What I Am Thinking About Now: Vanessa Fabien, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Africana Studies and the Cogut Center for the Humanities

What I Am Thinking About Now: Stefano Bloch, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Urban Studies Program and Cogut Center for the Humanities

"Deeply Superficial Reflections on Life as a Tagger"

Professor Stefano Bloch examines the (re)development of the contemporary city by focusing on illicit contributions to the making of place by members of urban-based subcultures. As he will discuss, this research forces him to reflect on his own experiences as a once-prolific graffiti writer and why he rejects commonplace defenses of graffiti as "art".

What I Am Thinking About Now: John Logan, Professor of Sociology; Director, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences

There is wide agreement that most major Northern cities had black ghettos by 1940, after two decades of the Great Migration. This talk will analyze trends in ten Northern cities decade by decade from 1880 to 1940. It will present evidence that processes separating blacks from whites were already in play as early as 1880 or 1900, predating the era of redlining, firebombings, and restrictive covenants.

What I Am Thinking About Now: Robert G. Lee, Associate Professor of American Studies

Can we conceive the Transpacific as a discrete historical space tied together by continuous flows of goods, people and ideas? What are the parameters, contours and dynamics of this geography? What kind of class, racial and gender formations have emerged from the colonial and post-colonial histories of the Transpacific?

What I Am Thinking About Now: Daniel Kim, Associate Professor of English

Prof. Kim will be discussing the book he is writing, which examines American and South Korean depictions of what has come to be known as “the forgotten war” with a particular focus on the interlocking domestic and transnational histories of race and empire that constellate around this historical event.

What I Am Thinking About Now: Daniel Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of History, Latin America and the Caribbean

What I Am Thinking About Now: Dr. Shontay Delalue, Assistant Dean of the College, Director of International Student & Visitor Experience

The study being discussed will look at the experiences of students from the African Atlantic Diaspora whose primary way of identifying racially conflicted with the racial categorization of ‘Black’ in the U.S. Using a critical race theory and racial formation lens, the history of the U.S. Census racial categories and the social definition of ‘Black’ will be explored.

What I Am Thinking About Now: Professor Patricia Ybarra (TAPS)

What I Am Thinking About Now: Professor Adrienne Keene (CSREA and Anthropology Postdoctoral Fellow) 

What I Am Thinking About Now: Professor Rebecca Carter (Anthropology, Urban Studies)