Tag: Vassar College

  • This conference responds to renewed interest in passing that derives from the popularity of genetic genealogy tests, sensational cases of racial fraud (i.e., Rachel Dolezal), the idea of “realness” appropriated from ball culture, racial ambiguity in a surveillance state, public fascination with celebrities like Meghan Markle, and the construction (and manipulation) of online identities (i.e.,…

  • Narratives of Passing Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York 2015-? Amitava Kumar, Professor of English (Same as AFRS 253) Topic for 2019b: Narratives of Passing. The phrase “passing for white,” peculiar to American English, first appears in advertisements for the return of runaway slaves. Abolitionist fiction later adopts the phenomenon of racial passing (together with the…

  • Anita Florence Hemmings graduated from Vassar in 1897. But though she was an excellent student, she came very close to not getting her degree at all. That was because just days before graduation, Anita’s roommate uncovered her deepest secret.

  • BEAUTIFUL ANITA HEMMING. STORY OF THE VASSAR GRADUATE BORN OF NEGROES. The Sacramento Daily Record-Union Friday, 1897-09-24 page 6, columns 1-4 Source: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. STORY OF THE VASAR GRADUATE BORN OF NEGROS She Kept the Secret of Her Birth for Years From Her Roommate. This is the story of…

  • COLORED VASSAR GIRL. The Saint Paul Globe Sunday, 1897-09-05 page 21, column 7 People at Poughkeepsie Thought Miss Hemmings Was a Spaniard. Anita Florence Hemmings, the Boston girl who has stirred up such a sensation by daring to complete a course at exclusive Vassar when she new that there was negro blood in her veins,…

  • 383a. Nation, Race and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean – Senior Seminar Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York 2013/2014 Light Carruyo, Associate Professor of Sociology   (Same as Sociology 383) With a focus on Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean this course traces and analyzes the ways in which the project of nation building…

  • 305. The Social Construction of Race in the U.S. Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York Diane Harriford, Professor of Sociology This course examines the social construction of race in the United States from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. The focus is on the changing racial meanings and identities of specific socio-historical groups…