DKP News

The next week will be momentous for our country as we recognize a monumental public figure who challenged the U.S. government and society to create the more perfect union that the Constitution demands. On Monday, January 16, the nation remembered Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the official holiday that commemorates his legacy.  Notably, too, on Friday, January 20, we will mark the end the President Barack Obama’s two-terms as the first African American president, and begin the presidency of Donald Trump.  Read the full article in the Huffington Post.

LeConté Dill’s grandparents were part of the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North and West, where, during the 1940s, they put down roots in South Los Angeles. Today, the once-vibrant neighborhood is plagued by gang violence, riots and poverty, causing many Black families, including hers, to pick up and leave.  Read the full article in AS News.

Chandra Talpade Mohanty served as Angela Davis Guest Professor at Goethe University Link

Chandra Talpade Mohanty—Distinguished Professor and chair of women’s & gender studies (WGS), as well as Dean’s Professor of the Humanities—spent part of December as the Angela Davis Guest Professor for International Gender and Diversity Studies at GU’s Cornelia Goethe Center. While there, she gave two public lectures and taught an intensive graduate-level workshop.  Read more the AS News article.

 “Just Academic Spaces” is the theme of a three-year, $500,000 project, organized and presented by the Democratizing Knowledge (DK) Collective in the College of Arts and Sciences and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Co-directed by professors Linda Carty and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, the campus-wide project is designed to foster a model of exchange between community- and scholar-activists, in hopes of creating a more just academy.  Please read the SU News article for more details.

Young writers participate in the Writing Our Lives Conference 2012.

For the past six years, the Writing Our Lives conference has been helping young area writers share their stories and listen to the stories of other young people. But the event also brings about a wider impact.

The conference—being held Nov. 7—is continuing to strengthen and build a vibrant local community of writers.

That was always part of the goal for Marcelle Haddix, the conference founder.  Please read the SU News article for the full story.

“Global Perspectives, Local Contexts” examines feminism, gender, and sexuality in the Arab World Link

A new study abroad course, titled “Global Perspectives, Local Contexts: Women and Gender in the Arab World,” was launched this past summer in the College of Arts and Sciences. Taught by Carol Fadda-Conrey and Dana Olwan, professors of English and women’s & gender studies (WGS), respectively, the course took place in Lebanon and Jordan, where students directly engaged with issues pertaining to the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality in the Arab world.   Read the full article in AS News.

A professor in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences has been internationally recognized for his service and intellectual contributions to Latina/o studies. 

Silvio Torres-Saillant, professor of English and Latino-Latin American studies, is the co-recipient of the 2015 Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award. Named for the late Puerto Rican intellectual trailblazer, the award was recently presented to Torres-Saillant at the International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in San Juan.  Read more in the AS News article.

A substantial bequest from the estate of L. Douglas Meredith, a 1926 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, allowed for the creation of the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorships in 1995 to recognize and reward outstanding teaching at the University.  As a teacher, Olwan aims to create an environment where students learn to formulate strong arguments, develop thoughtful positions and articulate different perspectives with clarity, evidence and conviction.  Read more out the 2015-2016 Meredith professore in SU News.

The Democratizing Knowledge Project (DK), a Syracuse University interdisciplinary collective of faculty and graduate students, has been awarded a four-year, $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a series of summer institutes titled “Just Academic Spaces: Creating New Publics through Radical Literacies.”  Read the SU News article for details.

Lecture & Performance by Diana Ferrus Link

5pm – 7pmPeter Graham Scholarly CommonsDiana Ferrus is an internationally-acclaimed South African poet, activist, and storyteller.  Her poem “I’ve come to take you home” for Sarah Baartman, a Khoi Khoi woman who was paraded in freak shows in 19th century Europe inspired the French Senate to vote unanimously to return Baartman’s remains to South Africa.   The poem is published in the French Law, a landmark in French history.  At her performance lecture, Diana Ferrus will trace the genealogy of her poem to Sarah Baartman, linking it to colonialism, apartheid, and the roots of the designation “Coloured” in South Africa.  She will read from her book I’ve come to take you home and discuss the significant impact the return of Sarah Baartman’s remains had on the people of South Africa.

CO-SPONSORS: Departments of Women’s & Gender Studies, Cultural Foundations of Education, African American Studies, Languages, Literatures, and Lingustics, and The Writing Program