Listeners and supporters of my digital media project, Journeys of Belonging 2 Blackness, understand the intention of my work is to highlight and uplift the lives and the positive experiences of African descendants. These several weeks have left me and so many feeling outraged and heartbroken at the events occurring across our country. Covid-19 and the current uprisings across the USA make my work not only challenging but ever-so necessary. I endeavor to use this platform as a means to inform and inspire actions that can end the racial injustices that permeates society against Black and Brown bodies today.
Join me in conversation with four nationally recognized scholars and practitioners whose scholarship around issues of race, community and equity sit at the praxis of service and social justice. At the crux of their work—the scholarship, their art, activism and spiritual practices—is the intention to elucidate and dismantle the systemic structures that allow inequality to remain a fixture in our society in the U.S. and globally.
Dr. Vilna Bashi Treitler: is Professor in the Department of Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a sociologist and visual artist. Author of several books, including The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fictions into Ethnic Factions, Vilna is the 2020 recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Cox-Johnson-Frazier award for scholarship in service to social justice.
Dr. Lorenzo Boyd: is Assistant Provost for Diversity & Inclusion at the University of New Haven, Director of the Center for Advanced Policing, and Associate Professor in the Criminal Justice Department. A former law enforcement officer in the Sheriff’s Department in Massachusetts, Lorenzo is an author of articles such as “Black Lives Matter: The Watch Dog for the Criminal Justice System” and a nationally recognized leader in police-community relations, urban policing, diversity issues in criminal justice, race and crime, and criminal justice systems.
Dr. Darrick Hamilton: is the Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University, and holds faculty appointments in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Departments of Economics and Sociology. A contributor to the New York Times, the Huffington Post, American Prospect and the Christian Science Monitor, Darrick is internationally recognized for examining the causes, consequences, and remedies of racial, gender, ethnic and nativity inequality in education, economic, and health outcomes.
Dr. Courtney Desiree Morris: is a social anthropologist and an Assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. A contributor to the American Anthropologist, Asterix and the Journal of Gender and Families of Color, her work focuses on topics of critical race and feminist theory, and Black social movements in the Americas. In addition, Courtney is an activist and a visual/conceptual artist in the fields of photography, experimental video, and performance art.
Special Episode: #UPRISINGS 2020 YouTube Link
