berkeley, Peters-Robinson became interested in radical approaches to criminology, which led her to work as a social worker with the Alameda County Probation Office, where she and Cedric met. They married in 1967 and spent time studying and working throughout the US and abroad, during which time Elizabeth earned a master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, before settling in Santa Barbara, California in the late 1970s. She retired in 2012 from her position as KCSB Advisor and Associated Students Associate Director for Media after 31 years of service at UCSB.
Voices of Change: Student Activism & Leadership Panel
El Congreso, IDEAS
MCC Lounge
Join us in the MCC Lounge in an engaging conversation with student leaders on campus. Hear from organizers and members of El Congreso, IDEAS, and other student leaders, as they share their experiences in advocacy, activism, and community building. These student-led groups are at the forefront of mobilizing for change, creating inclusive spaces, and navigating the challenges of organizing on campus.Engage in critical dialogue, gain valuable insights, and discover ways to take action in your own communities. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from and connect with student leaders making an impact!
Music Performance
Building Solidarity through Artistic Activism: a Multimedia Concert and Artist Talk with Gizelxanath Rodriguez and Benjamin Barso
Gizelxanath Rodriguez and Benjamin Barson
MCC Theater
Join vocalist/guitarist Gizelxanath Rodriguez and saxophonist/composer Benjamin Barson for an evening of musical performance, social movement histories, and reflections on years of arts and activism. Barson and Rodriguez will be performing both original work and that of revolutionary composers from Latin America and New Orleans. From collaborations with water defenders in Kurdistan and Sonora, to multimedia projects that highlight suppressed histories and forgotten struggles, these two musicians will share some lessons on the importance of and possibility afforded by the arts in struggle for a world where many worlds fit.
Guest Bio:
Gizelxanath Rodriguez is an internationally renowned vocalist, cellist, guitarist and educator. Her musical work spans a range of styles and cultures. Gizelxanath has led several bands with her partner, Benjamin Barson, including the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, Insurrealistas, and Latin Sway. These projects have been presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., by the ASCAP Jazz awards in Los Angeles, and many other leading national venues.
Gizelxanath has produced three solo albums and continues her life as an educator. She has been an artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 and has taught music throughout various private and public schools in the Pittsburgh and upstate NY areas for a period of ten years. Rodriguez was the Interdisciplinary artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020, where she taught “Artivism: Decolonizing Performance through Intercultural Solidarity.” She has performed at social movement gatherings in Kurdistan, Iraq; Veroes, Venezuela; and in Puerto Rico. She currently teaches voice at Bucknell University.
Benjamin Barson is a saxophonist, historian, radical educator, and organizer. He is an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. He received his PhD in Music from the University of Pittsburgh and recently completed a Fulbright Garcia-Robles postdoctoral fellowship at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Africana Studies & Research Center. Barson has performed with luminaries including Fred Ho, Arturo O’Farrill, Craig Harris, and Geri Allen, and at a wide range of national and international venues, including the Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Museum, CECUT in Tijuana, and the Mesopotamian Water Forum – an event organized by ecological activists in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan. He is the winner of the 2018 Johnny Mandel Prize from ASCAP for his composition “Insurrealista,” and was a member with the Afro Yaqui Music Collective when the group was named Pittsburgh’s “Best Jazz Band” by the readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2018. Barson is also an activist, and was a cultural organizer in the campaign to free political prisoner and Black power activist Russell Maroon Shoatz. He currently works closely with a group inspired by Maroon’s legacy named Ecosocialist Horizons.
A Look Back and Thinking Ahead: MCC's Holistic Safety Plan
In collaboration with the MCC Council, JS Interns, and MCC Student Teams
MCC Lounge
Cap off the end of the academic year at the MCC as we reflect on the strides we've made with our Holistic Safety Plan and honor the valued community members who helped bring it to life! We'll highlight upcoming projects, resources, and approaches, all guided by our commitment to physical, spiritual, and emotional safety—featuring insights on Restorative Justice, Trauma-Informed Care, and Disability Justice. Join us for an engaging discussion, meaningful connections, grounding activities, and a shared meal. It's a wonderful opportunity to reflect, connect, and grow as a community.
