Programs

(2020-2021) Five College Working Group: "Race and Representations"

The 2020-2021 Five College Working Group explores the topic of “Race and Representations.” Project organizers are Stephen Clingman, Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, and Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, both at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The seminar explores manifestations of race and racism as they vary through time and space. Particularly important are perspectives that explore the role of white supremacy and colonialism in the past and present. An excellent, diverse group of scholars will discuss the general topic and share their work, which focuses on the USA as well as other countries and settings. A key topic will be that of representation, including two dimensions. One is the way different racial groups are represented in the social order—whether it concerns suffering inordinately from the COVID pandemic or under-representation in positions of authority. The other concerns representation as a matter of public discourse: how different groups are imaged in everything ranging from cultural forms (literature, film, television) to academic research and analysis.

Working Group Participants:

Gülru Çakmak
Associate Professor of Nineteenth-Century European Art, Graduate Program Director, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: Ottoman and French painting and visual culture in the second half of the nineteenth century

Adam Dahl
Assistant Professor Department of Political Science,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Problem of World Democracy

Cat Dawson
Research Associate, Department of Art,
Smith College
Project: American art between 1968-1973

Rebecca Dingo
Associate Professor, Department of English,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: The racial and geopolitical history of dominant methods used in US feminist rhetorical studies

Rachel E. Green
Assistant Professor, Program in Comparative Literature,
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: Liberal empathy across Israel/Palestine, the Arab Gulf, and the broader Arabic-speaking world  

Anne E. Kerth
Assistant Professor, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: The lives and labors of enslaved and free African-American artisans in nineteenth-century South Carolina

Agustin Lao-Montes 
Associate Professor, Sociology and Afro-American Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: Black Lives Matters Movements in Brazil, Colombia, and the U.S. in the context of the current Pandemic

Toussaint Losier
Assistant Professor, W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: James (Yaki) Sayles on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth

Svati Shah
Associate Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: India's LGBTQI movements and it's shift toward anti-democratic governance

Banu Subramaniam
Professor & Chair, Dept. of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: How "race" has been used as a biological category during the global pandemic

Corine Tachtiris 
Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Program in Comparative Literature,
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project: Translation and the designation of racial identities