The Center for Citizenship, Race, and Ethnicity Studies (CREST)

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

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