The events listed below have been cancelled or postponed due to the social distancing measured taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Please email Amel Ahmed at aahmed@umass.edu for information on alternate remote programming for faculty of color. We will also be updating this webpage with information on these new forms of connecting and supporting one another.
For information on University actions on this, visit the UMass COVID-19 website.
Third Spaces Virtual Write On-Site Summer Sessions
We are extending our Third Spaces Virtual Write On-Site sessions into the summer and expanding the offerings to three days a week starting May 27th and ending August 14th. In addition to Amel Ahmed, we are fortunate to be joined by Kiran Asher and Cathy Luna in facilitating these sessions. Please sign up for as many sessions as you wish to attend.
- Mondays 9am-12pm, facilitated by Kiran Asher (Sign up here)
- Wednesdays 9am-12pm, facilitated by Amel Ahmed (Sign up here)
- Fridays 9am-12pm, facilitated by Cathy Luna (Sign up here)
Please contact facultydiversity@umass.edu is you have any questions.
Additional Events
**POSTPONED** Keynote Address and Reception by Professor Lewis Gordon, "Re-imagining Liberations"
We will cap off this series of community dinner with a keynote address by Lewis Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut (bio here).
Talk description: Among the avowed goals of diversity is the liberation of society from the throes of exclusion and their concomitant dynamics of degradation and dehumanization. This talk will ask us to add to such a goal the task of re-imagining liberations from narrow liberal paradigms of colorblindness, assimilation, and sameness through a critique of moralism, how we talk about privilege, and the complexity of existential political commitment. Imagination in this context will be explored allegorically through musical demonstration and a radical rethinking of democratic participation.
The Blacklist: Women Faculty of Color Group (in partnership with ADVANCE)
This group brings together self-identified women faculty of color in order to facilitate mentoring networks, community building and enhance the capacity of women faculty of color as talented leaders on the UMass Amherst campus and in their fields. It also fosters a social and scholarly community for processing and addressing the unique situation of women faculty of color in higher education. Through monthly lunch meetings, social gatherings, and retreats, the Blacklist creates a space for mutual mentoring and support for women faculty of color, and aims to generate discussions of how to achieve balance and quality of life given the desire for advancement and the need for connection.
This ADVANCE funded initiative is led by Mari Castañeda, Miliann Kang, Benita Barnes, and Nef Walker. Please contact Mari Castañeda (mari@comm.umass.edu) to learn more about the initiative.
Trauma and the Scholar
This informal discussion group will focus on the challenges of teaching and researching the colonial and imperial past and how it affects scholars’ mental and physical well-being. The group will meet once a month to share experiences and stories of teaching/ researching related topics at UMass and how to cultivate self-care. Please contact diversity@umass.edu for more information.
