REJ

By ARHU Staff 

The College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) at the University of Maryland continues its successful Dean's Colloquium Series on Race, Equity and Justice, a colloquium and conversation series hosted by Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill. The series, which began in 2020, seeks to introduce audiences to faculty expertise on issues of systemic racism, inequality and social justice, and continues this year with a focus on the impacts of systemic racism on Asian, Jewish, Black, LGBTQ+, Arab and Muslim populations in the U.S. The events are free and take place virtually. 

The first colloquium of the 2021–22 academic year will be held Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, from 9–10 a.m. and features Associate Professor of History Christopher Bonner. Bonner’s talk “Willis Hodges's Shield: The Meanings of Black Voters” will focus on voting and racial justice through the lens of the 19th-century activist Willis Augustus Hodges. It will be followed by a conversation with the dean and a Q&A. 

Upcoming talks will focus on topics ranging from countering Islamophobia to fan fiction and social justice. A full list with links to register is available below.  

“I am so pleased that this successful series continues into a new academic year with even more opportunities for the community to learn from our incredible ARHU faculty members,” said Thornton Dill. “They are nationally-known thought leaders on issues of race, inequality and social justice and their expertise will undoubtedly promote dynamic conversations and spark new ideas for social change.” 

The series is part of a collegewide campaign launched in 2020 to address racism, inequality and justice in curriculum, scholarship, programming and community engagement. Among other actions, the Committee on Race, Equity and Justice, made up of faculty, staff and graduate students, serves to advise the dean on goals related to the eradication and dismantling of structural racism and on strategies for ensuring equity and social justice throughout the college, campus and community. 

Each event is free. These conversations are also ARHU TerrapinSTRONG events.

The full list of 2021–22 colloquia events is as follows: 

Oct. 27, Christopher Bonner, associate professor in the Department of History, whose talk is titled "Willis Hodges's Shield: The Meanings of Black Voters." Register here

Nov. 19, Janelle Wong, professor in the Department of American Studies, whose talk is titled “At the Crossroad: Black and Asian American Relations in U.S. Politics Today.” Register here.

Dec. 9, Robert Levine, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English, whose talk is titled “The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.” Register here.

Feb. 17, Alexis Lothian, associate professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, whose talk is titled “Fan Fiction, Social Justice and the Politics of Fantasy.” Register here.

Mar. 16, Sahar Khamis, associate professor in the Department of Communication, whose talk is titled “Insights on Countering Islamophobia through Research, Activism and Media Outreach.” Register here.

Apr. 15, La Marr Jurelle Bruce, associate professor in the Department of American Studies, whose talk is titled “How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Toward a Mad Methodology.” Register here.

Apr. 27, Shay Hazkani, assistant professor in the Department of History and Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies, title forthcoming. Register here. 

To watch previous talks, visit: https://arhu.umd.edu/news/arhu-series-talks-centering-race-equity-and-justice

In 2020-2021 the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) at the University of Maryland launched the Dean's Colloquium Series on Race, Equity and Justice, a yearlong colloquium and conversation series, hosted by Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill, to introduce audiences to faculty expertise on issues of systemic racism, inequality and justice.

The series is part of a college-wide campaign to address racism, inequality and justice in curriculum, scholarship, programming and community engagement. 

Over the course of the 2020-2021 academic year, we presented ten colloquia highlighting the research and scholarship of our faculty.

Click here to see videos from the 2020-2021 series.

Coming Soon: We will announce our plans for the 2021-2022 ARHU Dean's Colloquium Series. 

By David Nakamura 

Amid increased public attention on anti-Asian hate incidents, some Republicans and conservative-leaning advocacy groups are seeking to leverage the debate to bolster their long-standing efforts to overturn affirmative action policies at elite universities and high schools.GOP lawmakers have railed against the admissions criteria used by Ivy League schools, saying they discriminate against Asian American students. Influential pundits, including podcast host Ben Shapiro, have made similar arguments on social media, suggesting that Democrats and liberal groups have been duplicitous in their advocacy. 

And on Tuesday, a new coalition of Asian American groups, based mostly on the West Coast, called on the Justice Department to reinstate a Trump administration lawsuit — which the Biden administration dropped in February — that had accused Yale University of discriminating against White and Asian American students in its admissions.

“We condemn anti-Asian hate, but we call for action not empty rhetoric. People who are appalled by the broader attacks on Asians should be equally outraged by Asian students being deprived of their fair chance at a college education based on their race,” said Linda Yang, director of Washington Asians for Equality, a group formed in 2018 to oppose affirmative action measures in Washington state.

Yang, a co-founder of the new coalition, told reporters on a conference call that she hopes President Biden “has the courage to officially acknowledge that anti-Asian racism existed before covid-19” and direct the Justice Department to reinstate the Yale case.

In a statement, Yale spokeswoman Karen N. Peart rejected any assertion that the school’s admission’s process is discriminatory.

“Yale considers every applicant as a whole person; race and ethnicity alone never determine admission; and Yale never imposes numerical quotas or targets,” she said, noting that Asian Americans comprise about 26 percent of the school’s incoming class each year, up from 14 percent 20 years ago.

Democrats have denounced the efforts as a disingenuous attempt by Republicans to score political points on an ideological issue, and to shift the focus away from rising racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans over the past year that, they argue, was fanned in part by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is a cynical use of a moment of real pain to further an agenda that [a majority of] the Asian American community does not even support,” said Janelle Wong, a professor at the University of Maryland and co-founder of AAPI Data, a demographic and policy research operation that conducts polling among Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

Surveys from AAPI Data in 2012 and 2016 showed that a drop in support for affirmative action among Asian Americans was attributed largely to more negative views specifically among Chinese Americans. Support among other Asian American groups held roughly steady at about 73 percent, the survey found.

"They are trying to end any consideration of race in public policy, which is not consistent with ending racial discrimination,” Wong said of Republicans.

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