Tomorrow (2/26): The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy Presents Sherrilyn Ifill

On Wednesday, February 26th, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy will host Sherrilyn Ifill, one of the nation’s leading scholars on civil rights law and litigation, as the second keynote presenter in the William C. Powers, Jr. Speaker Series.Sherrilyn Ifill is the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. LDF was founded in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer (and later Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall, and became a separate organization from the NAACP in 1957. The lawyers at the Legal Defense Fund developed and executed the legal strategy that led to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, widely regarded as the most transformative and monumental legal decision of the 20th century. Ifill is the second woman to lead the organization.The event will take place at 5:30 pm at the LBJ School, SRH 3 (First Floor Lobby). RSVP and Find More Info Here. 

Tuesday, February 25: Public Lecture by Dr. Ashanté M. Reese, "The Carceral Life of Sugar: Plantations, Prisons, and the Contemporary Food System"

On Tuesday, February 25, Dr. Ashanté M. Reese (University of Maryland) will present "The Carceral Life of Sugar: Plantations, Prisons, and the Contemporary Food System."Focusing on the Imperial Sugar Company and the convict lease system in Texas, this talk offers a history of carceral sugar production, arguing that sugar functions as a carceral technology that structures much of the contemporary food system and facilitates the regulation of Black lives within and beyond incarceration. Theoretically, the talk draws from work that materially and metaphorically situates the plantation as a set of enduring logics and physical manifestations that in part structure unfreedom, the movement of capital, and possibilities for liberation.This Department of American Studies co-sponsored lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us tomorrow at 1 pm in RLP 1.302E.

Tomorrow (2/21): Public Lecture by Dr. Melanie Walsh, "Networks of Literary Protest: Mapping Mango Street’s Remediated Route"

On Friday, February 21, Dr. Melanie Walsh (Cornell University) will present "Networks of Literary Protest: Mapping Mango Street's Remediated Route."This Department of American Studies Lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us tomorrow at 11:30 am in GWB 2.206.

Thursday, February 20: Public Lecture by Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, "Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership"

Please join UT Austin American Studies, The Warfield Center, and the Graduate School for "Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership," a public lecture by Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. The talk will take place on Thursday, February 20th at 4 pm in GWB 2.206.Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, which won the Lannan Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book in 2016. She is also editor of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, which won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBQT nonfiction in 2018. Her third book, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, published in 2019 by the University of North Carolina Press, has been longlisted for a National Book Award for nonfiction. This new book looks at the federal government's promotion of single-family homeownership in Black communities after the urban rebellions of the 1960s. Taylor develops the concept of "predatory inclusion" to examine the federal government's turn to market-based solutions in its low-income housing programs in the 1970s impacted Black neighborhoods, Black women on welfare, and emergent discourses on the urban “underclass.” Taylor is interested in the role of private sector forces, typically hidden in public policy making and execution, in the “urban crisis” of the 1970s. 

Wednesday, February 19: Public Lecture by Dr. Albert Laguna, "On the Comedy of Race: Literature, Popular Culture, and the Politics of Retrenchment"

On Wednesday, February 19th, Dr. Albert Laguna (Yale University) will present "On the Comedy of Race: Literature, Popular Culture, and the Politics of Retrenchment."This UT AMS and Department of English co-sponsored lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us this Wednesday at 4:30 pm in RLP 0.102.

This Friday (2/21): Dr. Julia Mickenberg and Dr. Lauren Gutterman to Present at Humanities Institute Faculty Fellows Symposium

The Humanities Institute's 2020 Symposium on "Narrative Across the Disciplines" marks the culmination of the 2018-20 Faculty Fellows Seminar. The symposium will be held all-day on Friday, February 21, from 8:30 AM - 5:30 pm in RLP 1.302B with presentations from the 2018-2020 Faculty Fellows. UT AMS faculty members Dr. Julia Mickenberg and Dr. Lauren Gutterman will present on the "Life Stories" panel from 9:45-11:15 am.The symposium is free and open to the public. To register and find out more information, please visit the event page. 

Monday, February 17: Public Lecture by Dr. Maria Cotera, "Haunting the Chicano Photographic: Nancy De Los Santos’s Disruptive Visualities"

On Monday, February 17th, Dr. Maria Cotera (University of Michigan) will present "Haunting the Chicano Photographic: Nancy De Los Santos's Disruptive Visualities."This American Studies and Latino Studies co-sponsored lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us this Monday at 11:30 am in GWB 2.206.

Tomorrow (2/14): Feminist Reflections about "El Violador Eres Tú"

This Friday, February 14th, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections and Voices Against Violence present "Romance and Dating Under Patriarchy: Feminist Reflections about 'El Violador Eres Tú.'" This dialogue with faculty, students, and staff will take place in the second floor conference room of the Benson Latin American Collection (SRH 1) at 3 pm. 

This Friday (2/14): Public Lecture by Dr. Erin McElroy, "Property as Technology: Mediating Race, Space, Data, and Displacement"

On Friday, February 14th Dr. Erin McElroy (New York University) will present "Property as Technology: Mediating Race, Space, Data, and Displacement."This Department of American Studies lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us this Friday at 11:30 am in BUR 214.

UT AMS Celebrates Dr. Lauren Gutterman's "Her Neighbor's Wife"

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On Tuesday, February 4th, the UT AMS community came together for the book launch of Dr. Lauren Gutterman's Her Neighbor's Wife. Every seat in Bookwoman was filled as faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, family members, and friends gathered to celebrate Dr. Gutterman's excellent scholarship. Check out photographs from the event below!A huge thank you to Bookwoman for providing such a warm, energizing space for the occasion.