Strategies for Decentering Islamophobia
speakers:
Khaldoun Samman, Sociology, Macalester College
Professor Khaldoun Samman began his talk by recounting how as a young Jordanian boy recently transplanted to New Jersey, he had been taught never to flush the toilet for “number 1,” but only for “number 2.” Thus, after neglecting to flush the toilet while at the home of a schoolmate, Samman was confronted by his friend’s mother who politely informed the young immigrant, “in America, we always flush the toilet.”
Islamophobia & Anti-Blackness: A Genealogical Approach
speakers:
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley
The year 1492 marked a major turning point in the trajectory of Western Civilization. Elementary age children are taught this as the year Columbus famously crossed the Atlantic. An equally significant event that year, was the Spanish conquest of al-Andalus–a Moorish province on the southern Iberian peninsula established eight centuries earlier–and more importantly, the last major Muslim stronghold on the European continent.
California Roundtable for Philosophy & Race
speakers:
Falguni Sheth, Hampshire University
Gregory Velazco y Trianosky, Cal State University, Northridge
Nelson Maldonado-Torres University of California, Berkeley
Each year, the California Roundtable on Philosophy and Race convenes to advance the philosophical exploration of racial formations. This year’s Roundtable was hosted and sponsored by the Berkeley Department of Ethnic Studies and the Center for Race and Gender. The 2008 meeting counted eleven presenters coming from across the United States.
Fighting Workplace Abuse and Dislocation Through Law & Activism
speakers:
Cheryl Andrada, Law
Francisca James Hernández, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ethnic Studies
The October 16th forum explored the challenges faced by migrant women workers. Cheryl Andrada, a second year student at the Boalt School of Law, opened the talk by discussing the legal protections available to migrant Filipina domestic workers.
Karl Britto is a joint appointed professor in the French and Comparative Literature departments, and is an affiliated faculty member of the CRG.