invited speakers
RUTH NICOLE BROWN is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a leading pioneer in the subfield of hip hop feminist pedagogy. She has authored two books on the subject, Black Girlhood Celebration: Toward a Hip Hop Feminist Pedagogy and Wish to Live: The Hip Hop Feminist Pedagogy Reader (with Dr. Chamara Kwakye). Currently, she is working on a hip hop feminist choreopoem performances that chronicles her experiences working with young Black girls, motherhood, and civic diengagement, and teaching hip hop feminism at the university. She is also founder and co-organizer of Saving Our Lives, Hearing Our Truths (SOLHOT), a collective practice of Black girlhood celebration that explores and affirms Black girls' creativity and knowledge among and with middle, high school, and university students. Her symposium talk is titled, "Solhot (your funeral): A meditation on falling in and out of love, rearrangement, and change in my slow singing voice."
KANDICE CHUH is Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of Imagine Otherwise: on Asian Americanist Critique (Duke University Press 2003). Her second project is The Difference Aesthetics Makes: U.S. Minority Discourse Post-Identity, a book length study of aesthetic theory and U.S. minority discourse with a particular emphasis on questions of post-identity subjectivity. Her symposium talk is titled, "improvising Enlightenment: interdisciplinarity and the sensus communis."
WESLEY CRICHLOW is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Science & Humanities, within the Criminology & Justice program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D from the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for the Studies in Education), and is the author of Buller Men & Batty Bwoys: Hidden Men in Toronto and Halifax’s Black Communities (University of Toronto Press 2003). This book examines the lives of Black men who have sex with other men living in Toronto and Halifax. He is also co-author of Diversity Issues in Policing (Emond Montgomery Publications Limited 2007). His talk is called, "Interdisciplinarity as Engaged Scholarship and Social Justice Activism."
JODI MELAMED is Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at Marquette University. She is the author of Represent and Destroy: Rationalizing Violence in the New Racial Capitalism (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and a contributor to Strange Affinities: The Sexual and Gender Politics of Comparative Racialization (Duke University Press, 2011). Her current research aims to provide an anti-racist critique of contemporary neoliberalism and an anti-capitalist critique of historically dominant U.S. anti-racisms. Her symposium talk is titled, "Race, Sexuality, Indigeneity: Interdisciplinarity on the Edge of Permissible Rationalities."
SUZANNE OBOLER is Professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at the City University of New York. She is the Founding Editor of the international academic journal, Latino Studies, and Co-Editor in Chief of the 4-volume Oxford Encyclopedia on Latinos and Latinas in the United States (2005). She is the author ofEthnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of Representation (1995), and co-editor of Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos (2005). She has also edited the anthology, Latinos and Citizenship: The Dilemmas of Belonging (2006), and Behind Bars: Latino/as and Prison (2009). Her symposium talk is called, "'It has not always been the same racism': Rethinking Latino/as’ Citizenship and Belonging in the Era of Disposable Strangers."
MARIA JOSEFINA SALDANA-PORTILLO is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, with research interests in Latina/o cultural studies, development and globalization studies, comparative race in the Americas, and twentieth-century revolutionary thought and literature of the Americas. Her publications include The Revolutionary Imagination in the Americas and the Age of Development (Duke University Press, 2003). Her symposium talk is called, "Loosing It! Indigenous Ancestry and Melancholic Incorporations."
SUZANNE OBOLER is Professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, at the City University of New York. She is the Founding Editor of the international academic journal, Latino Studies, and Co-Editor in Chief of the 4-volume Oxford Encyclopedia on Latinos and Latinas in the United States (2005). She is the author ofEthnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of Representation (1995), and co-editor of Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos (2005). She has also edited the anthology, Latinos and Citizenship: The Dilemmas of Belonging (2006), and Behind Bars: Latino/as and Prison (2009). Her symposium talk is called, "'It has not always been the same racism': Rethinking Latino/as’ Citizenship and Belonging in the Era of Disposable Strangers."
MARIA JOSEFINA SALDANA-PORTILLO is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, with research interests in Latina/o cultural studies, development and globalization studies, comparative race in the Americas, and twentieth-century revolutionary thought and literature of the Americas. Her publications include The Revolutionary Imagination in the Americas and the Age of Development (Duke University Press, 2003). Her symposium talk is called, "Loosing It! Indigenous Ancestry and Melancholic Incorporations."
graduate student respondents
S MOON CASSINELLI is a doctoral candidate in the department of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Cassinelli's project focuses on narratives of abandonment and loss within 20th century Asian American and American Indian literature. Through the study of autoethnographies, documentaries, and fictional works, Cassinelli analyzes the construction of a genealogical self in the face of trauma. One major focus is the displacement of children through the twentieth century, specifically through forced removal and adoption practices.
STEPHEN HOCKER is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His work centers the politics and poetics of gender non-conformity within comparative race projects in an increasingly interconnected globalized and digitized world. Hocker has also worked with the faculty committee for Assemblages and Affinities during the last year to create an interdisciplinary, collaborative PhD. proposal for the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, campus.
SHERI LEWIS is native to Chicago's Southside, and pursuing her doctoral degree in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research explores how Black girls engage in love pedagogy through a concept she calls “love practices.” She is particularly interested in the complexities of being a young, Black girl learning about love. She has also lobbied in Washington, D.C. and conducted research on reproductive rights. Sheri is passionate about Black girlhood, reproductive justice, and pedagogies of love.
T.J. TALLIE is a PhD candidate in the History Department at UIUC. He is a critical historian of the British Empire, focusing primarily on the British colony of Natal, in contemporary South Africa, in the late nineteenth century. His dissertation, titled, "Limits of Settlement: Racialized Masculinity, Sovereignty, and the Imperial Project in Colonial Natal, 1850-1897" examines how race and masculinity could operate not simply as identities, but as forces to be mobilized by a variety of actors in pursuit of sovereignty and claims of belonging in a highly contested colonial space. "Limits of Settlement" focuses on particular sites of temporary alliance building and social consensus—African polygamy and the custom of ilobolo, the consumption of alcohol and marijuana, missionary attempts to fashion colonial domesticities, and the manufacture of colonial masculinity in contemporary print media—in order to understand how race and gender co-produced the complex and contradictory claims to belonging in the British colony of Natal in Southern Africa. In so doing, his work speaks not only to a particular colonial context on the African continent, but also seeks to examine the larger stakes of indigeneity and settler colonialism throughout the nineteenth century and beyond.
STEPHEN HOCKER is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His work centers the politics and poetics of gender non-conformity within comparative race projects in an increasingly interconnected globalized and digitized world. Hocker has also worked with the faculty committee for Assemblages and Affinities during the last year to create an interdisciplinary, collaborative PhD. proposal for the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, campus.
SHERI LEWIS is native to Chicago's Southside, and pursuing her doctoral degree in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research explores how Black girls engage in love pedagogy through a concept she calls “love practices.” She is particularly interested in the complexities of being a young, Black girl learning about love. She has also lobbied in Washington, D.C. and conducted research on reproductive rights. Sheri is passionate about Black girlhood, reproductive justice, and pedagogies of love.
T.J. TALLIE is a PhD candidate in the History Department at UIUC. He is a critical historian of the British Empire, focusing primarily on the British colony of Natal, in contemporary South Africa, in the late nineteenth century. His dissertation, titled, "Limits of Settlement: Racialized Masculinity, Sovereignty, and the Imperial Project in Colonial Natal, 1850-1897" examines how race and masculinity could operate not simply as identities, but as forces to be mobilized by a variety of actors in pursuit of sovereignty and claims of belonging in a highly contested colonial space. "Limits of Settlement" focuses on particular sites of temporary alliance building and social consensus—African polygamy and the custom of ilobolo, the consumption of alcohol and marijuana, missionary attempts to fashion colonial domesticities, and the manufacture of colonial masculinity in contemporary print media—in order to understand how race and gender co-produced the complex and contradictory claims to belonging in the British colony of Natal in Southern Africa. In so doing, his work speaks not only to a particular colonial context on the African continent, but also seeks to examine the larger stakes of indigeneity and settler colonialism throughout the nineteenth century and beyond.
symposium organizers
JODI BYRD is Associate Professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies and English, and Acting Director of American Indian Studies, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011).
LISA MARIE CACHO is Associate Professor in Latina/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected (New York University Press, 2012).
KAREN FLYNN is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora (University of Toronto Press, 2011), is the first book-length history of Black health care workers in Canada, delving into the experiences of thirty-five postwar-era nurses who were born in Canada or who immigrated from the Caribbean either through Britain or directly to Canada. Karen Flynn examines the shaping of these women's stories from their childhoods through to their roles as professionals and community activists.
ISABEL MOLINA is Associate Professor in Latina/o Studies and Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media (New York University Press, 2010).
MIMI THI NGUYEN is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, and Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies and Curriculum at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her first book is called The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages (Duke University Press, 2012). She is also co-editor with Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu of Alien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America (Duke University Press, 2007), and co-editor with Fiona I.B. Ngo and Mariam Lam of a special issue of positions on Southeast Asians in diaspora (Winter 2012).
SIOBHAN SOMERVILLE is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her publications include Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture (Duke University Press, 2000).
LISA MARIE CACHO is Associate Professor in Latina/o Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected (New York University Press, 2012).
KAREN FLYNN is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and African American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora (University of Toronto Press, 2011), is the first book-length history of Black health care workers in Canada, delving into the experiences of thirty-five postwar-era nurses who were born in Canada or who immigrated from the Caribbean either through Britain or directly to Canada. Karen Flynn examines the shaping of these women's stories from their childhoods through to their roles as professionals and community activists.
ISABEL MOLINA is Associate Professor in Latina/o Studies and Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Dangerous Curves: Latina Bodies in the Media (New York University Press, 2010).
MIMI THI NGUYEN is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, and Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies and Curriculum at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her first book is called The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages (Duke University Press, 2012). She is also co-editor with Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu of Alien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America (Duke University Press, 2007), and co-editor with Fiona I.B. Ngo and Mariam Lam of a special issue of positions on Southeast Asians in diaspora (Winter 2012).
SIOBHAN SOMERVILLE is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies and English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her publications include Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture (Duke University Press, 2000).