We cannot understand where humanity has been and where we are going without Black Studies.
The newly established Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies is a multidisciplinary institute that is a think tank for Black Studies research, including issues of race and racism. Housed in the College of Arts & Sciences' African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) program, the multidisciplinary institute will establish research clusters across campus and promote UK's growing research and scholarship on topics of importance to global and local histories, such as race in the Americas, African cultures and global impact of Black people from antiquity to the future. Many of the research clusters are concerned with conceptions of race in the future, contemporary conceptions of race, slavery and the quest for freedom, the long legacy of racial discrimination and violence including the struggle for civil rights.
Join Anastasia Curwood, history professor and director of the AAAS program, and DaMaris Hill, English professor and interim director of the AAAS program through spring 2021, in conversation with A&S Interim Dean Christian Brady as they discuss immediate and long-term plans for the Institute.
Derrick White, professor in the UK History Department and African American and Africa Studies Program, and Amira Rose Davis, professor of History and African American Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, in conversation with A&S Interim Dean Christian Brady will examine how the intersection of Covid-19 and social justice made college and professional sports a site of activism and protest. The panelists will also discuss how it connects to a longer history of athletic activism.
As a prelude to the Fall Semester, Associate Provost Kathi Kern and Dean Mark Kornbluh will discuss the challenges posed by teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty and students alike worry about the logistics. How will we maintain a safe and healthy learning environment? How much of instruction will need to be moved online or “flipped”? How does technology enable or restrict us? How do we continue to foster strong student-teacher bonds at a distance? How do we build community in our current environment?
And while these questions are urgent for the particular moment, they also point to a lasting shift in how we go about our work as educators. Even after the pandemic subsides, we will likely find ourselves reflecting on the unexamined, yet sacred elements of what makes a college education. As disruptive as the pandemic has been, it has also ignited a climate of innovation. We are led to think anew about the journeys that our students take, how our research and disciplines best serve a diverse community of learners, how the wicked problems of the world defy institutional silos, and how we can best support individuals while also strengthening communities. Our lessons learned and enduring challenges from the past few months afford us a unique opportunity to anticipate these emergent paradigms for teaching and learning.
Enjoy new work from three creative writing and African American & Africana Studies faculty, followed by a conversation with A&S Dean Mark Kornbluh about how writing helps them process, protest and uplift during challenging times.
