Past Events

April 19, 2023 | Sawyer Seminar: Karina L. Walters on Transcending Historical Trauma: How to Address American Indian Health Inequities and Promote Thriving

Posted on by

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

6:00 – 7:30 pm

Cowell Ranch Hay Barn (free and open to the public, register)

Thursday, April 20, 2023

12:00 – 1:30 pm

Humanities 1, room 210

SAVE-the-DATEs! On Wednesday, April 19 at 6:00 pm, Sawyer Seminar Speaker, Karina L. Walters, will present a campus-wide talk at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn. It is free and open to the public, though we do ask people to pre-register. Then, on Thursday, April 20, we will host a reading group at 12:00pm in Humanities 1, room 210.

Throughout history, settler colonialism has endeavored to erase the lived experiences and histories of American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples. Yet, Indigenous populations, particularly Indigenous women, remain strong and resilient pillars of communities. Oftentimes these [her]stories are missed in public health initiatives as a result of settler colonialism’s perpetual drive to erase and silence. In this talk, Dr. Walters will explore the latest advances in designing culturally derived, Indigenist health promotion interventions among American Indian and Alaska Native women. The talk will describe the indigenist methodological innovations utilized in the NIH funded Yappalli Choctaw Road to Health, a culturally focused, land-based obesity and substance abuse prevention program as well as the national multi-site Honor Project Two-Spirit Health Study. Consistent with tribal systems of knowledge, both studies illustrate the importance of developing culturally derived health promotion interventions rooted in Indigenist thoughtways and land-based practices to promote Indigenous thrivance and community well-being.

Dr. Karina L. Walters (MSW, PhD) is the recently appointed Director of the Tribal Health Research Office at the National Institute of Health. She is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a Katherine Hall Chambers University Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, and Co-Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI) at the University of Washington. Dr. Walters is world renowned for her expertise in developing behavioral and multi-level health interventions steeped in culture to activate health-promoting behaviors. She has written landmark papers on traumatic stress and health, historical and intergenerational trauma, and originated the Indigenist Stress-Coping model. She has led 22 NIH-funded studies, is one of the leading American Indian scientists in the country, and is only one of two American Indians (and the only Native woman) ever invited to deliver the prestigious Director’s lecture to the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) at the NIH. She is the first American Indian Fellow inductee into the American Academy of Social Welfare and Social Work (AASWSW).

The “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” seminar series is supported by the Mellon Foundation, administered by The Humanities Institute (THI) at UC Santa Cruz, and presented in partnership with the Science & Justice Research Center. Learn more in this campus news article: UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation humanities grant to investigate race, biomedicine and on the “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” project website.

April 12, 2023 | BME80G Series: Krystal Tsosie on “Referring to Whom? The ‘Indigenous Reference Genome'”

Posted on by

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

5:20 – 7:00 pm 

Classroom Unit 2 (map) or Zoom (registration)

On Wednesday, April 12 at 5:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by indigenous geneticist- bioethicist Dr. Krystal Tsosie – a panel discussion will follow.

A zoom option is available for members of the campus community who cannot attend in person. Register for the Zoom link here.

Krystal Tsosie (Diné/Navajo Nation), Ph.D., MP..H, M.A., is an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. As an advocate for Indigenous genomic data sovereignty, she co-founded the first US Indigenous-led biobank, called the Native BioData Consortium. Her research can be encapsulated in two main foci: Indigenous population genetics and bioethics. In particular, she focuses on bioethical engagement of Indigenous communities in genomics and data science to build trust. As a whole, her interest is in integrating genomic and data approaches to assess Indigenous variation contributing to health inequities. Her research and educational endeavors have received increasing national and international media attention as scientists worldwide are understanding the importance of equitable, community-based engagement models and the importance of Indigenous genomic data sovereignty. Her work has been covered by popular media outlets including PBS NOVA, The Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Boston Globe. She currently serves on the Government Policy and Advocacy Committee for the American Society of Human Genetics and the National Academy of Medicine Announces Committee on Emerging Science, Technology, and Innovation. She is a current Global Chair in ENRICH (Equity for Indigenous Research and Innovation Coordinating Hub), which focuses on enhancing Indigenous rights to develop, control, and govern Indigenous data and supports participation in STEM and in digitally‐enabled futures.

April 05, 2023 | BME80G Series: Joseph Graves on “Racism, Not Race: Answers to the most critical questions”

Posted on by

Wednesday, April 05, 2023

5:20 – 7:00 pm 

Zoom (registration)

Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions by Joseph L. Graves Jr. and Alan H. Goodman (Columbia University Press, 2023)

On Wednesday, April 05 at 5:20 pm, you are invited to join S&J affiliate and Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Karen Miga’s BME 80G Bioethics course for a talk by Dr. Joseph Graves on “Racism, Not Race: Answers to the most critical questions” – a panel discussion will follow.

Order a copy of Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions!

In advance of Grave’s lecture, the UCSC Genomics Institute’s Racial Justice Learning and Action Group will read Grave’s most recent book, Racism Not Race, Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Anyone affiliated with UC Santa Cruz is welcome to attend. Click here to add the first meeting to your calendar (must be logged into your UCSC gmail account). The reading schedule is:

  • Wednesday, March 15: Discuss Preface, Introduction, and Chapters 1-3
  • Wednesday, March 22: Discuss Chapters 4-7
  • Wednesday, March 29: Discuss Chapters 8-11 and Conclusions

Contact Mary Goldman about the reading group.

Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a professor of biological science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a former associate dean for research at the Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. He has written extensively on genetics and race including Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (Columbia University Press, 2023).

March 7-8, 2023 | Sawyer Seminar: Wangui Muigai on Fighting for Life: Race and the Limits of Infant Survival

Posted on by

Tuesday, March 07, 2023

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

University Center

 

Wednesday, March 08, 2023

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Humanities 1, 210

On Tuesday, March 7 at 5:00pm at the University Center, Sawyer Seminar Speaker, Wangui Muigai, will present a talk titled, “Fighting for Life: Race and the Limits of Infant Survival.” Then, on Wednesday, March 8, we will host a reading group with Muigai at 4:00pm. Both activities will be in-person only.

Join Dr. Wangui Muigai as she charts the history of one of the most enduring health disparities in America, the racial gap in infant survival. Drawing on a trove of historical records and archival materials, this talk follows Black families as they have journeyed from birthing rooms to burial grounds, fighting for the ability to birth and nurture healthy babies. In charting the historical landscapes of Black infant death across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Dr. Muigai will examine the role of cultural practices, medical theories, and communal initiatives to explain and address the causes of Black infant death. The talk considers the legacy of these ideas and efforts in ongoing struggles to preserve Black life.

Wangui Muigai is an Assistant Professor at Brandeis University in the departments of History, African & African American Studies and the Health: Science, Society, and Policy Program. Dr. Muigai was named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and selected as a Class of 2025 Fellow in the Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics. Her first book, on the history of infant death in the Black experience, is forthcoming with Harvard University Press.

The “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” seminar series is supported by the Mellon Foundation, administered by The Humanities Institute (THI) at UC Santa Cruz, and presented in partnership with the Science & Justice Research Center. Learn more in this campus news article: UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation humanities grant to investigate race, biomedicine and on the “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” project website.

February 21, 2023 | “Why Is Publishing So White?” An Evening with Richard Jean So

Posted on by

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

5:00-6:30 PM

Humanities 1, 210

On Tuesday, February 21 at 5:00pm, Kresge’s Media & Society Series speaker, Richard Jean So, will present on “Why is Publishing so White?” (RJS flier PDF)

More on Kresge’s Media & Society Series can be found on the series website.

Richard Jean So is associate professor of English and Digital Humanities at McGill University. He uses computational and data-driven methods to study contemporary culture, from the novel to Netflix to social media. He has published academic articles in PMLA and Critical Inquiry and public-facing pieces in The New York Times and Atlantic. His most recent book is Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (Columbia UP, 2021) and he is currently working on Fast Culture, Slow Justice: Race and Writing in the Digital Age.

Co-sponsored by Computational Media, Literature, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Science & Justice Research Center, and the Center for Cultural Studies.

January 27, 2023 | Sawyer Seminar: Kaushik Sunder Rajan on Ethnographic Trans-formations: Cases, Life Histories, and Other Entanglements of Emergent Research

Posted on by

Friday, January 27, 2023

12:15 pm – 1:30 pm

Humanities 1, 210

 

Wednesday, February 01, 2023

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Humanities 1, 210

SAVE-the-DATEs! On Friday, January 27 at 12:15pm, we will host a reading group with Sawyer Seminar Speaker, Kaushik Sunder Rajan, in Humanities 1, 210. Then, on Wednesday, February 1, Rajan will present a talk titled, “Ethnographic Trans-formations: Cases, Life Histories, and Other Entanglements of Emergent Research,” at 4:00pm.

This talk is the presentation of an emergent research trajectory. Drawing upon an imaginary of “multisituated” research design and practice, I elaborate the (often contingent and serendipitous) development of my recent work in South Africa, which includes a research project on health and constitutionalism and a teaching- and performance-based collaboration on the politics of breath. I am still wrestling with how to structure both, how they come together and diverge, their different conceptual modalities and political stakes. This includes a consideration of the stakes of legal archival research and life-history interviews in the context of contemporary and emergent research and political situations, as well as of thinking questions of ethnographic form in concert with others who are invested in considerations of literary or musical form. How to think about transformations of research practice in the context of unsettled and unresolved macro-political transformations in uncertain and fragile times? Why might it matter?

Kaushik Sunder Rajan is Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at University of Chicago.

The “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” seminar series is supported by the Mellon Foundation, administered by The Humanities Institute (THI) at UC Santa Cruz, and presented in partnership with the Science & Justice Research Center. Learn more in this campus news article: UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation humanities grant to investigate race, biomedicine and on the “Race, Empire, and the Environments of Biomedicine” project website.

Canceled – November 28, 2022 | Book Launch! Contesting Race and Citizenship: Youth Politics in the Black Mediterranean

Posted on by

Monday, November 28, 2022 – CANCELED DUE to the STRIKE.

2:00-4:00 PM

Humanities 1, room 210 + Zoom

On November 28th 2022, you are invited to a book launch celebration for Associate Professor of Sociology Camilla Hawthorne’s new book, Contesting Race and Citizenship: Youth Politics in the Black Mediterranean (Cornell University Press, 2022)! Hawthorne will be in conversation with Savannah Shange (Anthropology) and Steve McKay (Sociology).

Although there is extensive research on first-generation immigrants and refugees who traveled from Africa to Italy, there is little scholarship about the experiences of Black people who were born and raised in Italy. In Contesting Race and Citizenship, I focus on the ways Italians of African descent have become entangled with processes of redefining the legal, racial, cultural, and economic boundaries of Italy and by extension, of Europe itself. This book opens discussions of the so-called migrant “crisis” by focusing on a generation of Black people who, although born or raised in Italy, have been thrust into the same racist, xenophobic political climate as the immigrants and refugees who are arriving in Europe from the African continent. I trace not only mobilizations for national citizenship but also the more capacious, transnational Black diasporic possibilities that emerge when activists confront the ethical and political limits of citizenship as a means for securing meaningful, lasting racial justice—possibilities that are based on shared critiques of the racial state and shared histories of racial capitalism and colonialism.

The open-access ebook version can be downloaded at: https://d119vjm4apzmdm.cloudfront.net/open-access/pdfs/9781501762307.pdf

Learn more in the campus news article: New book explores citizenship rights and Black anti-racist politics in Italy

Camilla Hawthorne is Associate Professor of Sociology and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz. She is a faculty affiliate of the UCSC Science & Justice Research Center and Legal Studies Program. Camilla also serves as program director and faculty member for the Black Europe Summer School in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is co-editor of the 2021 volume The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders, and Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan 2021) and author of  Contesting Race and Citizenship: Youth Politics in the Black Mediterranean (Cornell University Press, 2022). In 2020, she was named as one of the national Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera‘s 110 “Women of the Year” for her work on the Black diaspora in Italy, and she was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Society Humanities Award in 2021.

Co-Sponsored by the Departments of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, History of Art and Visual Culture, Sociology, and the Science & Justice Research Center.

Canceled – November 17, 2022 | Book Launch! Unsettled Borders: Militarized Border Technologies and Indigenous Sacred Science

Posted on by

Thursday, November 17, 2022 – CANCELED DUE to the STRIKE.

3:00 PM

Humanities 1, room 210 + Zoom

On November 17th, join the book launch celebration for Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Land (Duke University Press, 2022) by SJRC faculty affiliate Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, Professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Shaeffer will be in conversation with Jennifer Gonzalez (History of Art and Visual Culture) and Kat Gutierrez (History).

In Unsettled Borders, Prof. Schaeffer examines the ongoing settler colonial war over the US-Mexico border from the perspective of the Apache, Tohono O’odham, and Maya who fight to protect their sacred land, tracing the scientific and technological development of militarized border surveillance across time and space: from Spanish colonial lookout points in Arizona and Mexico; to the Indian wars when the US cavalry hired Native scouts to track Apache fleeing into Mexico; to the occupation of the Tohono O’odham reservation; and the recent launch of robotic bee swarms. Labeled “Optics Valley,” Arizona builds on a global history of violent dispossession and containment of Native peoples and migrants by branding itself as a profitable hub for surveillance. Schaeffer reverses the logic of borders by turning to indigenous sacred sciences and ancestral land-based practices that are critical to reversing the ecological and social violence of surveillance, extraction, and occupation.

Learn more in this campus news article: New book traces the scientific and technological development of militarized border.

The book is available at: https://www.dukeupress.edu/unsettled-borders.

Felicity Amaya Schaeffer is Professor of the Feminist Studies Department and the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department as well as an Affiliate Faculty in Latin American and Latinx Studies. Her first book, Love and Empire: Cybermarriage and Citizenship Across the Americas (New York University Press, 2013), follows Internet-mediated marriages across the United States, Colombia, and Mexico alongside neo-colonial fantasies of racial and gendered difference across borders. Her second book, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Land (Duke University Press, 2021) re-maps the virtual border war alongside the ongoing settler colonial war with Indigenous peoples. She was also one of the editors of the Anthology, Precarity & Belonging: Labor, Migration, and Noncitizenship (Rutgers 2021) and has published articles in a variety of international journals in Mexico, France, and Brazil, and U.S. journals such as Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society; American Quarterly; Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, and Sexualities Journal.

Co-Sponsored by the Feminist Studies Department and the Science & Justice Research Center.

November 2-7, 2022 | Sawyer Seminar: Alberto Ortiz-Diaz

Posted on by

Wednesday, November 02, 2022

4:00-5:30 PM 

Zoom only (Registrations: 11/02 Presentation, 11/07 Reading Group)

On Wednesday, November 02 at 4:00pm, Sawyer Seminar Speaker, Alberto Ortiz-Diaz, will present online over Zoom (register). Then, on Monday, November 07, we will host a reading group at 4:00pm over Zoom (register).

More on the seminar can be found in this campus news article: UC Santa Cruz receives Mellon Foundation humanities grant to investigate race, biomedicine and on the project website.

“Carceral Care: Health Professionals and the Living Dead in Colonial Puerto Rico’s Sanitary City, 1920s-1940s”

Using an array of primary sources, this talk explores the early history of the Río Piedras sanitary city or medical corridor, a transnationally and imperially inspired built environment and complex of welfare institutions (a tuberculosis hospital, an insane asylum, and a penitentiary) constructed and consolidated on the margins of San Juan by Puerto Rico’s colonial-populist state between the 1920s and 40s. Within and across these institutional spaces, health professionals contributed to the production of medicalized scientific knowledge and cared for and socially regulated racialized, pathologized Puerto Ricans. Penitentiary “living dead” (incarcerated people), in particular, were subjected to research and received treatment, but also provided health labor that put them at risk while powering the sanitary city and nurturing its inhabitants. Crucially, however, some prisoners managed to exploit the unthinkable openness of the complex, revealing in the process that the living dead could only be buried alive for so long.

Alberto Ortiz Díaz is assistant professor of history at the University of Texas, Arlington, and currently a Larson Fellow at the Kluge Center, Library of Congress. His first book, Raising the Living Dead: Rehabilitative Corrections in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press in March 2023.