Anti-Racism: Events

If White people are to contribute productively and non-harmfully to racial justice movements, then careful examination of the causes and consequences of White racial emotions is essential to ensure that White people move beyond tears and guilt and toward the ongoing practice of racial consciousness and social action. Registration is required in advance.

In his presentation, Olson will clarify and situate the concept of implicit bias within a dual-process social cognitive framework. In doing so, he will discuss how it forms and changes, affects perceptions, judgments, and behavior (including intentional acts of discrimination), and how its impacts can be mitigated in interpersonal and organizational contexts. Registration is required in advance.

Science has long colluded with white supremacy and colonialism to produce allegedly “evidence-based” justifications for racial oppression. Professor Nora Berenstain will trace historical lineages of scientific racism from early forms, such as craniometry and anthropometry, to more contemporary manifestation, such as genetic accounts of biological racial differences.

In her presentation, Professor King will bring together the concepts of antiracist work and decolonial work to show how the two can be complementary, but how we need them both to deal with the ideological and cultural frames we live in, as well as the histories we inherit.

One way of being actively anti-racist in the classroom is being aware of language variation and appreciative of linguistic diversity. In her presentation, Jessi Grieser, assistant professor of English, will explore the workings of standard language ideology and the principle of linguistic subordination. She will explain how we can move away from “correct English” in our assessment strategies and toward inclusive strategies that respect language variation. Registration is required in advance

How do we best understand this historic moment of racial reckoning and how does our national reckoning expose long-standing and current realities of racism on the University of Tennessee's campus?

Register at the link above.

September 17th from 12 -1:30
Panelists: Camille Hall, Clarence Vaughn and Kirsten Gonzalez
Moderator: Shaina Destine

UTK READS for Black Lives, open to UTK faculty and graduate students, will consist of a seminar to engage with seminal works related to the field of Classics and the African diaspora, and how to engage in anti-racist work within our local community. For this seminar, we will be reading selections from:
Frantz Fanon, “Concerning Violence" in The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
Margo Hendricks, "Coloring the Past, Rewriting Our Future: RaceB4Race" (2019)

UTK READS for Black Lives is scheduled to be held via Zoom on Fri. Sept. 25 at 4:30 – 6:00 pm.

Eos guidelines require that readings be distributed only to seminar participants, and so if you would like to participate, please RSVP to Stephen Collins-Elliott at sce@utk.edu. You will receive a reply with the readings, discussion questions, and the Zoom link.