STANFORD TO ESTABLISH
NEW DEPARTMENT OF
AFRICAN & AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
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At a Campus Conversations event yesterday updating the community on the University's racial justice initiatives, Provost Persis Drell announced that she and H&S Dean Debra Satz have accepted the recommendation of the Framework Task Force on race studies to establish a new Department of African & African American Studies. |
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“The historic efforts of the students, begun in 1968, have brought us to this momentous moment when a department of African & African American studies appears closer on the horizon. We commend every person who has worked on this imperative," said Jennifer DeVere Brody, Faculty Director of CCSRE and Faculty Affiliate of AAAS.
The movement to create a department of African & African American Studies began at Stanford University in 1968, when a group of Black students "took back the mic" at a campus assembly responding to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Since that event, students, faculty, and community members have continued tirelessly to advocate for departmentalization. The Black Graduate Student Association and others have held numerous teach-ins and town hall meetings. And this past summer, more than 5,500 people signed a petition advocating for departmentalization.
A subcommittee of the Framework Task Force will be formed to develop the details of the department including the intellectual scope of the proposed department, a plan for a curriculum, an assessment of faculty needs and a detailed timeline for implementation.
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BOOK CONVERSATION
Resurrecting the Promise of Forty Acres
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February 25 | 4p
Join William A. Darity Jr. & A. Kirsten Mullen as they discuss the message of their book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. The authors will examine the limitations and weaknesses of piecemeal (or state level or municipal) attempts at reparations, particularly the inability of such steps, taken singly or collectively, to eliminate the black-white differential in wealth.
The case for African American reparations is directly linked to the basis of the damages of slavery, the harms of the Jim Crow period, and anti-Black atrocities in the post-Civil Rights Acts era, positioning the US government as the culpable party that must pay the debt. Darity and Mullen will establish the particularity of African American reparations for Black Americans, compare a variety of methods for establishing the appropriate size of the reparations fund, and the best procedure for disbursement of the funds. African American reparations, according to Darity and Mullen, is the mechanism to assure the material conditions for full citizenship for Black communities in the United States.
Ralph Richard Banks, the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law and faculty director of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, will moderate the discussion.
Co-Sponsored by The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, and the Stanford Basic Income Lab
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RACE & JUSTICE RESEARCH INITIATIVE
2021 Grantees
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The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) is pleased to announce the 2021 Race & Justice Research Initiative grantees. The multi-year initiative supports innovative research projects led by Stanford Faculty and in collaboration with a community partner. This year, CCSRE awarded a total of $250K to support nine new research projects, including faculty from five different schools.
The initiative is supported in part by grants from
the Andrew W . Mellon Foundation and the Raikes Family Fund.
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Leads Facial Recognition Policy Win For Minneapolis
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Council members vote to bar City's use of facial recognition technology
"This month the Minneapolis City Council took a huge step in the right direction by banning the use of Clearview AI’s Facial Recognition Technology. Prioritizing data privacy, transparency, accountability and equity is the appropriate government response. We can no longer divert or dismiss Clearview AI’s blatent disregard for data protections and their lack of transparency and explanability. This should be called out and not masked as technological advancements."
—Elizabeth Mary Adams, CCSRE Race + Tech Fellow
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CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS | February 12, 2021
Today, the City Council approved a new ordinance that prohibits the City from buying facial recognition technology or using data derived from it, with very narrow exceptions. Minneapolis now joins Boston, San Francisco and more than a dozen other cities across the country that have either banned or limited the use of the technology.
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“We have heard strong concerns from community about technology that invades their privacy without their consent, and we need to regulate it,” said Council Member Steve Fletcher, who authored the ordinance. “This ordinance bars its use by City departments with some narrow exceptions that do not risk harm to its subjects.” READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE.
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AVAILABLE TO VIEW
A Circle of Notable Native American Scholars
Celebration 50 Years of Native Programs
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To celebrate the 50th anniversaries of Native programs at Harvard and Stanford, both programs brought together five phenomenal Indigenous scholars who have all been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAA&S).
This event was jointly sponsored by the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP), the Stanford Native American Studies Program and the Stanford Native American Cultural Center (NACC).
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RACE IN TECHNOLOGY
Race, Health, and Technology in the Black Panther Party
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February 24 | 4p
This lecture is presented by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and open to Stanford students, faculty, and staff.
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RACE + TECH FELLOW PROFILE
Renata Avila:
Reclaiming AI's Superpowers for Collective Good
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BY KATHARINE MILLER | February 9, 2021
To activist and international human rights lawyer Renata Avila, technology and AI are superpowers that should be deployed to address society’s biggest problems, including social inequality and climate change.
She has spent the last year laying the groundwork for such algorithms, and describes that work in this interview. READ THE INTERVIEW HERE.
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Consent on the Continent:
Bio banking and African Genomic Wealth
A Conversation with Duana Fullwiley
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March 10 | 4p PST
CCSRE Faculty Affiliate Duana Fullwey is an anthropologist of science and medicine interested in how social identities, health outcomes, and molecular genetic findings increasingly intersect. In her first book, The Enculturated Gene: Sickle Cell Health Politics and Biological Difference in West Africa (Princeton, 2011), She draws on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in the US, France and Senegal. By bringing the lives of people with sickle cell anemia together with how the science about them has been made, The Enculturated Gene examines postcolonial genetic science, the effects of structural adjustment on health resources, and patient activism between Senegal and France to show how African sickle cell has been ordered in ethnic-national terms at the level of the gene.
This lecture is presented by the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and open to Stanford students, faculty, and staff.
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Conversation with Lighting Engineer
Aileen Robinson
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March 17 | 4p PST
Aileen Robinson is an Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford (TAPS). Aileen received an Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University. Her current project explores the contribution of theatre and magic performance to emerging practices of science communication in the nineteenth century. She investigates how theatrical performances and magic shows drew upon technological innovations and formed unique methods for disseminating scientific knowledge. Presented by TAPS & open to Stanford students, faculty, and staff.
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NEWS & EVENTS OF INTEREST |
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The Black Community Services Center Presents
2021 BLACK LIBERATION MONTH
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Stanford Scholars Examine Systemic Racism |
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BY MELISSA DE WITTE | February 16, 2021
A summer of protest following the tragic death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans; white supremacy on full display during the riots on Capitol Hill; a raging pandemic disproportionately affecting communities of color – events over the past year have only underscored how prevalent systemic racism and bias is in America today.
What can be done to dismantle centuries of discrimination in the U.S.? How can a more equitable society be achieved? What makes racism such a complicated problem to solve? Black History Month is a time marked for honoring and reflecting on the experience of Black Americans, but it’s also an opportunity to reexamine our nation’s deeply embedded racial problems and the possible solutions that could help build a more equitable society.
Stanford scholars are tackling these issues head-on in their research from the perspectives of history, education, law and other disciplines. READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
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Have news or events to share? |
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We seek news and stories written by and about our CCSRE community—including from faculty, students, staff, alumni, and on and off campus partners—as well as race-centered events to feature in our newsletter and blog.
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