The UMass Department of History is honored to welcome writer and historian Aurora Levins Morales as the UMass/Five College Graduate History Program’s 2018 writer-in-residence. Levins will be in residence in the UMass History Department from April 17-21.
During her residency, Levins will conduct workshops with UMass and Five College history students and community audiences. On Tuesday, April 17 at 4pm in the UMass Student Union Ballroom, she will deliver a public lecture, titled "Memory is Our Soil: Bringing History into the Commons." The lecture is free and open to the public and copies of her books will be available for purchase following the event. On Saturday, April 21, there will be a second public event in Holyoke, MA, details forthcoming.
Aurora Levins Morales is a Puerto Rican Ashkenazi Jewish feminist writer and historian. She is the author of six books including Medicine Stories, Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas and Kindling: Writings on the Body. Her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, is widely taught, and has been translated into seven languages. She produces Letters from Earth, an environmental justice podcast, and is a member of JOCSM, the Jews of Color, Sephardi and Mizrahi Caucus partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace, and the JVP Artists’ Council.
The UMass Amherst Writer-in Residence Program facilitates sustained conversation with widely-read authors whose historical work engages broad public audiences. It is supported by Five Colleges, Inc. This residency is sponsored by the UMass/Five College Graduate History Program, UMass Amherst Department of History, and Five Colleges, Inc., and co-sponsored by numerous UMass and Five College partners: the Ethics and Common Good Program at Hampshire College, the Amherst College Department of History, the Mount Holyoke College Department of History, the UMass Amherst Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, the UMass Alliance for Community Transformation, the UMass Amherst Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, and Maria Salgado-Cartagena, People's Historian of Holyoke's Puerto Rican Diaspora.