Prof. DL Smith will be giving a brief talk on Africana Studies and Danger, in conjunction with the Gaudino Forum on Danger, Tuesday (Feb. 21) 7:30 p.m., Griffin 7.
Four other Professors will also be speaking (see the full notice below); Prof. Smith will be one of the first two speakers tomorrow night. Here is a more detailed description of his talk tomorrow night:
RACIAL FLASHPOINTS IN AFRICANA AND LITERARY STUDIES
Race poses innumerable possibilities for conflict in the academic disciplines of Africana Studies and Literary Studies. Discursive deployments of racial vocabulary, concepts, and attitudes may provoke severe reactions. In this respect, scholarship dealing with racial issues may be deemed hazardous duty. Nonetheless, we cannot assume that potential dangers are routinely actualized. We must ask ourselves: what are these dangers; and how and how often are they manifested? The reality, I will argue, is much less compelling than the hype.
I will consider published texts, public debates and personal anecdotes to illustrate the various and mostly innocuous consequences of discursive conflicts over racial matters during the past three decades. The most serious dangers, I will argue, result from enactments of racial attitudes, not from discourse about notions of race.
David Lionel Smith
John W. Chandler Professor of English
Williams College
Full Line-up for the Third Gaudino Forum on Danger: Tuesday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m. Griffin 7
The Third Gaudino Forum on Danger will take place take place tomorrow Tuesday February 21st at 7:30pm in Griffin 7 on February 21st at 7:30pm. In this forum we will hear from five professors from different disciplines and all three divisions who will reflect on what is dangerous. This will be a public event. The following day or Wednesday the 22nd at 4pm will continue this conversation for faculty only at the Oakley Center. Hope you can make it to either or both events. Here are the main speakers tomorrow:
1) Marjorie Hirsch (Music) will discuss various kinds of “dangerous music,” e.g., musical works that threaten the physical or emotional well-being of performers or listeners, that incite violence or foment political rebellion, that threaten individual or societal morality, or that wreak havoc on artistic traditions.
2) Nicole Mellow (Political Science) will talk about the challenge of recognizing dangerous leadership in American politics and the price the country pays as a result.
3) Jerry Caprio (Economics) will address the dangers posed by financial crises, and how not addressing crises — seeming to do much when in reality accomplishing little to prevent them in the future — can endanger how well economies function and ultimately the fate of democracies.
4) Morgan McGuire (Computer Science) will highlight how the signature of the modern video- and European board-game is a paradox. They achieve artistic expression through the psychology of jeopardy, yet define an explicitly danger-free zone. How does human computation enable this and why is the experience of endangerment compelling for players?
5) David L. Smith (English) will also address the forum on “Racial Flashpoints in Africana and Literary Studies,” focusing on the conflict discourse on race produces in academia and beyond.
Megamenu Social