social_justice_matters_lafayetteLafayette College’s Spring 2017 Social Justice Events Series kicks off with an evening discussion of “Twitter Talks Back: Communities of Color and Catalysts for Conversation,” with Meredith Clark, Ph.D., University of North Texas, 7 p.m. Feb.  16 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights.

The program, #MediaMatters: Social Justice as Product and Process, runs through April with a variety of speakers and events focused on issues of race, media, and power; activism, religion, and gender identity; literature, poetry and social media as tools.

All events are free and open to the public. 

SPRING 2017 SOCIAL JUSTICE EVENTS

Thursday, Feb. 16 – 4:10 p.m., Gendebien Room, Skillman Library
The Skillman Library Social Justice Reading Series presents a discussion of  Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Case for Reparations, in recognition of Black Heritage Month. Lafayette librarians will co-host in partnership with professors.

Thursday, Feb. 16 – 7 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104
Meredith Clark, Ph.D.Keynote Address – Meredith Clark presents “Twitter Talks Back: Communities of Color and Catalysts for Conversation”

Working within her research interests of race, media and power, former journalist Meredith Clark, University of North Texas, will present an overview and look ahead at the impact of culturally informed social-media use in addressing social problems in the 21st century, and invite conversation about where we go from here.

Sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development.


Tuesday, Feb. 21 – 7 p.m., Oechsle Hall, Room 224 – Nuala Caral presents Talking Back: Challenging Stereotypes and Oppression in Media”

Activist Nuala Cabral visits Lafayette as part of Black Heritage Month.Activist, educator and award-winning filmmaker Nuala Cabral will discuss efforts spearheaded by artists, organizers, and educators to change the current media landscape and highlight some of the challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned. Note change of venue; talk will be in Oechsle Hall room 224.

Sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development.


EVENTS

Monday, Feb. 27 – 7 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104

Joseph Duber, assistant professor of religion, University of Rochester, will speak at Lafayette College as part of #MediaMatters, Social Justice Series. Joshua Dubler presents “Break Every Yoke: Religion, Justice, and the Abolition of Prisons

Dubler, University of Rochester, is a critically engaged scholar whose teaching and writing takes place where American religious history and ethnography intersect with critical theory, and with the theory of religion.

Sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, LANDIS Criminal Justice Reform Awareness Week.


Thursday, March 2 – 7 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104

Aisha Durham presents “While Black: Social Media, Social Justice

Millennials are defined by their savvy integration of digital technology. Durham, University of South Florida, will describe the “work” of post-race rhetoric and discuss the ways young people use social media as a tool to reinforce or resist racial terror.

Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Office of Intercultural Development, and Women’s History Month.


Thursday, April 6 – 7 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104

Political activist Frank Bardacke will speak at Lafayette College as part of the spring Social Justice Series.Frank Bardacke presents “Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers

Political activist and author, Bardacke protested the Vietnam war and was featured in the film Berkeley in the Sixties. He spent the next decade working in the fields and canneriers near Salinas, CA. He published a book on the subject in 2011.

Sponsored by the Department of Government & Law and the Office of Intercultural Development.


Tuesday, April 11 – 7 p.m., Oeschle 224

Dean Spade is an Associate Professor at Seattle University School of LawGender, Identity, and Social Movements Lecture and Q&A with Dean Spade, University of Seattle School of Law

Spade teaches Administrative Law, Poverty Law, and Law and Social Movements. Prior to joining the faculty, Dean was a Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School and Harvard Law School, teaching classes related to sexual orientation and gender identity law and law and social movements.

Sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program, Department of Biology, Skillman Library, and Office of Intercultural Development.


Monday, April 24 – 7 p.m., Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104

MacKnight Black Competition Poetry Reading featuring Kazim Ali and Lafayette student poets

Ali, associate professor of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Oberlin College, will give a reading followed by student winners of the H. MacKnight Black Poetry Competition.

Open to Lafayette seniors, the MacKnight competition is named for H. MacKnight Black, a graduate of 1916, who at the time of his death in 1931, was one of America’s most significant poets.

Award-winning poet, novelist, essayist and translator, Ali’s writing has appeared in prestigious publications. In addition, he is a contributing editor for AWP Writers Chronicle, associate editor of the literary magazine FIELD and founding editor of the small press Nightboat Books. He is the series co-editor for both Poets on Poetry and Under Discussion, from the University of Michigan Press.

Sponsored by the Department of English.


Tuesday, April 25 – 4:10 p.m., Marlo Room, Farinon Student Center

Javier Ávila is a renowned poet and novelist who will speak at the Social Justice Series of Lafayette College.Jean Corrie Poetry Reading and Ice Cream Social, Featuring Javier Ávila

Student winners of the competition will read their poems, followed at the podium by the competition judge, Javier Ávila, renowned poet and novelist, author of bestselling novel Different, which became an award-winning movie titled Miente, screened in over a dozen countries. His books have been part of university curricula for years with his recent work being praised as a powerful voice for Latinos in the United States.

Sponsored by the Department of English


SOCIAL JUSTICE POSTER (small)

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Images of speakers, artists and performers available upon request.

Media inquiries welcome. Contact:

Kristine Y. Todaro
Director of Special Projects and Media Relations
Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042
610-330-5119
LafColnews@lafayette.edu
todarok@lafayette.edu
www.lafayette.edu

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