Un/Doing Event Series
SPRING 2023 EVENTS
“Un/Doing” is the research theme for HRI's 2022–23 Campus Fellows and also informed the selection of a slate of speakers under the same name. This year’s theme grew out of conversations with faculty in Gender and Women’s Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Latina/o Studies and African American Studies, and much of the programming has been curated by Professors Jenny Davis (American Indian Studies) and Mimi Thi Nguyen (Gender and Women’s Studies). We hope to see you at these and other HRI events this year!
February 9, 12:00 p.m. Central
Graduate Student Workshop: "Un/Doing Cultural Analysis" with Dr. Thea Quiray Tagle
Please note: this workshop is open to graduate students and limited to 20 participants. Register in advance to secure your spot. This participatory workshop aims to disrupt modes of "doing" scholarly analysis of visual art, performance, film and other cultural productions. Frequently, scholars are trained to apply theory to unpack a cultural object, and in so doing, flatten the object so it is merely reflective of a larger social phenomenon. What if, instead, cultural productions were acknowledged as being generative of theory itself, and looked at or listened to as such?
February 9, 4:00 p.m. Central
“Un/Doing Art History Through Relational Curation and Ethnic Studies”
This seminar with curator, writer, and Ethnic Studies scholar Dr. Thea Quiray Tagle (Brown University) will cover different models of working with BIPOC visual artists that challenge the alienating norms behind much art historical scholarship and curatorial practice. Beginning from a case study of curating AFTER LIFE (we survive)—a group show featuring minoritarian artists dealing with different forms of slow violence and climate collapse—during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Quiray Tagle forwards an ethical practice of collaboration between scholars and artists that she dubs "relational curation." Relational curation is grounded in principles of right relation, reciprocity, and accountability, and directly draws from Black feminist thought, Indigenous Studies, and other queer and feminist Ethnic Studies theorists. By thinking together in this seminar, we will dream and discuss ways of working relationally with others, in order to disrupt who and what scholarship, art exhibitions, and art itself are for. Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 108
February 23, 7:30 p.m. Central
“Public Reading: David Wright Faladé”
Professor David Wright Faladé (Creative Writing, English) will read excerpts from his collection of work, including highlights from Black Cloud Rising, which was featured in the New York Times, NPR, and the New Yorker.
In addition to Black Cloud Rising, Faladé is the author of the narrative history Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers, and the novel Away Running. Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 422
March 9, 7:30 p.m. Central
“Black Freedom on Native Land: Reconsidering Reconstruction"
Speaker: Alaina E. Roberts (History, University of Pittsburgh) Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 422 Presented with the Department of History
March 24
Un/Doing Work-In: For faculty members in ethnic and gender and women’s studies units.
March 30, 4:00 p.m. Central
Speaker: Tarren Andrews (Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University) Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 108 Co-hosted by the American Indian Studies Program.
Nikki Finney Events
We are excited to welcome Nikky Finney (John H. Bennett, Jr., Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters, University of South Carolina) for a series of events in April!
Wednesday, April 19
Food for the Soul/Inside Scoop with Nikky Finney
Time: 12:00 p.m. Central
Location: Hosted at, and cosponsored by, the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center.
Wednesday, April 19
CultureTalk: Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown
Time: 7:30 p.m. Central
Location: Spurlock Museum, Knight Auditorium
Livestream: View the livestream
Nikky Finney and Ruth Nicole Brown (African American Studies, Michigan State University and Founder, Saving Our Lives, Hearing Our Truths - SOLHOT) in conversation, moderated by Janice Harrington (Creative Writing, Department of English). Cosponsored by the College of Fine and Applied Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Center for Advanced Study, and the Spurlock Museum.
Thursday, April 20
Public Reading and Book Signing
Time: 7:30 p.m. Central
Location: Alice Campbell Alumni Center
FALL 2022 EVENTS
October 6, 7:30 p.m. Central
Presentation-performance: “I am the trans bride: Affection, seduction and radical tenderness to combat transphobia and pain”
Lia García is a Mexico City-based performance artist, activist, and educator whose work has been featured at the Annual Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Politics and Performance at NYU, Harvard University, and the University of Texas at Austin, among other universities and cultural centers across the Americas and Europe. Her work incorporates transfeminist critical pedagogies, trans*ness, activism through her method of encuentros afectivos, affective encounters. Location: Levis Faculty Center, Third Floor.
October 10, 4:00 p.m. Central
Indigenous Peoples' Day Conversation: Jacki Rand with Mimi Thi Nguyen
Join us for an Indigenous Peoples' Day Conversation with Jacki Rand (Associate Vice Chancellor for Native Affairs, American Indian Studies, pictured left) and Mimi Thi Nguyen (Gender & Women's Studies), moderated by Jenny L. Davis (American Indian Studies, Anthropology). Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 210
October 13, 7:30 p.m. Central
“Untangling Campus Histories: Race, Memory, and the Hallowed Grounds Project”
Drawing on her research on slavery at the University of Alabama, Hilary N. Green explores the need for recovering and untangling institutional campus histories of race and slavery and how understanding the enslaved campus experience is essential for institutional reconciliation efforts in the present. Location: Levis Faculty Center, Room 422
November 29, 2022
Un/Doing Work-In: For faculty members in ethnic and gender and women’s studies units.