Community is roughly defined as a group of people sharing a common interest, place, or identity. We often think of community as the next important social unit after family, as a way to understand collective belonging, as well as our longing for it. But, like family, community is a concept that reconciles a multitude of visions, coalitions, contradictions, struggles, utopias, and intersections. Communities profess to share something essential in common, which often masks struggles to define what actually constitutes that common bond. Some communities have a formal leadership structure, while others operate from bottom-up pluralism. Some communities occupy the same space and place over time, while others, often those of racial and ethnic minorities, have been more imagined, transient, or portable. People can feel like insiders in many communities or outsiders to all. They can enter into an existing space and place, mobilize emergent ones, or challenge the legitimacy of others. This year’s Discussion Series on Culture, Race, and Ethnicity explores and problematizes the concept of community. We present community as a signifier, while our invited guests provide insight on what that signifier represents, whom it affects, and why it matters.
SPRING 2016
Harlem KW Project, LLC
Performing Artists, present:
"Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale"
Jaylene Clark Owens; Hollis Heath; Janelle Healy; and Chyann Sapp
Harlem, NY
Monday, February 15, 2016, 7-9 p.m.
Klingenstein Lounge, Egbert Hall
Culinary Commonalities
Fred Opie, PhD
Prof. of History and Foodways
Babson College, Massachusetts
Thursday, March 3, 2016, 7-9 p.m.
Klingenstein Lounge
Fractured Unity and Student Movements
Gustavo Licon, PhD
Asst. Prof. of Latino/a Studies
CSCRE, Ithaca College
Tuesday, April 5, 2016, 7-9 p.m.
Klingenstein Lounge
More Than a Story of Oppression
Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars
Ithaca College
Thursday, April 21, 2016, 12-1 p.m.
Clark Lounge
FALL 2015
Transborder Gender and Indigineity
Maylei Blackwell, PhD
Associate Professor of Chicano Studies & Women's Studies
UCLA
Monday, September 21, 7-9 p.m.
Clark Lounge, Egbert Hall
Fragile Structures
Jeffreen Hayes, PhD
Principal
Bridge/Arts, Inc
Tuesday, October 6, 7-9 p.m.
Clark Lounge, Egbert Hall
Building Safety Outside the State
Che R. Long
TransformNYC
Solutions Not Punishment Coalition, Atlanta
Thursday, November 12, 7-9 p.m.
Clark Lounge, Egbert Hall