Mixed Race Studies

U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey coming to campus

East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina
2012-10-24 through 2012-10-25

United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will be on campus Oct. 24-25 as part of the Contemporary Writers Series. A native of Gulfport, Miss., Trethewey was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2006. She is professor of English at Emory University; she was named the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate in June.
 
Trethewey is the first Southerner to hold the post since Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate, and the first African-American since Rita Dove in 1993.
 
The Contemporary Writers Series aims to expose students and other readers to award-winning fiction and nonfiction writers, translators and poets…

For more information, click here.

Meet Steve Riley—Creator of Mixed Race Studies

Mixed Race Radio
Wednesday, 2012-07-18, 16:00Z (12:00 EDT, 09:00 PDT, 17:00 BST)

Tiffany Rae Reid, Host

Join us as we meet Steven Riley, creator of MixedRaceStudies.org which is a non-commercial website that provides a gateway to contemporary interdisciplinary English language scholarship about the relevant issues surrounding the topic of multiracialism. The site has nearly 4,500 posts which consists of links to over +2,400 articles, ≈800 books, 500 dissertations/papers/reports, ≈200 multimedia items, 200 quotes/excerpts, etc. The site has been called the “most comprehensive and objective clearinghouse for scholarly publications related to critical mixed-race theory” by a leading scholar in the field.

Steve has been an Information Technology professional for 25 years in the D.C. area and is currently Director of Database Development and Design at a trade association in Washington D.C.  His areas of expertise are application programming, database and website development.

When he is not developing software applications, he spends his time at home in Silver Spring, Maryland with his artist wife Julia of 25 years (the best thing that ever happened to him) working on his photography and reading books on history and sociology.

Download the episode here (00:45:05).

Mixed heritage voices – Multiple identities, varied experiences, diverse views

British Association for Adoption & Fostering
Woburn House Conference Centre
20 Tavistock Square
London WC1H 9HQ
2012-11-29, 10:00-16:00Z

One in ten people in the UK define themselves as mixed heritage, and it seems that young people think it is ‘cool’ to be ‘mixed’. But what meaning do young people and their families give to their mixed heritage identities and how do these identities develop in mixed adoptive and foster care families?

The profiles of children in ‘Be My Parent’ (BAAF’s family finding service) and the Adoption Register demonstrate the multiple and complex ethnicities of children waiting for placements and this brings challenges to practitioners making decisions for mixed heritage children in the public care system. There are also challenges for adoptive parents and foster carers who need to value and promote the child’s heritage and help them achieve a positive identity, alongside an ability to cope with racism to make their way in the world.

This conference will bring together mixed heritage young people, families and researchers to share their experiences and perspectives on identity, and will look at the implications of these issues for practice.

Aims

• to understand the experiences of mixed heritage children, young people and their families
• to identify how adoptive parents and foster carers might help their mixed heritage child develop their identities
• to explore how practitioners can make better decisions for mixed heritage children in the public care system

Chair & Speakers

• Professor Ann Phoenix, Co-Director, Thomas Coram, Research Unit (Invited)
• Dr. Suki Ali, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics
• Dr. Vicki Harman, Lecturer, Centre for Criminology & Sociology, University of Royal Holloway
• Dr. Daniel McNeil, Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies, University of Newcastle
• Dr. Fiona Peters, Consultant Perspectives from Adoptive Parents & Foster Carers, Sheffield City Council

Who should attend

Children’s services social workers and managers, family placement practitioners, independent reviewing officers, decision-makers, panel members, health and education professionals, youth services, CAFCASS children’s guardians, social work students, adopted adults, adoptive parents and foster carers.

For more information, click here.

Feminist Race Theorist and Sociologist to Lecture

Hamilton College, Clinton New York
College News
2012-04-07

France Winddance Twine, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a lecture on Tuesday, April 10, at 4:15 p.m., in Dwight Lounge, Bristol Campus Center. Twine will discuss “The Future of Anti-Racism & Racial Literacy After The Trayvon Martin Murder.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
 
In addition to editing several collections on race, class and gender, she has authored Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market and Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil, as well as A White Side of Black Britain…

For more information, click here.

University of North Florida Presents James Weldon Johnson Symposium

University of North Florida
Press Release
2012-03-29

Joanna Norris, Associate Director of Public Relations

he University of North Florida presents the James Weldon Johnson Symposium from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 5, and from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, April 6, in the UNF Student Union Auditorium, Building 58W, Room 2704, in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the publication of James Weldon Johnson’s “Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.”

The symposium will feature student and faculty performances, poetry readings as well as music and dance performances. The keynote speaker will be Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder, assistant professor in the UNF Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She will discuss “Black Americans and Colorism in the 21st Century,” while UNF student Erin Mulkey will perform “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a song written by Johnson and is considered to be the Negro national anthem.

Additionally, there will be faculty and student presentations addressing the life of Johnson as well as his Jacksonville origins and connections. The event will conclude at 4 p.m. Friday, April 6, with a performance by the renowned McIntosh County Shouters, a group that performs the “Southeastern Ring Shout,” which is among the oldest surviving African-American performance traditions on the North American continent.

For more information, click here.

Association for Asian American Studies 2012 Annual Conference

Capitol Hilton Hotel
1001 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
2012-04-11 through 2012-04-14

Selected Sessions from Tentative Schedule

Thursday, April 12: 13:15-14:45 (South American A) Exposing Truths: Re-Centering Filipina/o American Subjectivities
Chair: Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, San Francisco State University

“Passing It On: Mixed Filipina/o American PEP Teachers Facilitating Growth in Students and Self”
Teresa Hodges, San Francisco State University

Friday, April 13: 15:00 – 16:30 EDT  (Statler B) Multiracial Asian/Americans: War and the Mixed Race Experience
Chair: Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

“Different Kinds of Occupation: Mixed Race People in Occupied Post-War Japan and Okinawa”
Lily Anne Yumi Welty, University of California, Santa Barbara

“When Half is Whole”
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Stanford University

“Kiku and Isamu: Japanese Representations of Biracial Children in Post-war Japan”
Zelideth M. Rivas, Grinnell College

“Politics and Policing of Difference: Asian America and ‘Amerasians’”
Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

 
Friday, April 13: 15:00-16:30 EDT (California) Performing History, Expanding Race: Afro-Asian and Arab-Asian Hip Hop, Film and Spoken Word
Chair: Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M
Discussant: Junaid Rana, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Diasporic Intimacies: Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and Shailja Patel’s Migritude”
Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M

“Performing the Political: Kundiman’s 9/11 Poetry Project”
Anantha Sudhakar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Aesthetics in Early Hip Hop Culture and Performance: Martin Wong’s Graffiti and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon”
Shante Paradigm Smalls, Davidson College

Saturday, April 14: 14:45-16:15 EDT (Statler B) Theorizing Asian Americans: Race, Ethnicity, and Nation
Chair: Lisa Mar, University of Maryland

“Genetic Citizens: Multiracial Asian Americans and the Limits of Nation”
LeiLani Nishime, University of Washington

For more information, click here.

So… What are You, Anyway

2012 Conference on Multiracial Identity: Exploring Our Roots
Hosted by Harvard Half-Asian People’s Association
Harvard University
2012-04-06 through 2012-04-07

Welcome to the fourth annual conference on multiracial identity and politics, hosted by the Harvard College Half-Asian People’s Association on April 6 – April 7, 2012.

Join us this year in exploring what it means to be mixed race. This year we are happy to announce Diane Farr as our keynote speaker. Diane Farr last brought her unique sense of humor to Showtime’s CALIFORNICATION as Jill Robinson. Having just finished three years as Agent Megan Reeves on CBS’s NUMB3RS, Farr was thrilled to put her gun down and don a sundress for a comedy. Prior to NUMB3RS, Farr starred on RESCUE ME, as well as THE JOB, THE DREW CAREY SHOW and ROSWELL. Her advice as the sole female on the MTV hit, LOVELINE, is what made her whiskey-soaked voice so recognizable. After 200 episodes of this cult phenomenon, Farr published her first book.

The Girl Code, a comic look at single women in the 21st century has since been sold to seven countries in five languages. Farr’s latest book, Kissing Outside The Lines, hilariously chronicles her path to an interracial marriage. Part of a two book series, Kissing will be followed up next year with Shades of America – which discusses raising biracial children. Diane writes for most American magazines and recently took over Dave Barry’s internationally syndicated column for Herald Tribune Newspapers, writing a comedic comment on pop culture.

We are also happy to welcome Associated Press journalist Jesse Washington and former Harvard Hapa president James Fish as speakers and Sue Lambe, Katie Low, and as discussion leaders…

For more information, click here.

Mixed Race Week by SHADES of CSU

Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado
2012-04-02 through 2012-04-06

Monday, Apr. 2, marks the beginning of the 4th-annual Mixed Race Week, a series of presentations and activities celebrating the multiracial and interracial community at Colorado State University.
 
This annaul event is sponsored by Shades of CSU, an organization dedicated to multiracial students…one of a few of its kind in the country.

For more information, click here.

Japanese-Canadian Identity Issues: One Big Hapa Family Screening with Jeff Chiba Stearns

University of Toronto, St. George
Hart House
2012-03-21, 18:30-20:30 EDT (Local Time)

According to recent statistics, the rate of mixed marriages among Japanese-Canadians is at 70% with intermarriage at 95%. Why? Jeff Chiba Stearns attempts to address this phenomena and more with his award-winning documentary, One Big Hapa Family. The combination live-action/animated film is a joint presentation between Hart House’s Conscious Activism Doc series and the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival. Screening and artist talk followed by Q&A with introductory remarks by Aram Collier, Reel Asian Film Festival Programming Director. Wed., March 21 at 6:30 pm in the Music Room at Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto (St. George Campus). FREE.

Jeff Chiba Stearns is an award-winning Canadian independent filmmaker, writer and illustrator whose work incorporates animation, documentary, and experimental filmmaking. Stearns founded his Kelowna, BC-based company Meditating Bunny Inc. in 2001. He frequently addresses the issues of mixed race identity in his films, and has published articles and spoken around the world on issues of cultural awareness, Hapa and the animation process.

Hart House is a living laboratory of social, artistic, cultural and recreational experiences where all voices, rhythms and traditions converge. As the vibrant home for the education of the mind, body and spirit envisioned by its founders, Hart House encourages and supports activities that provide spaces for awakening the capacity for self-knowledge and self-expression.

For more information, click here.

Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey 2012 Annual Convention: Call for Papers

Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey
2012-01-31

Building on the success of the inaugural 2011 conference, the second annual convention of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey (BGCSNJ) will be held at Barnard College in New York City on August 10-11, 2012.  This year’s convention will focus on the theme of “What Is the Black German Experience?” The conference will feature a keynote address by Yara Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria, screenings of the films “Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story” and “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” and readings by Black German poet-performers Olumide Popoola and Philipp Khabo Köpsell.

The BGCSNJ Review Committee invites proposals for papers that engage the multiplicity and diversity of the experiences of Blacks of German heritage and on Blackness in Germany. We welcome submissions for twenty-minute presentations on three academic panels and two sessions devoted to life writing, oral history and memoir. To participate please send a one-page abstract and a CV or short biographical statement to: bgcsinc@gmail.com. Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2012

For more information, click here.