Constitution Day Lecture and Other September CREST Events

Catch your breath over the weekend, because after our kickoff week, the CREST events just keep coming. On September 18th, CSR celebrates Constitution Day with the Second Annual Kermit Hall Constitution Day Lecture:

Tuesday, September 18, 7:00 pm
Saint Joseph Hall Auditorium
Second Annual Kermit Hall Constitution Day Lecture
David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, presents, “Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror, and What the Constitution Has to Do With It.”

David Cole is Professor of Law at Georgetown University. His areas of legal expertise include constitutional law, criminal procedures, and federal courts. He teaches courses about constitutional law, criminal justice, national security and civil liberties, federal courts, and immigration and nationality law. He is a volunteer staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City and has published books and articles on a variety of legal topics. These include Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (The New Press, 2nd Edition 2005), which won the American Book Award in 2004; Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties for National Security (The New Press, 3rd Edition 2005), No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System (The New Press, 1999); and, most recently, Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press, 2007).

David Cole served as a law clerk to Judge Arlin M. Adams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit after graduating from Yale Law School. Professor Cole is the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a frequent commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and a thoughtful contributor to the national op-ed pages, including a great piece called “Laptops vs. Learning” in the April 7, 2007, Washington Post. Perhaps most famously, Professor Cole successfully took on Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” in June 2004. Professor Cole has received a variety of awards for his work in civil rights and civil liberties, including honors from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of the Freedom of Expression, the American Bar Association’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, the National Lawyers Guild, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Project, the American Muslim Council, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

Remember, for Saint Rose Faculty, Administrators, and Graduate Students, David Cole will be conducting a seminar during the afternoon before his lecture.

Tuesday, September 18, 3:00-5:00 pm
Carondelet Symposium, Thelma P. Lally School of Education
Faculty and Graduate Student Seminar with David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University

After his evening lecture, David will be signing copies of his book, Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press, 2007). The Saint Rose Campus bookstore has copies for sale at a 20 percent discount. It’s difficult to put down – read it and come with your questions.

But wait, there’s MORE!

September isn’t over yet. During the last week we have another visiting speaker:

Thursday, September 27, 7:00-9:00 pm
Carondelet Symposium, Thelma P. Lally School of Education
Dr. Christopher London, Executive Director of Educate the Children, presents his lecture, “Doing ‘Development’ in the 21st Century: The Experience of Educate the Children.”

I hope to see everyone at Monika and Neilesh’s brown-bag lunch talks, David Cole’s Constitution Day lecture, and Dr. Christopher London’s talk. Whoa! It’s not even October yet. Remember, invite your students, your colleagues, your friends, your parents, and your significant others.

All of these events, aside from David Cole’s seminar are free and open to the public. We’d be happy to have you. Here are some directions.

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

All the best,

John

John Williams-Searle, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity Studies (CREST)
The College of Saint Rose
Box 2286
432 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203-1490

CREST Website: http://www.strose.edu/CREST

 

Introducing Our New 2007 CREST Fellows

This is an exciting time for the Center for Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity Studies at the College of Saint Rose. We welcome two new CREST Diversity Dissertation Fellows this year. We are pleased that Monika Gosin and Neilesh Bose have consented to join us this year.

Monika Gosin is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Her research and teaching interests include African Diaspora, Latino Studies, race and gender in popular culture and media, and intergroup relations. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a double major in Social Science and Spanish Literature. She received a Masters degree in Sociology at Arizona State University (ASU) and a Masters in Ethnic Studies from UCSD where her thesis investigated the politics behind representations of African American female beauty. She has published articles and a book review on topics related to her previous work with researchers from ASU’s department of Social Work and The Pennsylvania State University’s department of Communication developing and testing a drug prevention curriculum for multi-ethnic youth, research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Gosin’s current research focuses on the intersections of immigration, blackness, and Latinidad in the lives and media representations of Afro Cubans in the U.S. The study examines how black Cubans have been depicted in the past in African American, Spanish language, and mainstream U.S. press, and analyzes interviews with members of this group to understand their present situation in U.S. society. Through a comparison of media discourses and lived experiences, the project will enable greater awareness of how Afro Cuban subjects are created on a discursive level, the way hierarchies of race and ethnicity are being structured in the 21st century, and the impact of these hierarchies on the lives of Afro Cuban immigrants. In accordance with CREST’s mission, her work seeks to contribute to more enlightened public discourse about the linguistic and cultural changes occurring in the nation in the 21st century. Gosin’s research has been supported by grants from the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (CSRE), California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, and the Ethnic Studies Department at UCSD; and the UC-CUBA Multi-Campus Research Program.

Neilesh Bose is a sixth year Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Tufts University. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh and an interdisciplinary A.M. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Within his specialization in modern South Asian history, he is interested in the politics of religious identity, Islam, decolonization, and nationalism. During the fellowship, Bose will be completing his dissertation, “Nationalism, Anticolonialism, and Cultural Autonomy: The Case of Bengali Muslims, 1922-1952.” This dissertation examines discourses of social justice, anti-colonialism, Islam, and regional identity in early twentieth century Bengal.

He has obtained research fellowships for his dissertation from Tufts University, the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program. Bose has also presented his work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, and the New England Association for Historical Studies. He has also taught at Tufts University, Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Lesley University.

In addition to modern South Asia, Bose holds many other academic interests including diaspora studies, African history, theatre and performance studies, social theory, and historiography.

If you are a College of Saint Rose faculty member or administrator you will have an opportunity to meet Neilesh and Monika at the Arts and Humanities reception on Thursday, August 23, or at President’s Day that morning.

You can hear more about Monika’s research at the following CREST event:

Monday, September 10, 11:45-1:00 pm
Standish Conference Room 1, Events and Athletics Center
CREST Dissertation Fellow Monika Gosin discusses her research in an informal brown-bag lunch talk, “Discourses of Difference: The Mariel Exodus in African American and Spanish Language Press.”

Later in the week on Friday, we get to hear from Neilesh:

Friday, September 14, 11:45-1:00 pm
Standish Conference Room 1, Events and Athletics Center
CREST Dissertation Fellow Neilesh Bose discusses his research in an informal brown-bag lunch discussion.

These two talks will be a great opportunity for everyone to meet our new Diversity Dissertation Fellows, as well as ask questions about their research.

Coffee, Soda, and cookies will be provided at both discussions. Yes, there will be more food at CREST events this year.

I hope see everyone at Monika and Neilesh’s brown-bag lunch talks. Remember, invite your students, your colleagues, your friends, your parents, and your significant others.

If you aren’t affiliated with The College of Saint Rose and happen to be in the Capital Region, please join us. These events are free and open to the public. Here are directions.

Looking forward to seeing everyone.

All the best,

John

John Williams-Searle, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity Studies (CREST)
The College of Saint Rose
Box 2286
432 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203-1490

CREST Website: http://www.strose.edu/CREST

 

Sandra Cisneros at the Saratoga Reads Festival, Saturday May 5

I just received a press release from the Saratoga Reads Festival that is taking place May 4-6 throughout Saratoga Springs, New York. Of special interest to readers of this website is the appearance of Sandra Cisneros, who will be reading from her novel, Caramelo beginning at 7:30 pm on Saturday, May 5, in Bernhard Theater on the Skidmore College campus. According to the press release, Carmelo is “a sprawling, lively saga that follows three generations of the working-class Reyes family from its roots in Mexico City to their new lives in Chicago and San Antonio.” This was selected as a notable book of the year by both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Cisneros was born in Chicago and earned a B.A. in English from Loyola University in Chicago and a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She has published four books of poetry, two novels, a collection of short stories, and a children’s book. A MacArthur Foundation fellowship allowed her to complete Caramelo. She has also been honored by two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Chicago Short Story Award from the University of Arizona, and a Texas Medal of the Arts Award.

This sounds like a fantastic weekend, with much more book and reading programs (and food) going on throughout Saratoga Springs. See the link to the right for more information and tell somebody that CREST sent you.

 

Dr. May Chan

An audio podcast of Dr. May Chan’s lecture, titled “Circular Tickets and the Fear of Mobs: Theorizing Victorian Travel To the Far East,” will be available on St. Rose Radio shortly. Stay tuned…

 

Dr. Kara Keeling, Upcoming Guest Speaker – Tuesday, April 24

CREST and The College of Saint Rose are thrilled to host Dr. Kara Keeling, currently a Visiting Professor at Williams College, on Tuesday, April 24. Her lecture will commence at 7 pm in the Carondelet Symposium, located on the third floor of the Thelma P. Lally School of Education (1009 Madison Avenue) at The College of Saint Rose.

Use this link for directions to the campus, as well as a campus map: http://www.strose.edu/Visitors/map_directions.asp. Here is part of a press release describing Kara Keeling’s upcoming talk:

DIGITAL IDENTITY POLITICS FOCUS OF LECTURE AT SAINT ROSE

The Center for Citizenship, Race and Ethnicity Studies (CREST) at The College of Saint Rose will present a lecture by Dr. Kara Keeling of the University of North Carolina on today’s digital media and social movements.

Keeling will deliver her lecture, “I = Another: Digital Identity Politics,” Tuesday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. in the Carondelet Symposium, Lally School of Education, 1009 Madison Ave., Albany. This program is free and open to the public.

A member of UNC’s Department of Communication Studies, Keeling’s current research and teaching interests include digital media and social movements, African-American and Black diaspora film and media, queer film and media and critical theory. She works at the intersection between media studies, cultural studies, critical theory, Black studies and women’s studies. Her essays on media and popular culture have appeared in The Black Scholar, Qui Parle and numerous other journals. Currently, Keeling is completing her first book The Witch’s Flight: The Cinematic, the Black Femme and the Image of Common Sense, which will be published by Duke University Press later this year, and she is beginning work on her second book, tentatively titled Digital Media and Social Movements.

 

Greetings from the Director of CREST

Hello. My name is John Williams-Searle and I am the director of The Center for Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity Studies (CREST) at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. I have started this blog to help CREST reach out to teachers, researchers, community members, and students who are interested in CREST’s mission.

CREST serves as a place for scholarly discourse and research of the vital issues of citizenship, race, and ethnicity at the College of Saint Rose and across the region. Through the sponsorship of two Dissertation Fellows—drawn from a national applicant pool—and five Residential Fellows picked from the Saint Rose faculty, CREST brings together a group of scholars that furthers this burgeoning area of research and teaching that ideally draws on a variety of disciplines. It is, in fact, the intention of CREST to foster a true interdisciplinary approach to these topics. CREST researchers gain insights and methodologies from a variety of disciplines, including history, political science, literature, geography, cultural studies, anthropology, Africana Studies, Latino Studies, Asian Studies, American Studies, women’s studies, critical race studies, urban studies, legal studies, and communication studies—to name a few.

To help bring scholars, students, and community members together, CREST will sponsor a variety of events throughout the academic year. These will include a monthly colloquia series in which Dissertation and Resident Fellows and area scholars will present their research, less formal brown-bag lunch discussions, a lecture series, and, ultimately, an annual national scholarly conference. It is the intention of CREST’s founders that these lectures and discussions will help to facilitate the scholarly production of CREST fellows and members. Publication to more widely disseminate CREST research and to help make CREST a vital center for the study of citizenship, race, and ethnicity is one of the fundamental goals of the institution.