A panel of experts will discuss the academic merit of black studies, including courses focused on Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, one of the nation’s most successful rappers, record producers, and entrepreneurs, as part of Black History Month celebrations at UCCS.
At 7 p.m. Feb. 3 in the University Center Theater, Julius Bailey, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio; Dawn-Elissa Fischer, assistant professor, Department of Africana Studies, San Francisco State University; Heidi Lewis, visiting assistant professor, Department of Feminist and Gender Studies, Colorado College; and Stephany Rose Spaulding, assistant professor, Women’s and Ethnic Studies, UCCS, will respond to questions before engaging the audience in a broader discussion of issues facing African-Americans in academia.
“Each of the panelists will be asked to comment on the recent events at Georgetown University where a course about Jay Z drew a lot more criticism than, say, a course about Shakespeare would have,” Spaulding said recently. “The other questions will have to do with the ‘ghetto-izing’ of African-American studies as somehow not a real academic pursuit and how we can better demonstrate the value of ethnic studies programs.”
Titled “It’s Bigger than Hiphop, Black Studies in the Academy,” the event is organized by the UCCS Black Student Union and sponsored by the President’s Diversity and Excellence Funds and the Office of Student Activities. The event is free and open to members of the UCCS and greater Colorado Springs communities. Rose plans to record the event and to make it available through iTunes University to a broader audience.
Other events planned for Black History Month include”
Jan. 26-Feb. 19
Evening and afternoon show times, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” presented by Theatreworks at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater in University Hall. The play is set in a boarding house in Pittsburgh in 1911 during the migration of African-Americans to the north. For more information, visit https://communique.uccs.edu/?p=5712
Feb. 10
5:30 p.m.- 8 p.m., Remembrance Walk/Gospel Explosion. The event will begin at the Mountain Lion statue near the University Center.
Feb. 17
6 p.m. – 9 p.m., Screening of “The Barber of Birmingham,” the story of civil rights leader James Armstrong who ran voter education projects for 50 years from his Birmingham, Ala., barbershop. The film will be shown at Berger Hall in the University Center.
Leave a Reply