Program: The Eighth Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference on Race

Craig Steven Wilder is a historian of American institutions and ideas. He is the author of “Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities” (Bloomsbury, 2013), which Kirkus Reviews named one of the best nonfiction books of the year and which won multiple book awards. Since its publication, scores of colleges and universities have publicly acknowledged their historical ties to slavery and the slave trade, and institutions across the Atlantic have committed to researching and publishing their connections to the slave economy. The HBO comedy “VEEP” closed its sixth season with Selina Myer’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) plans for her presidential library at Yale University derailing upon reports that the site had once been the campus slave quarters. The 2017 premiere of the ABC comedy “black-ish” included a theatrical salute to the enslaved people who built the nation, including its universities. Wilder’s book inspired the Grammy-winning artist Esperanza Spalding’s song, “Ebony and Ivy,” “Emily’s D+Evolution” (2016). A fictional book titled “Ebony & Ivy” was featured in the film “Dear White People” (2014).

Popular education is a mode of political praxis that aims to create spaces for collective knowledge production that challenge dominant narratives and build networks of solidarity to dismantle logics of oppression. Central to popular education is the significance of freedom in the resistant projects of anti- racism, anti-sexism, anti-heterosexualism, and anti-ableism. Drawing on the work of decolonial feminist philosopher and popular educator María Lugones, our session will explore the application of popular education methods, its challenges and potential, and its relevance to contemporary decolonial educational justice struggles. Panelists will take up questions related to building power and solidarity in relation to language and linguistic practice, addressing issues of epistemic harm in the academy, and strengthening our own and each other’s communal senses of self.

In the 2023–24 academic year, Monmouth University’s Department of English was successful in competing for a Diversity Innovation Grant. The DIG allowed us to create a professional development workshop program that helped educate full- and part-time English faculty teaching sections of General Education Literature (i.e., Gen Ed LIT) about assessable practices and strategies for diverse, equitable, and antiracist literature instruction. To achieve this goal, we invited Sophia Sarigianides, Ph.D., professor of English education at Westfield University, to develop and lead three impactful, remote-synchronous workshops addressing how to better align literature-class outcomes with antiracist goals, how to sequence assignments and activities to develop antiracist literary interpretation, and how to stage successful classroom dialogues on race/ism and equity. The co-author of 2019’s “Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students”, Sarigianides had previously taught graduate English Education courses at Teachers College, Columbia University, with a singular emphasis on helping white teacher candidates develop antiracist pedagogies. For the Eighth Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference on Race, a panel of instructors who participated will be presenting on how they have been implementing best practices culled from the workshop series into their courses.

“I suggest you leave the South,” wrote recent English literature graduate of New York City’s Hunter College Pauli Murray to Louisiana poet, writer, and historian Marcus Christian on a July summer day in 1934. After reading his poem “Clown and King” in the December 1933 edition of W. E. B. DuBois’s Opportunity magazine, Murray advised Christian to pack up and leave New Orleans because the south “seems to have gotten under your skin.” A poem written about racial hierarchies and the pervasive anti-Blackness in the United States, “Clown and King” reflected the physical and mental toll Christian’s endless pursuit of the study of Black Louisiana imposed on him, a Black scholar barred from the very records his profession deemed necessary to tell stories about the past. Moving to the north, Murray reasoned, would alleviate some of his everyday struggles, for Christian had “too beautiful a pen to sing ‘lamentations’ forever.” Despite Murray’s urging, Marcus Christian never left the south. This paper examines how Marcus Christian utilized his printing press and printing business to defend his right to learn in New Orleans. This example situates the battlegrounds Black historians of Louisiana traversed to liberate their pasts trapped behind walls for white people only. Not only did Christian supplement his pay as staff and faculty at Dillard and later University of New Orleans with job-printing gigs at night, but he liberated histories trapped in walls reserved for white researchers by copying rare manuscript records on his own printer.

In the US, placing all people conveniently into boxes to describe their race and gender, does not tell their full story, or represent their full experiences as individuals or effectively contain their multiple identities. Each person, whether self-identifying as Black, white, or some other race on the US census form, is unique. To what degree does continuing to use race-based data keep our society locked in established structures and institutions based in racism? In health outcomes research, why is belonging to a particular box detrimental? Debates persist about the value of using race data as research variables. Many believe that race-data alone does not reveal full causes of disease and illness among “race” groups and that contextual evaluations, such as social determinants of health, are integral to research. If race is a social construct, and not proven by science, how then does placing people into racially defined boxes help researchers understand and address serious problems, like advancing health equity and reducing health disparities? This paper will explore how learning from race-data in health research challenges our interpretations of helpful versus harmful.

In spring 2023, following a traumatic life experience, I decided to take a road trip along the Mississippi Blues Trail. Leaving New Orleans, I drove north into Mississippi, charting a course that would take me to the blues markers of so many of the bluesmen and women who’d played such a seminal role in the development of Rock & Roll and modern popular music. I traveled along the cotton fields of the Delta to train depots and cemeteries, where I was able to reflect on the hallowed ground, giving me peace from my grief and allowing me to come home feeling uplifted at the end of my journey. I had wanted to take this road trip for a long time; due to various obstacles, I had never been able to do it. Sadly, I only got the opportunity in the wake of a loss, but the trip was all the more personal. I immersed myself in the history of this region, and my appreciation of the intersection between culture and race became deeper as a result. For the Interdisciplinary Conference on Race, I would like to do a presentation that contains photos as well as audio to help document the narrative of my experience. My objective is to provide a narrative that is both educational and entertaining.

When examining United States maps tracking anti-Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation there is a clear overlap among the states proposing these discriminatory laws. Through our research we explore anti-diversity legislation across the US and how the increase in these initiatives have put the freedom to read in jeopardy. How are libraries fairing in this contentious climate? Libraries serve as pillars for free access to information; the American Library Association (ALA) has recently issued a statement recommitting these institutions to the fight against censorship. Despite this, libraries are no strangers to political pressure, and many have fallen victim to the rise of book bans. Book bans commonly target stories from marginalized communities, focusing on BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ individuals; the same communities targeted by these legislations. This is demonstrated through ALA’s annual Top 10 Most Challenged Books list, which is based on statistics of documented attempts to censor library materials. The most common reasons these titles are challenged include their discussions of race and racism, claims to be sexually explicit, and the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ content. The censoring of these titles furthers the discrimination faced by these communities while restricting their efforts to promote learning and compassion through the power of stories. This culminates in removing or obscuring the freedom to learn in effected states. Finally, we share ways the library community at large is supporting those experiencing the side effects of this climate through the creation of free digital libraries and book sanctuaries.

Education for culturally and linguistically diverse children often becomes meaningful and relatable when they have culturally relevant experiences in the classroom (Laing & Villavicencio, 2016) and throughout their schooling experience from preschool through higher education. These meaningful experiences can result in high-level academic performance, including early elementary (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Souto- Manning, 2018). One of the most powerful ways that educators can provide culturally relevant experiences in through ensuring students have access to multicultural books. Multicultural books reflect the diverse identities, experiences, and cultures of students. Seeing themselves represented in literature fosters a sense of belonging and validates their identities. Exposure to multicultural literature helps students develop an understanding and appreciation for cultures different from their own. Banned books, though restricted in some educational settings, serve as a powerful lens through which to examine the complexities of societal norms, cultural values, and educational practices. Educators and researchers have a duty to be knowledgeable about surrounding banned books, exploring their significance in promoting critical thinking, teaching about social justice, and challenging the dominant narrative. We also need to be aware role of educators, librarians, and advocates in advocating for the inclusion of diverse perspectives in literature and curriculum. By incorporating banned books as facilitators for dialogue and reflection, we can cultivate inclusive learning environments that celebrate diversity and empower individuals to navigate a complex world with empathy and understanding.

In this paper, we examine an ongoing transformation of American higher education by the conservative social actors, educational technology companies, finance, and management corporations especially as it ties to the parental rights movement, e.g., Moms of Liberty. Both conservative educational activism and the parental rights movement have roots in the history of the effort to curb progressive values embedded in the American educational system (Laats, 2015). A more recent resurgence of these ideologies has had decades and has spent millions of dollars to create counter-narratives and competing structures as an alternative to progressive politics in nearly all areas of social life, most notably in the media and education. We begin with a brief historical overview of conservative educational activism as a contextual backdrop to our examination of contemporary and publicly available information to examine deep entanglements of conservative money and politics with arguably far-reaching impacts on schooling, and higher education in America today.

This panel will explore the effect of book bans and the removal of presumed ‘provocative’ reading material from school and public libraries, and school and college curricula. The impact of removing works by writers of color, LGTBQI writers or those who challenge the status quo and restrictive historical views has been devastating as well as reinvigorating. While the immediate loss is evident in the limitations placed on academic freedom, restricted access to reading material, and serious trauma for educators and students, it has also propelled numerous educators and readers into action. The panel will highlight the reading groups, banned books projects, collections of books and funds that have occurred in the past two years to challenge books bans from conservative states and legislators, offer insight into the various forms of resistance occurring at present, and consider the significance of the freedom of choice in education. Two of our panelists will bring the school counselors’ perspective on such bans and associated restrictions—especially the disappearance of books from library shelves without warning—and the impact on school-aged readers in various school districts across New Jersey. As a literature professor, I will explore the disproportionate number of writers of color impacted by this book ban: e.g., several novels of Toni Morrison, New Jersey’s own Nobel laureate have been banned. It is our contention that these bans serve to reverse the process of broadening the lexicon and curriculum, and the drive towards inclusivity that began only five decades ago.

There has been a wide range movement to censor works of literature all over the United States and it has largely been driven by conservative parents of elementary and secondary education students across the nation. I would provide a brief informational component at the beginning to put the topic in context as an example of how students are being denied the opportunity to be exposed to classic works of literature that have always been important in the analysis and teaching of United States History. In providing this brief context, I would also analyze the political divisions this has caused within the country. My overview would then lead to a discussion of what could and should be done about this to make sure that students of all levels have the ability to be exposed to works in the disciplines of History and Literature that are valuable to learn and understand the record of American societal development.

Jerk’ has become synonymous with Jamaican cuisine, cookery, and culture. Not only is it the most referenced Caribbean food (jerk chicken specifically) but recipes for jerk marinades and spice mixes have made their way into homes and restaurants around the world. What is jerk, why does it excite societies internationally, and can the answer to these questions reveal themselves in jerk recipes? While a recipe as a literary medium is thought to solely provide instruction on how to prepare food, “Jerk Makin’ Me Crazy” argues that jerk recipes disclose complex articulations of Jamaica’s history, distinct gastronomic identity, and cosmopolitan reality. It considers pre Columbian, 20th, and 21st century recipes for jerk, elucidating the evolution of its ingredients, cooking methods, and cookware in conjunction with their cultural implications. Utilizing cookbooks, personal journals, and interdisciplinary analyses, this paper illuminates Indigenous, African, European, East Asian, and other unique populations’ influence on Jamaica’s foodways. Dissecting the recipes and their contents additionally offers a broader understanding of how modern cooks and chefs articulate and experience Jamaica’s past and present. By threading the components of jerk recipes, “Jerk Makin’ Me Crazy” reveals that the global craze and crave for jerk is caused by the multiple episodes of immigration to Jamaica since the 15th century and the subsequent globalization as a result of colonialism. Thereby, jerk appeals to a universal audience. This essay will hopefully prompt the digestible development of a unit on the Caribbean, globalization, literary analysis, or colonialism’s impression on food in K-12 History or Language Arts.

In October 2016, the A&E cable network launched the reality program Live PD, which follows police officers from various departments across the United States as they go on patrol. Alongside fervent protests and a resurgent racial justice movement in the wake of ongoing police killings of unarmed Black people, Live PD positioned itself as a solution to racialized police violence by invoking transparency and documentary’s educational promise. As host Dan Abrams explains, “What we’re doing here is unprecedented—showing the work of law enforcement in real time, live.” The Live PD viewer is thus hailed as a student who learns about policing by watching. Although Live PD was A&E’s most-watched series, the show was canceled in June 2020 after it was revealed that Live PD destroyed the video footage of police tasering a Black man to death. By 2022, however, the show was rebooted for the Reelz network as On Patrol: Live and is currently the network’s highest-rated series. In this paper, I take Live PD and On Patrol: Live as case studies to examine the longer history of television as pedagogical media with respect to race. Both shows address viewers pedagogically: each episode instructs viewers about how policing “really” works, and the show’s paratextual materials include quizzes about things like the cost of police aircraft and the minutiae of police searches. I argue that this media in fact authorizes intensified surveillance of Blackness precisely through the discourse of transparency and education.

In this open forum discussion, the presenter will discuss the film “Kids” (1995). Kids was an independent film shot in a documentary style written by a then unknown 18-year-old screenwriter. The movie included unknown actors and a first-time director. The film takes place in NYC and follows the lives on teenagers in one-day as a coming-of-age film. The film was controversial on release and received an NC-17 rating but was later released without a rating. The film has many criticisms, such as “it is racist”, “it is child pornography”, “it is homophobic”, “it is violent”, “it has no artistic merit”, “it is all about drugs and sex”. The presenter has shown the film in its entirety in his HE 101 class “Strategies for Healthy Living” every semester at Monmouth University. The film has been shown 15 times to over 300 students. The presenter has discussions with students prior to showing the film and after the film has concluded and also has students fill out a worksheet about the film. The presenter will state what has been learned from the student feedback and bring some sample student responses to the presentation to share with attendees. The presenter will discuss the merits and negatives of showing a film that has so many “hot button” and “difficult to watch” moments. The value to students will be discussed. The presenter encourages all attendees to have watched the film prior to attending the session and a robust discussion will ensue.

This essay examines the role of Black women’s sartorial expression in the Black Power movement (approx. 1966-1975), highlighting the linkages between style and advocacy for racial justice, gender equality, and community empowerment. Through a cultural analysis of various media forms, it explores how Black women challenged norms and educated others through their stylistic choices. By analyzing the stylistic expressions of activists, celebrities, and everyday individuals, this paper interrogates how they resisted white supremacy through visual culture. Building upon existing scholarship, such as Tanisha Ford’s work, it sheds new light on the impact of style and cultural aesthetics during the mid-20th century Black Power era.

This research explores dignified partnerships in social responsibility organizations (SROs) among Black and white1 women sales consultants. It investigates the impact of white saviorism on these partnerships and examines the one-sided relationships between white consultants and global artisan partners (who are all Black and Brown) in the Global South. Utilizing critical theory (CT), WSIC theory, and Black feminist thought as a philosophical paradigm within the matrix of domination/oppression, this study analyzes relationships among Black and white sales consultants and between white consultants and SROs’ global artisan partners. In-depth interviews provide insights into SRO culture, including decision-making, collective knowledge, white saviorism, and white supremacy/superiority. The three social responsibility organizations (SROs) Noonday Collection, Sseko Designs, and Trades of Hope are dedicated to people, planet, and profit. The contradiction lies in their reported embrace of white saviorism while promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Black and white consultants reveal incongruities in the SROs’ commitment to these values. Moreover, these contradictions, impede Black sales consultants’ opportunities to learn more about and be in relationships with global artisan partners (often other Black people). This research addresses dismantling white saviorism’s role in the white savior industrial complex (WSIC). The study’s critique adds to both theoretical and practical implications and serves to influence how organizations practice EDI.

Crystal R. Sanders is an award-winning historian of the United States in the twentieth century. Her research and teaching interests include African American History, Black Women’s History, and the History of Black Education. She received her B.A. (cum laude) in History and Public Policy from Duke University and a Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. Before coming to Emory, she was an associate professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. Sanders is the author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016 as part of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture. The book won the 2017 Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Research Association and the 2017 New Scholar’s Book Award from Division F of the American Educational Research Association. The book was also a finalist for the 2016 Hooks National Book Award. Sanders’ work can also be found in many of the leading history journals, including the Journal of Southern History, the North Carolina Historical Review, and the Journal of African American History. She is currently writing a book on black southerners’ efforts to secure graduate education during the age of Jim Crow.

This panel brings together several scholars who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community to discuss their unique experiences in the classroom and on their respective campuses. These scholars will offer insight and strategies for teaching LGBTQIA+ studies, supporting queer students, faculty, staff, and administrators, and creating meaningful educational experiences for those in the campus environment who openly discriminate against others on gender, sexual, racial, and religious grounds. Finally, the panelists will offer some ideas on how to comply with—and resist—legislation in their home states that seeks to limit the study of race, gender, and sexuality.

This paper explores the lives and ideas of Black women students in science and medicine at Teachers College, Columbia and those attending the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons during the 1920s. More specifically, the paper explores Black women students and their ideas about gender equality, education, and Black internationalism. These women forged a pathway towards the freedom to learn despite living in a virulently racist society linking education equity to freedom rights more generally. Black women took advantage of the summer program at Teachers College, Columbia in large numbers through the New Negro Era, during the tenure of Dean James Earl Russell (1898- 1927) and beyond, while some Black women also took advantage of access to graduate programs that allowed them admittance at Columbia. This included women such as May Edward Chinn and Eslanda Cardoza Goode Robeson who attended Teachers College in the second decade of the twentieth century, and Agnes O. Griffin who entered the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) at about this same time. Their ideas about race, gender, health, and education equity helped to lay the groundwork for the modern Black freedom struggle.

As an indispensable duty, the Black professoriate must produce empirically accurate scholarship that dismantles the problematic dominance of Eurocentric educational pedagogies over a critical mass of black students. This presentation integrates multiple conference themes (Pedagogies of Protest, Education, and the Carceral State, and “Woke Education and Cultural Wars”) to assess the state of Black Studies on its fifty-fifth anniversary. Drawing on the anti- reductionism methodology and the interpretive lens of Dr. Nathan Hare, who established the inaugural Black Studies program at San Francisco State University, this presentation scrutinizes two contrasting concepts: Black Studies versus the Study of Blacks. Juxtaposing these perspectives provides a contextual analysis of the intricate dynamics through which privilege and oppression serve as mechanisms of social control, perpetuate racism, and maintain the status quo, consequently undermining the field of Black Studies. This research poses the question: Are the majority of Black Studies programs adequately positioned to survive the impact of anti-black policies stemming from the potential re-election of former President Donald Trump? Using the Socratic method, the presenter captures this phenomenon and addresses the question through interactive dialogue that delves into the academic and social significance of Black Studies amidst increasing conservative exceptionalism. Through this approach, diverse audiences increase their proclivity to grasp the complex interplay between Black Studies, Eurocentric curriculum development, and contemporary American nationalism.

The eurocentrism of IR theory is well known, but the field has failed to attend to Indigenous thought which has developed and existed since time immemorial. Indigenous thought opens up a radically different perspective on world politics. Indigenous thought includes explicit expectations for relations between different people that pre-date contemporary IR theory by thousands of years, but the expansive Indigenous literature has not been attended to in IR theory. Unlike rationalist approaches, like realism and liberal institutionalism, Indigenous thought is relational. This means that the goal for a good life is not made from maximizing welfare for a self/state but to create and maintain good relations. This literature broadly argues that humans are required to approach “all our relations” (other humans, human groups, plants, animals, and the land/water) with respect, reciprocity, and responsibility. When we fail to do this, crisis follows. Observation or violation of these Original Instructions explain world dis/order, and especially sustainability failures. This element answers the presumed critique from realists– that this is utopian idealism and fails to account for the manipulation of power in anarchy. The answer to this critique is that a system that normalizes such violence and exploitation is not sustainable, it cannot last and there is always a reckoning. Attending to Indigenous thought also adds a corrective to an anthropocentric discipline. Attending to the land also makes this approach deeply geopolitical in the sense that a living geography is part of the holistic concern where everything is interrelated and interdependent.

The Kaurs Reimagine Story Project is an anthology that focuses on truth-based storytelling for transformation. This collection gives a voice to Sikh women along with the opportunity to pause, reflect, and express truth-centered narratives that choose a way forward towards their own spiritual peace and liberation. The goal of this project is for each individual to explore their own spiritual world with depth, compassion, reflection, and realize the life adventures that unfurl when we submit ourselves to Waheguru. It is a choice to listen and implement. We want to offer the community transformative narratives where the writers have located, trusted, and activated their own inner wisdom to reimagine a new vision for themselves, a journey towards freedom to share with our communities. When we can nurture our community members to be the best that they can be, we all benefit from the community leveling up and reaching their full potential. When Kaurs showcase and live the value that the Gurus exhibited, we all flourish in our homes, sangats, and regions. We can then begin to see one another as trusted sources of experiential knowledge and wisdom, loving arms of support and compassion, and cheerleaders to respect and lift each other up to ensure no one is left behind. We are always learning, but not always from each other and this freedom to learn about and from others who are different than us requires an open mind and is the ultimate reflection.

This paper explores the freedom to learn during the era of the Communist control of Romania. During this time there were stringent rules governing teaching and learning in the totalitarian state that was Romania (Socialist Republic of Romania) from 1947 to 1989. This paper weaves together personal recollections with primary sources to discuss the Communist control over teaching and learning in Romania with a focus on the era when the country was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu from the 1970s to the collapse of the Eastern bloc states. In this paper, I explore the policy of the Romanian Communist regime towards foreigners visiting the country, and also towards those teaching foreign languages such as English, French and German. Since I was born, raised, and educated in Romania, I shall include my personal experiences into this narrative regarding the position of the Romanian government concerning the relations between foreigners and Romanian citizens. Despite the deteriorating economy and the political constraints placed on the Romanian people, foreigners were welcome in the country. My experience as a tourist guide and as an ESL teacher, enable me to discuss aspects about relations between Romanians and foreigners that have largely not been revealed to the public. The Romanian government encouraged tourism and openness to the west; however, those who worked in education as teachers were looked upon with suspicion. Teaching and the freedom to learn was severely curtailed in Communist Romania as revealed in this analysis.

Between 1900 and 1950 there were no less than 30 distinct history comic titles initially published in the United States, Canada, France, or Great Britain (and many syndicated much further afield). In addition there were at least dozens of one-off history auca in Spain. These comics intended to offer audiences “historical accuracy,” while at the same time countering what at least one creator referred to as his own dissatisfaction “with the histories we were given to study – dry, uninteresting affairs with little to intrigue the youthful imagination.” While “historical accuracy” may have been the objective of most history comics titles, they were not without patriotic, nationalistic, and indeed racist bent. This paper will look at examples of pre-1950s history comics and how some creators’ leveraged the historical record for nationalistic or racist purposes.

The development and implementation of LGBTQIA+ curriculum has been a challenge for educators across the country for many years. This workshop on LGBTQIA+ representation and awareness in education will emphasize the importance of inclusivity and diversity in learning environments. Through the lens of both real-life narratives and entertainment, the session seeks to elucidate the significance of representation and awareness for educators. By addressing the theme of race and the freedom to learn, the workshop delves into the interconnectedness of identity and inclusivity. Central to the argument is the premise that fostering a learning environment where LGBTQIA+ individuals are represented and understood is essential for promoting equity and empowerment. The workshop will dive into the base levels of LGBTQIA+ information along with the incorporation of importance of representation through entertainment for understanding connections. Moreover, by providing resources and web links, the workshop empowers educators to implement inclusive practices in their classrooms and facilitate meaningful discussions around LGBTQIA+ issues. The workshop aims to equip educators with the knowledge and resources necessary to integrate inclusive practices into their teaching methodologies and curricula. By discussing this controversial topic, it advocates for more equitable conversations where it no longer is seen as taboo rather than empowering history in the educational world. By embracing diversity and promoting understanding, we can create educational spaces where all students feel valued, respected, and empowered to thrive.