The University of Massachusetts will be holding a series of free talks throughout October, featuring a wide variety of speakers and presenters.
Other talks will include:
U.S. Neoslavery: A History of the Prison Industrial Present
Chained in Silence: A History of Black Women and Convict Labor
Resisting Police Violence in Springfield and Beyond:
Mothers, Scholars,and Queer People of Color Speak Out
A Conversation with Dr. Rhonda Y. Williams
For more information on these talks (including dates, times, and additional topic details), please click the “read more” below.
Wednesday, October 5 – Racist and Systemic Police Violence, Chicago Style
Attorney Flint Taylor (People’s Law Office) will discuss police torture and violence in Chicago, focusing on the 1960 assassination of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, the torture of African American suspects by police commander Jon Burge, and the recent videotaped police murder of Laquan McDonald. Co-sponsored by the Commonwealth Honors College, Legal Studies, the Pre-Law Advising Office, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, Anthropology, and Western Mass ACLU. 4:30pm, Herter Hall 601, UMass Amherst.
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Thursday, October 13
U.S. Neoslavery: A History of the Prison Industrial Present:
Lecture by scholar-activist Dennis Childs (UC San Diego). Hosted by the Social Thought and Political Economy Program and co-sponsored by the American Studies Program, the Department of English, the Feinberg Family, Distinguished Lecture Series, and the Department of History. 4:00pm, Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall
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Monday, October 17
Chained in Silence: A History of Black Women and Convict Labor:
Lecture and book signing with award-winning historian Talitha L. LeFlouria (University of Virginia) on the plight of post-Civil War black women prisoners and their day-to-day struggles to overcome work-related abuses and violence. Copies of LeFlouria’s prize-winning book Chained in Silence will be available for purchase. UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History Distinguished Annual Lecture. 4:30pm, Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall.
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Wednesday, October 26
Resisting Police Violence in Springfield and Beyond: Mothers, Scholars, and Queer People of Color Speak Out
An evening with local and national voices, Kissa Owens (mother of Delano Walker), Andrea Ritchie (attorney, writer, Soros Justice Fellow), ShaeShae Quest (OutNow), Maria Ververis (mother of Michael Ververis), and Rhonda Y. Williams (scholar and community activist). Co-hosted by OutNow, Arise for Social Justice, and Project Operation Change, with the STCC School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. 7pm, Scibelli Hall Auditorium, STCC, Building 2.
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Thursday, October 27
Conversation with Dr. Rhonda Y. Williams
“Dr. Rhonda,” as she is called, has been engaged in local and community efforts, including on police and criminal justice reform. She is author of Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century and the award-winning The Politics of Public Housing; is the founder and director of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University; and as one of the “Cleveland 8″, has been a voice for justice in the Tamir Rice case. Attendees are invited to bring their lunches. Beverages and dessert provided. 12pm, Herter Hall 601.