October 1, 4:00 – 6:00 pm | Democracy in Focus Series: Polarization, Persuasion, and Talking Across Difference, Husky Union Building & Livestream

Join the College of Arts & Sciences Social Sciences Division for a talk on Polarization, Persuasion, and Talking Across Difference as part of the 91探花Democracy in Focus Lecture Series. This first lecture of the series will feature Mark Smith from Political Science; and Ralina Joseph and Carmen Gonzalez from Communication and the Center for Communication, Difference & Equity.

Every Tuesday leading up to the 2024 election, 91探花faculty members will share their expertise through a public lecture on an election-related topic. The series spans 91探花partners, including the College of Arts & Sciences, the Evans School, the School of Law, and the Information School, with support from the Office of the Provost.

Free |

October 17, 1:30 PM | , Brechemin Auditorium, School of Music Building

Making his Seattle Opera debut in the role of King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, internationally acclaimed bass and recent GRAMMY winner Morris Robinson visits the 91探花 to share his story as a professional opera singer and his insights into the challenges of performing Wagner in the 21st century.

Free |

October 18, 7:30 PM| 91探花Public Lectures – Reckoning with Race: Fluidity, Invention, and Reality with Ann Morning, Kane Hall

The notion that race is a social construct, rather than an objective physical reality, is widely accepted 鈥� except in areas that include biomedical research, debates about transracial identities, and sports. In this talk, Ann Morning will dissect the reasons we hold firmly to the 18th-century understanding of race in these domains.

Free | More info

October 18, 6 PM | , online

Rena Priest (Lhaq鈥檛emish Nation), the Washington State Poet Laureate, has received numerous awards for her writing, including an American Book Award for her debut poetry collection, 鈥淧atriarchy Blues.鈥� Priest will share a reading followed by a conversation with 91探花Ta(oma professor Danica Miller (Puyallup), with an opportunity for audience questions afterward. The emcee for the event will be Annie Downey and the discussion moderator will be Anne Jenner, 鈥�93, both from the 91探花Libraries.

Free |

October 19, 7 PM | , Kane Hall

How and why did haiku come about? Why are haiku so short? Why do they include precisely 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 arrangement? This talk, which presumes no knowledge of Japan or the Japanese language, will answer these questions and more. In an engaging overview of this fascinating topic, Professor Paul Atkins will discuss the origins of haiku in medieval Japan, introduce the major classic poets, and explore the ways in which haiku is linked to other forms of Japanese literature and art. Haiku is not just a poetic genre鈥攊t is a way of looking at the world and, for many people, a way of life. This talk will be followed by a moderated roundtable discussion between Professor Paul Atkins, and haiku poets Scott Oki and Mitsuko Miller.

Free |

, online

What did it mean to be a Jewish minority in an Arab-Islamic society? How did Judaism shape Islam and vice versa? What is the future of Jewish-Arab relations?

Today, Jews and Arabs sometimes seem to be entrenched in a timeless conflict. But for centuries, over 90% of the world鈥檚 Jews lived, worked, and thrived (or sometimes floundered) in the Arab

Near East.

In four talks from scholars drawing on their original research, this series will explore interactions between Jews and Arabs across fifteen hundred years of history.

• October 19, 4 PM | Lecture 1. Arabian Judaism and Early Islam
• October 26, 4 PM | Lecture 2. The Jews of Medieval Baghdad in the Abbasid Era
• November 2, 3 PM | Lecture 3. Jews and Muslims in Colonial Algeria: Between Intimacy and Resentment
• November 10, 3 PM | Coffeehouses, Parks, and Neighborhoods: Jews and Muslims
  in 20th-Century Cairo

Free |

Autumn Quarter:

The College of Arts & Sciences is launching its initiative by inviting students, faculty, and staff to join a campus-wide reading experience, followed by conversations about how we can enhance teaching and learning at the 91探花.

(in person or Zoom).

October 20, 11 AM: Annual President鈥檚 Address, Henry Art Gallery Auditorium and online

Join President Ana Mari Cauce for her annual address to learn about her vision for the year ahead and the 91探花鈥檚 critical role in accelerating change for the public good through education, innovation, discovery and collaboration. Questions can be submitted in advance and during the event to presofuw@uw.edu.

Free | RSVP

October 20 – 22: , Meany Hall

For 50 years, Pilobolus has tested the limits of human physicality with choreography that changed the look of modern dance. Now for this anniversary celebration, Pilobolus questions its own 鈥済ivens,鈥� turns its traditions sideways, and brings its past into the future. As fresh and vibrant as ever, this feisty, shape-shifting arts organism puts the 鈥淥h!鈥� in 鈥婤IG FIVE-OH! and continues to morph its way thrillingly into audiences鈥� hearts and minds. The celebration includes signature works, from vintage classics to their trendsetting innovations in shadow play.

91探花Faculty, 91探花Staff, 91探花Retirees and 91探花Alumni Association (UWAA): 10% off regular-priced single tickets, subject to availability. A valid 91探花ID (e.g. Husky card or UWAA card) is required; limit of one ticket per valid ID.

91探花Student: $10 91探花Student Tickets are available in Section B for most Meany Center visiting artist performances. A discount of 20% off regular-priced single tickets is available to 91探花Students in Section A. Limit of one 91探花Student ticket per valid Husky ID.

October 20, 2:30 PM | , HUB听

Ploughshares Fund President Emma Belcher in conversation with Jackson School faculty Christopher Jones and Scott Montgomery on the current state of nuclear threats within the confines of the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Together they will explore the geopolitical impacts of Russia鈥檚 war and the importance of diplomacy at this critical time.

Free |

October 20, 6 PM | , Alder Hall Auditorium听

Dr. Ali Mokdad will explore the drivers of health disparities in the United States among racial/ethnic groups. Dr. Mokdad will discuss the extent to which these patterns vary geographically at the local scale and how they are not well understood. He will address the urgent need to address the shared underlying factors driving these widespread disparities and the path forward to improve population health in the US.

Free |

Highlights of current and upcoming exhibitions:听

Until October 29 |, SOIL Art Gallery (Pioneer Square)

November 6 – April 16 | , Burke Museum听(Free admission for 91探花students, faculty and staff)

Until January 8 | , Henry Art Gallery (Free admission for 91探花students, faculty and staff)

The seventh annual Center for Communication, Difference and Equity (CCDE) Conference, 鈥淩esistance Through Resilience,鈥� will be held in collaboration with the (UWRL).

The two-day conference will consist of listening sessions, workshops and a spotlight panel. This year鈥檚 theme builds off last year鈥檚 event, 鈥�.鈥�

鈥淲hat we started to hear overwhelmingly from those who were involved in the 鈥楺uarantining While Black鈥� project was that they were exhausted,鈥� said, CCDE director and 91探花communication professor, 鈥渁nd that they needed other ways to help take care of themselves and their community members.鈥�

With that in mind, Joseph and Resilience Lab director started discussing how to bring contemplative practices into anti-racist work. A grant from the, a nonprofit based in Virginia that was co-founded by the Dalai Lama, the CCDE and the Resilience Lab to unite and address those issues.

The 鈥淩esistance Through Resilience鈥� training and speaker series brings together leaders on campus and in the community to focus on mindfulness and compassion-based practices as tools for interrupting racism.

For months, those thoughts leaders have engaged in conversations about resistance and resilience, said , a doctoral student in communication and a CCDE research assistant. Heading into the conference, she鈥檚 most excited for the opportunity to reflect on those discussions.

鈥淩esisting is tiring work,鈥� moultrie said. 鈥淭he point of this conversation is to have the opportunity to say, 鈥楬ow do we tend to ourselves through the work? How do we tend to our bodies? How do we tend to be present in those moments?鈥� How do we say to ourselves, 鈥業 want to affect change in my communities, but I also want to take care of myself?鈥欌��

Kennedy said working with the CCDE was a chance for the Resilience Lab to think deliberately about racism and how to address it: with a set of practices designed to help people build dialogue.

鈥淚 think we are really in the moment where we鈥檙e needing these types of skills to not just think about, 鈥楬ow I disrupt this moment of microaggression,鈥� but also, 鈥榃hat do I do with the surging anxiety that happens before and afterward?鈥欌�� Joseph said. 鈥淚 hope people will leave the conference feeling like they have some skills in that area.鈥�

The conference will open May 18 with two online sessions. The morning session, 鈥淓veryday Microaggressions, Everyday Awareness鈥� will serve as a primer on the forms of lived discrimination. The afternoon session will be: 鈥淭he Power of Inquiry: Introducing Questioning as the First Anti-Racism Tool for Interrupting Microaggressions.鈥�

鈥淕iven what we know about college, mental health and well-being, we know that BIPOC students are experiencing high rates of mental health struggles,鈥� Kennedy said. 鈥淭hat points to social factors like the climate and culture and experiences of imposter syndrome, discrimination and microaggressions.鈥�

On May 19, four community leaders will participate in an afternoon spotlight panel. The speakers are, an information systems retiree who grew up in Texas during the Jim Crow era;, acting chair and associate professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health at the UW;, assistant director of graduate student affairs in the 91探花Graduate School; and Marsha Rule, retired editor of 91探花Medicine Newsroom.

鈥淭he way that we do our work matters,鈥� Kennedy said. 鈥淧art of resisting is working collaboratively rather than at cross purposes with one another toward common outcomes. I think coming together is part of how we鈥檙e going to create better outcomes for students and all of us. How we work together matters.鈥�

The conference is sponsored by the Mind & Life Institute, the UW鈥檚 Diversity and Inclusion Seed Grants, the 91探花Department of Communication and the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

Not long after the 2016 general election, faculty at the 91探花鈥檚 (CCDE) recognized a need for students, especially BIPOC students, to talk about their experience of race.

The hope was that by listening to each other and creating a community of experiences, it would be possible to disrupt racism in all its forms.

Under the leadership of the Center鈥檚 director, , students, alumni and community members started sharing their stories: when they first experienced discrimination; what it was like to be Black at UW; growing up in Seattle鈥檚 Central District and watching as the neighborhood gentrified; drinking from a water fountain labelled 鈥淏lack only;鈥� or quarantining while Black during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What emerged is , a nationally recognized program based on Joseph鈥檚 鈥淩adical Listening鈥� approach, which teaches people how to listen fully without judgment. Begun as a , the program now has expanded to embrace the BIPOC Seattle community, partnering with the .

On Thursday, the Interrupting Privilege Website Launch + Radical Listening Party is scheduled at Othello 鈥� 91探花Commons and online. The and celebration are the culmination of five years of work, documenting people鈥檚 experiences and building community.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an intimate opportunity to engage with your community,鈥� said Meshell Sturgis, a 91探花doctoral student in communication who first took Interrupting Privilege as a class, and now helps facilitate the program. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really geared toward communicating across differences.鈥�

Building on the original intent 颅鈥� to bring different generations together to talk about race 鈥� Interrupting Privilege evolved organically, and the website is a way to bring more people into the conversation, said Joseph, who also is a professor of communication in the College of Arts & Sciences and associate dean for equity & justice and student affairs in the Graduate School.

鈥淭his has completely reshaped my work,鈥� she recently told . A scholar trained in media studies, Joseph has moved from studying texts to engaging in conversations. 鈥淚鈥檝e seen the need for people to learn to speak about race, and to speak to each other about race.鈥�

As Interrupting Privilege grew, so did the catalogue of recorded, intimate conversations about race and racism in the Pacific Northwest. To build the website, teams curated those conversations. The site organizes the dialogues into themes that include COVID-19, advice for teachers, Black in Seattle, mental health and more.

Some of the dozens of conversations that are available include: 鈥淏lack woman shares how microaggressions translate to online with video meetings鈥�; 鈥淥lder generation Black Seattleite reminisces about what the Central District looked like in the past and how much it has changed鈥�; and 鈥淭wo Black men share stories of when they first 鈥榬ealized they were Black.鈥欌��

鈥淭he Interrupting Privilege program has made our community a better place because it has equipped people of color with the tools and strategies to dismantle racism and privilege where it exists,鈥� said LaNesha DeBardelaben, president and CEO of the Northwest African American Museum. 鈥淚t is in the pausing, and the listening, and the exchange that we learn, reflect and gain greater clarity.鈥�

People鈥檚 experience of race is different depending on where they鈥檙e from. Someone from the Pacific Northwest may not experience overt racism, but they still encounter microaggressions and racism in more subtle ways, said , an assistant professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside who completed her doctorate at 91探花and helped produce many of the recordings on the website.

By creating a website, people from other parts of the U.S. and the world can hear what it鈥檚 like to be Black in Seattle.

鈥淚t is helpful to put those stories out there and to have the ability for other communities that are maybe working on similar projects to connect with, to see how experiences are similar or different,鈥� Brekke said.

DeBardelaben said the program is 鈥渁 necessary part of our healing process鈥� and will have a compounding impact and influence as more people learn and experience being in conversation about race.

While Interrupting Privilege may not change the hearts and minds of those calcified in racist beliefs, the collection can be a resource for people who are interested in these kinds of discussions and in interrogating some of their assumed beliefs of the ways in which they were raised.

鈥淲e still have a long way to go,鈥� Joseph said. 鈥淭his is not the moment for us to let up in any way, this is a moment for us to continue to push hard.鈥�

For more information, contact Joseph at rljoseph@uw.edu.

The 91探花鈥檚 2021 will examine ‘Quarantining while Black.’ The two-day virtual event, scheduled for the morning of June 1 and the afternoon of June 2, is an invitation to radically listen to the ways in which Black Americans in Seattle and beyond have experienced the dual pandemics: COVID-19, with its disproportionate impact on Black communities, and the worldwide racial reckoning that emerged after the murder of George Floyd.

鈥淲e have been honored to host conversations with Black people from all walks of life including graduate students, police officers, librarians, a hairdresser, tech workers, retirees, artists and many more,鈥� said , the center鈥檚 director and the Presidential Term Professor in the 91探花Department of Communication. 鈥淭his conference showcases the Interrupting Privilege research group鈥檚 year of work. Our researchers have done a phenomenal job of thoughtfully facilitating conversations, carefully coding transcripts and artfully clipping out dialogues.鈥�

That research team includes communication graduate students Lando Tosaya, Laura Irwin, jas听 l. Moultrie, and Meshell Sturgis; political science graduate student Thomas Locke; education graduate student Kaleb Germinaro; social work graduate student Sasha Duttchoudhury and undergraduates Chardonnay Beaver and Mari Watkins.

The conference is an extension of Interrupting Privilege, a community-engaged dialogue program centering to conduct action-oriented research that interrupts structures of power. Through stories, participants feel a sense of agency when their voices are intentionally listened to, and audiences empathize with personal stories when they are presented conversationally.

Scheduled conference sessions include:

• What does it mean to Quarantine While Black and How do we Radically Listen?
• Shifting Priorities: How Quarantining Changed Our Lives
• Roots in Seattle: Where is 鈥淏lack Seattle鈥� Today?
• Stressors: Feeling Trauma through the Dual Pandemics
• Policing While Black: Black Police Officers鈥� Stories of Racism and Care
• Community(Self-) Care: Healing Ourselves by Healing with Community

The conference is free, but is required.

For more information, contact Joseph at rljoseph@uw.edu.

Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All 91探花faculty, staff, and students have access to听.听

Spring Concert: Percussion Ensemble and 91探花Steel Band

June 4, 7:30 PM |听

The 91探花Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, Chair of Percussion Studies and an Assistant Professor of Music, director) and 91探花Steel Band (Shannon Dudley, Professor of Ethnomusicology, director) present听live-streamed and pre-recorded performances in their Spring 2021 virtual concert.

BOOK TALK | Vikram Prakash, “One Continuous Line: Art, Architecture and Urbanism of Aditya Prakash”

June 3, 3:30 – 5:00 PM |听

The South Asia Center will host Professor of Architecture听Vikramaditya Prakash听to speak on his new book,听One Continuous Line.

One Continuous Line听explores the life, work, art and philosophy of Aditya Prakash, one of India’s early Modernist architects. Aditya Prakash belonged to the first generation of Indian modernists, a lodestar group of civil servants under Jawaharlal Nehru鈥檚 leadership immediately after Independence, at a time when the connectivity between city, citizen and nation seemed vibrant and expanding. Ignoring disciplinary boundaries, Prakash viewed all aspects of his work as multiple dimensions of a single quest鈥攖o understand the purpose of life, enjoy it, and to keep the interests of the poorest at heart. This is the 鈥渃ontinuous line鈥� and it represents an insight into Prakash鈥檚 philosophy in life and design.听

Free |

Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity Annual Conference:听Quarantining While Black

June 1-2 |

This year, as a continuation of the Interrupting Privilege Radical Listening project, the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity听has been recording stories of Black community care during our dual pandemics. Please join them on Tuesday, June 1 from 9am-noon PT and Wednesday, June 2 from 3-7pm PT to radically listen to Black graduate students, police officers, clergy, retirees, and folks from all walks of life. They will share stories of Black joy, grief, resistance, self-to-community care, gentrification, and more.

Short Talks: Power

June 3, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM | Online

Looking for more?

Check out UWAA’s Stronger Together web page for听more digital engagement opportunities.

In her new book, , 91探花 associate professor of communication, explores how African-American women celebrities, producers and even audiences use “postracial discourse” 鈥� the thinking that American society has evolved beyond racial discrimination and strife 鈥� to refute the idea of postracialism itself.

“” was published in October by New York University Press.

In the book she describes a sort of “tightrope” that Black celebrity women must walk: “Do they call out racism only to face accusations of being called ‘racist’ themselves? Or respond to racism in code only to face accusations of selling out?”

Joseph answered a few questions about “Postracial Resistance” for 91探花News.

How do you define “postracialism” in the book?

Postracialism is the myth that racism 鈥� and race 鈥� are relics of the past. It leads to the silencing of any form of race-talk, or of forthrightly identifying racism. Postracial resistance entails performing postracialism, or put another way, following certain conventions of postracialism (such as not using explicit race talk), in order to resist racism.

In relating your own experiences, you write that you learned to stay quiet in some situations and “sing freely” in others 鈥� “I learned how to be strategically ambiguous.” Strategic ambiguity is a key term in your book 鈥� how do you define it?

Strategic ambiguity is the main tool of postracial resistance. It鈥檚 a way to speak back to racism 鈥� often without 鈥渟peaking鈥� (at least not immediately) at all. Strategic ambiguity is a tool of strategic silence, for example, that you might use when you鈥檙e experiencing a microaggression and you feel as though you will be punished if you respond.

To put it another way: Strategic ambiguity is a tool that the sole person of color in an all-White space might use when she has experienced racism/sexism (racialized sexism) but realizes that defending herself will result in her being blamed, shamed or further discriminated against.

Instead she might choose to play the long game, respond in ways that do resist (and might even shift an institution), but do so through using what I describe as postracial codes where she does not immediately call out the racist/sexist action.

As an aside, this is the exact opposite theory to what I teach in my Interrupting Microaggressions workshops 鈥� which tries to empower people to respond to interpersonal discrimination right away.听 But I think we need all of the tools we can have in our toolboxes in order to fight discrimination.

You write: “I contend that in its very denial of the uses of race, postraciality remains embroiled in precisely what it claims not to be 鈥� postrace is an ideology that cannot escape racialization, complete with controlling images or racialized stereotypes.” Would you explain?

I think this line boils down to my dislike of how power can impose silencing. To me postrace is a device of silence. What postrace means to me is 鈥渨e (people who are uncomfortable with race) are going to act as though that race is irrelevant because we simply don鈥檛 want to talk about all of the complexities of race, and moreover, how we all fit into the race puzzle 鈥� how we are all complicit in constructing the racist fabric of this country.鈥�

Postrace sews up this silence, just hoping that race will go away if we don鈥檛 talk about it. But talking about things doesn鈥檛 erase them 鈥� so all of the old forms of racism 鈥� including stereotyping 鈥� are still there. Ideologies of postracialism simply make it more difficult for us to have discussions about race, and racism.

Postracial resistance allows us to flip the power and decide when we want to be silent, not simply having to be forced in to silence because of others鈥� discomfort.

The use of strategic ambiguity, you write, can, if unintentionally, “devolve into playing into racism.” In what ways is this so? 听

I think that all of us who use strategic ambiguity have to understand that it鈥檚 a potentially dangerous tool 鈥� when you don鈥檛 call something out right away, those around you who have, for example, made the racist/sexist remark might never realize what they said is a problem, or worse, they think they can they get a pass. famously wrote that 鈥渢he master鈥檚 tools can never dismantle the master鈥檚 house,鈥� and strategic ambiguity is arguably a tool of the master. However, that doesn鈥檛 mean that it鈥檚 one that we shouldn鈥檛 use 鈥� that we can鈥檛 slowly erode the structural integrity of the house by sneaking out a brick at a time. But it comes with clear challenges.

You study Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and television producer Shonda Rhimes in the book. Why these three?听听

Well the book is, in many ways, a love letter to Michelle Obama. From when she first came on the scene in the 2008 presidential campaign I was so taken by every aspect of how she had to comport herself. I watched with horror when she had to endure extreme, virulent racism, and delight when she experienced over-the-top adulation.

I began writing about one incident where she was attacked in a racist/sexist manner 鈥� and had to respond in a strategically ambiguous manner. From there I started looking for other incidents where high-profile Black women celebrities used what I started to deem postracial resistance in their responses to racist/sexist attack (and that were unlike Michelle Obama鈥檚 responses). Oprah and were two other perfect examples.

The media’s focus on a few Black women celebrities, you write, enables it to ignore larger issues of Black female disenfranchisement, and shows that the idea racism is ending as “an empty and dangerous lie.” How might media better balance its approach?

I think that even though it鈥檚 2018 the media can fall into the old tropes of covering issues in silos: Racism happens to Black men, sexism happens to White women. Black women鈥檚 suffering becomes erased in this formula 鈥� but the public might not realize this because of the representational omnipresence of Black women celebrities.

It feels pretty simple to me: When media is covering an issue, any issue, Black women, in tandem with all women of color, need to be represented.

In the second half of your book you write about joining a group of young Black women to watch the popular show “America’s Next Top Model.” You studied their response to “representations of women of color on television who perform strategic ambiguity.” What did you learn?

In this book I didn鈥檛 just want to propose a theory as I had in my first book. I wanted to exercise this theory with real-life folks. What I learned with my audience study was that the young women did not believe 鈥� at all 鈥� in strategic ambiguity. They believed in speaking truth to power, in calling out racism and sexism forthrightly and immediately. And when they identified someone on their screens 鈥� like Tyra Banks 鈥� performing strategic ambiguity they skewered her for it immediately.

Now, I think some of this response was generational 鈥� they were younger women, idealistic, bolstered in their college classes and not yet in the workplace 鈥� and some of it was that they were imagining their responses while in the company of only other women of color. There was a certain safety in their girls having their backs 鈥� they could respond in any way they wanted and be validated.

When I write about strategic ambiguity, I talk about it as something one has to perform when we鈥檙e essentially all alone, and there鈥檚 not someone there who sees us, who can witness our discrimination, and can help us respond in ways that all can hear. It鈥檚 a strategy of the desperate!

Can the ideas of your book be universalized to speak to all underrepresented populations? If so, what would you suggest as its take-away message?听 听

Absolutely! The experience of being 鈥渢he only鈥� representative of a population who is minoritized 鈥� whether that means being the person of color, the out LGBTQ+, the person with a disability 鈥� is fairly universal. We learn how to speak in certain similarly coded ways for our safety.

One of the most exciting parts, for me, about having a book come out is sharing it with different audiences, and the “Postracial Resistance” audiences I鈥檝e met so far have been full of different types of folks who have identified with having to use strategic ambiguity because of all kinds of underrepresentation.

You are also founding director of the 91探花. The center held a conference on race and media this spring. What’s next for both you and the center?

As always, we have a lot going on! We have been collecting data for our Generation Mixed Goes to School project, which is the title of my third book (with my co-author, Bay Area psychologist Allison Briscoe-Smith). We will be sharing some of our first stories from the book at our .

This year our signature program 鈥� our intergeneration, antiracist dialogue program 鈥� is growing with different 91探花populations, including the program and the program. In the spring we will partner again with the Alumni Association. Our research team is working on papers based off data from Interrupting Privilege program.

Finally, our annual conference next spring is on Racial Categories and the 2020 Census, so we will be gearing up for that soon too. Our community is hungry for the tangible tools to fight racism right now, and we aim to provide those tools.

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For more information, contact Joseph at rljoseph@uw.edu.

The conference will be held Thursday through Saturday May 10 to 12, in the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center. The event is organized by staff and faculty of the center, including , 91探花associate professor of communication, its founder and director. The full schedule is listed .

, professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will give the keynote address at 7 p.m. Thursday, under the title “In These Dark Times: The (Re)Making of a Radical Black Public Sphere.”

“This conference is an opportunity for scholars to share their cutting-edge work on all aspects of race and media,” Joseph said. “Studying race and media is so important because in our starkly segregated lives, the media is one of the few places that people engage regularly with folks who are different races than themselves. But what happens when racialized difference only happens on our screens?听 This is what we’ll be talking about.

“It will also focus on how the rhetoric of post-racialism 鈥� which Joseph called “the idea that racism, and maybe even race itself are figments of the past” 鈥� has combined with an increasing threat to ethnic studies and “weakened our ability to call attention to race.”

The conference will bring scholars to Seattle from about two dozen institutions nationwide. Several 91探花faculty will present or facilitate discussions. These will include:

• , associate professor of anthropology, will lead a discussion on “Producing Race Behind the Screens”
• , associate professor of American ethnic studies, will lead a discussion of “Sonic (Re)Collection: Memory and Resistance through Sound”
• , assistant professor in the Information School, will lead a discussion on “Racial and Spatial Signifiers: Negotiations of Self (Re)presentation”

Also, Joseph will host a lunchtime discussion Thursday on “Balance, Children, and Other Academic Juggling Acts” and , associate professor in the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies Department, will host a discussion of “Race, Media, and Public Scholarship for Faculty of Color.”

Other presentations include:

• “The Lessons of Failure: The Networks and Latina/o Sitcoms of the ’80s and ’90s”
• “Black Women Showrunners鈥� Politics of Representation”
• “From Post-Race to Post-Truth? Media and the New Era of Overt Racism”
• “Because You Watched: Algorithmic Identities and What It Means To Be Latina/o According To Netflix”
• “Post-Race in HBO鈥檚 ‘Westworld'”

On the final afternoon, the conference will present several collaborative projects and video presentations from researchers in the School of Public Health, College of Education, 91探花Bothell’s Digital Futures Lab and the Information School.

Joseph said, “With this conference we hope to foster a space of dialogue and critique around the most important issues of race and media today.”

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For more information or for press access, contact Joseph at rljoseph@uw.edu.

, 91探花 associate professor of communication, has guest co-edited a special triple issue of the interdisciplinary journal with her former mentor and dissertation adviser, Jane Rhodes of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Joseph’s own article in the issue focuses on the creator of the television show “Grey’s Anatomy,” set in Seattle.

The special edition, the guest editors , resulted from a panel discussion called “The Right Representation: Race, Gender, and Black Respectability Politics in the Media” held at the 2014 meeting of the Society of Cinema and Media Studies. The issue’s wide-ranging articles on respectability politics in the media range from magazines Jet and Ebony to reality TV show “Preachers of LA” and the lives of pioneering African American scientists and artists.

“The ideals of respectability and the regulation of so-called appropriate behavior have loomed large in the lives of African Americans and other minoritized groups for generations,” said Joseph, who is also founding director of the 91探花.

The panel’s organizers expected a “lively conversation” about the historical and contemporary aspects of the politics of respectability, but the response was much greater.

“What we found was that the overflowing crowd, while interested in the individual papers, was really focused on the larger topic of how to make sense of race and respectability in our highly politicized and fraught cultural moment.”

Organizing the panel along with Joseph were colleagues of the University of Michigan, of Rutgers University and , professor and chair of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who also co-edited the triple issue.

Talking later, they agreed there was much more to say on the topic: “We wanted to further interrogate how the representations of marginalized people bear the weight of depicting whole communities, cultures and races,” they wrote.

The first part of the special issue has articles that take a historical view of respectability politics, and the second part “examines contemporary examples of African American engagement with and struggles over respectability politics.”

Joseph’s own in the issue was about the respectability politics of , the “showrunner” or creative force behind the television show “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Joseph wrote: “In the shift from the pre-Obama era to the #BlackLivesMatter era, Rhimes’s careful negotiation of the press demonstrates that, in the former moment, to be a respectable Black woman is to perform strategic ambiguity, or not speak frankly about race, while in the latter, respectable Black women can and must engage in racialized self-expression, and thus redefine the bounds of respectability.”

Souls is housed in the African American Studies department of the University of Illinois at Chicago and is edited by Barbara Ransby, a professor of history there as well as an activist and president of the National Women’s Studies Association.

The triple issue, Joseph said, broke the journal’s record for submissions for a special issue.

Joseph holds adjunct appointments in the Department of American Ethnic Studies and the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.

Respectability politics also figures in the current era of protest, Joseph added: “What forms of protest we use, the language of our protest, and whose voice gets heard in a protest are all regulated by respectability.”

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For more information, contact Joseph at rljoseph@uw.edu.

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