Events By Quarter
DIVERSITY LECTURE
Confronting Institutional and Systemic Racism Chandan Reddy and Stephen Dillon
MCC Theater
This panel aims to discuss in greater detail two main questions - what is institutionalized racism? and how do we navigate a system when we are still a part of it?. The goal is to give all affiliated with the university who have experienced institutionalized racism, either consciously or unconsciously, the tools to handle and combat it. Chandan Reddy is Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies and the Program for the Comparative Study of Ideas at the University of Washington, Seattle. Stephen Dillon is an Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Queer Studies at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. The panel will be facilitated by Gaye Theresa Johnson, Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Race and Literature Series
Bad Indians
This year, the MultiCultural Center kicked off a new series to explore the issues of race and belonging through literature. This will be an interactive space for lively discussions on various theories about race, a safe space for articulating perspectives on identity and belonging which are contextualized by different authors, and an intentional time for centering the narratives of marginalized communities. Discussions will be facilitated by various faculty members, graduate students, and staff members. Readings may be suggested but are not required for attendance. This series hopes to cultivate open dialogue, and a spirit of appreciation and intellectual kinship. Dessert will be provided! All are welcome.
Engaging Communities with Resilient Love
Healing Through Restorative Justice Fania Davis
MCC Theater
A quickly emerging field which invites a fundamental shift in the way we think about and do justice, restorative justice is based on a desired set of principles and practices to mediate conflict, strengthen community, and repair harm. This talk will speak to the importance of restorative justice and how it can contribute to processes of individual and community healing. Fania Davis is co-founder and Director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) and a civil rights attorney with a Ph.D. in indigenous knowledge. A national thought leader in the field, Fania Davis is a long-time social justice activist, restorative justice practitioner, and professor.
Cup of Culture
Constructing the Terrorist Threat
MCC Theater
Deepa Kumar, one of the nation’s foremost scholars on Islamophobia, looks at how Muslims have become the predominant face of terror in U.S. news and entertainment media — even though terror attacks by white extremists have far outnumbered attacks by Muslim Americans since 9/11. Arguing that racialized threats have long been used to induce moral panics and advance anti-democratic policies, Kumar explores how ruling elites have been raising the specter of Arab and Islamic terror since the 1970s to justify militarism, war, and curbs on civil liberties. From the Iran-Hostage Crisis in 1979 to the “war on terror” after 9/11 to the rise of ISIS today, she argues that Americans have been taught to fear Muslims out of all proportion to reality, presenting a wealth of eye-opening data about the actual threat level posed by Muslim terrorists in the United States.
