Second Annual Series 2019
Guest Speaker: Nana Osei-Kofi, PhD
Lecture Title: Notes on Multiraciality: Reflections on the Personal and the Political
About the Lecture: What does it mean to engage in a critical conversation about multiracial? To what degree have psychological identity development models shaped the dominant discourse on multiracial? How might we take up multiracial from an explicitly political, anti-racist stance? What can we learn from engaging multiraciality from a historical perspective? These are some of the questions I have been working on as a scholar with a deep interest in radical social change and as a woman of color with a substantial investment in questions of multiracialization. During our time together, I will share from my personal and professional life to weaving together an autobiographical narrative on multiracial identity, inquiry, and politics.
About the Speaker: Nana Osei-Kofi is Director of the Difference, Power, & Discrimination Program and Associate Professor of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University (OSU). Prior to her appointment at OSU in 2013, Osei-Kofi was Associate Professor and Director of the Social Justice Studies Graduate Certificate Program in the School of Education at Iowa State University. Her areas of scholarly focus include critical and feminist teaching and learning, the politics of American higher education, Black Nordic studies, and visual cultural studies. Her work has appeared, including Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Feminist Formations, Equity & Excellence in Education, Latino Studies, and The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. Osei-Kofi serves on the editorial boards of Feminist Formations and The Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis and recently completed a two-year term as Vice-President of the National Women’s Studies Association. Osei-Kofi holds an M.A. in Applied Women’s Studies and Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University.
More information about the speaker: https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/users/nana-osei-kofi
Guest Speaker: Stephanie Han, PhD
Lecture Title: Narrative as Life: Writing, Self, and Polyculturalism
About the Lecture: Through stories, we come to be. Crafting the narrative is a journey into the self and reverberates into a broad understanding of the individual’s place within a global context. An urgent sense often propels an expression of a single sentiment that one’s existence is relevant and finite and all of the wonder and terror that this implies. Writing is a bold act of defiance in a world that marginalizes individuals according to ideas of perceived power. A 21st-century framework of polyculturalism embraces the multiplicity of our stories and, in so doing, urges us to embrace authentic shared humanity.
The Speaker: Stephanie Han’s award-winning fiction collection Swimming in Hong Kong (Willow Springs Books) received recognition and prizes from Paterson, AWP, Spokane, Asian Books Blogs, Honolulu Magazine, South China Morning Post, Nimrod International, and other outlets. Han has published across the genres and has received grants/fellowships from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, PEN-USA, and VONA. She was the inaugural English Literature Ph.D. graduate of City University of Hong Kong and lives in Hawaii, her family since 1904.
More information about the speaker: https://www.stephaniehan.com/about/
Speakers: Some of the Brave
A Special Session: Brave Narratives, Right Here, at Puget Sound: A Womxn of Color Community Circle
About the Session: This is a special event in the But Some of Us Are Brave lecture series. We often offer opportunities only to those beyond our campus walls to be guest speakers and share their knowledge. We often forget how we embody bravery every day as we play a part in the larger experience of our various identity communities. So this year, we want to ensure that the voices of those that are brave, right here at Puget Sound, are to be heard. This event will begin with a small panel of women of color who share short narratives of when they have been especially brave. The majority of the event will be dedicated to breaking bread and conversations within smaller groups consisting of faculty, staff, and students who all identity as womxn of color. This space is a solidarity space in which the primary focus and primary audience is womxn of color. It is creating a space for those who are consistently reminded of how hard it is to be WOC and often Woke WOC, yet are not as often reminded of the ways in which identifying as such means you are indeed Brave. If you identify as a womxn of color and desire to be in a space that speaks to the trials and tribulations of someone who identifies as a womxn, please consider joining the circle.
*In using the term womxn, we fully acknowledge that women should never be limited to cisgender women and intentionally include our trans women sisters and non-binary community. In this particular space, we want non-binary people to be aware of the focus on femme experiences.
If you are interested in joining this Brave space, RSVP by Thursday, March 7th to the following email: lbrackett@pugetsound.edu. This event will provide food; thus, a headcount is imperative to the success of this community circle. We hope you will join us in this space of comradery and community, and most of all, mutual respect and love.
The funding for this event comes from the generosity of various departments and programs across the campus.
About the Speakers:
Puget Sound Voices:
LaToya Brackett, Visiting Assistant Professor of African American Studies and the Race & Pedagogy Institute Khalila Fordham, Psychologist and Multicultural Support Specialist at CHWS
Isha Rajbandhari, Assistant Professor of Economics
Community Voices:
T’wina Franklin Nobles, President, and CEO of the Tacoma Urban League and Puget Sound Alum
First Annual Series 2018
Link to Posters of Speakers from 2018 Series