Upcoming Lectures
December 4, 2024
“Teaching Against Race and Racism: Addressing Contemporary AntiSemitism, Islamophobia and Xenophobia” with Uzi Baram
Lecture Description: Race and racism continue to haunt our world, with social divides reflecting and accelerating inequalities and inequities. Teaching on race and racism is part of a liberal arts education but has been mocked as woke in current political discourse. Reflecting on a quarter century of teaching a course on race and ethnicity, Uzi Baram will explore how teaching on the history of race facilitates addressing social ills of our times including AntiSemitism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.
“Beyond the Shelves: Tracking and Confronting the Movement to Censor Books” with Madison Markham
Lecture Description: Since the 2021 “parental rights” movement began as a backlash to progress made after the 2020 racial justice uprisings, book banning in public schools in the United States has skyrocketed. From over 3,000 school book bans in the 2022-2023 school year, to over 10,000 in the 2023-2024 school year, book banning is a crisis in the United States, particularly targeting books featuring diverse characters or certain subjects. In this lecture, PEN America’s Madison Markham will discuss PEN America’s book ban research from the 2023-2024 school year, and what lies ahead.
