One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, and his most recent, the New York Times bestseller, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own, takes a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy. In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s complexities, vulnerabilities and hope into full view. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B. Du Bois, "not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful."
Boston Public Library - Abbey Room
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Old South Meeting House
Dr. Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, with a focus on the region’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors, as well as transnational organized crime and populism in the region. Dr. Ellis has published over 330 works, including five books: the 2009 book China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores, the 2013 book The Strategic Dimension of Chinese Engagement with Latin America, the 2014 book China on the Ground in Latin America, the 2018 book Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the 2022 book China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy? Dr. Ellis previously served on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (S/P) with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean (WHA), as well as International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) issues. In his academic capacity, Dr. Ellis has presented his work in a broad range of business and government forums in 27 countries four continents. He has given testimony on Latin American security issues to US Congress on various occasions, has discussed his work regarding China and other external actors in Latin America on a broad range of radio and television programs, and is cited regularly in the print media in both the US and Latin America for his work in this area. Dr. Ellis has also been awarded the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova by the Colombian government for his scholarship on security issues in the region.
Boston Public Library - Rabb Lecture Hall
ANDREW LEONG is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Dept. in the College of Liberal Arts at UMass Boston where he teaches legal studies, Latino and Asian American Studies. His specialty is on law, social justice, and equality pertaining to disenfranchised communities, with a focus on Asian Americans. He has been active in community and civil rights work, having served on the board of trustee of numerous Asian American and civil rights-related organizations. PENNY LEE is a documentary producer and film & video editor. She has over 25 years experience in editing documentaries, reality television series, promotional and educational video projects. Some of Lee’s clients include Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Travel Channel, as well as military and government agencies and corporate companies like Deloitte. Her first doc that she directed and edited was a short film called “Through Chinatown’s Eyes: April 1968”. Her passion projects are stories about the immigrant experience in the US with a primary focus on the Chinese American voices. LISA MAO is the director, writer and co-producer of A Tale of Three Chinatowns. As a development executive and producer of non-fiction television, Lisa is responsible for the creation and launch of more than 500 hours of programming for channels including History Channel, National Geographic Channel, HGTV, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, and Travel Channel. Her credits include Travel Channel’s “Man Vs. Food Nation,” ID’s “Extreme Forensics” and “Deadly Shootouts” on Reelz. In addition to her television work, she also wrote and produced the award-winning short documentary “Through Chinatown’s Eyes: April 1968.” Lisa is committed to helping people share their stories to reveal the complex fabric of the human condition. She resides in Washington, DC with her husband and son. Opening Remarks: CYNTHIA YEE is an educator, writer, artist and artistic collaborator. She writes creative, nonfiction essays from the viewpoint of an American-born Taishanese girl coming of age in Boston’s Chinatown and Combat Zone through the 1950s and ’60s. She continues exploring the themes of what makes for thriving community life and child development, how structural racism oppresses, how feminism can be nurtured, and how social justice can look in America. Her poem “My MaMa’s Back,” a tribute to Chinatown women garment workers, is now living outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s office.
Old South Meeting House
DR. MEGAN VICTOR is an anthropologist who specializes in historical archaeology from the 17th through the 19th century. In particular, they are interested in commensal politics, drinking spaces, trade and exchange, informal economy, and gendered spaces. Dr. Victor has worked extensively on archaeology of the English Colonial World in North America, including excavations at the fishing village and trading post on Smuttynose Island within the Isles of Shoals, Maine (1623-1780s), Virginia’s colonial capital of Williamsburg, including the eighteenth-century Raleigh Tavern (a favorite of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson), and sites throughout the 17th and 18th-century Chesapeake Bay. It is within the Atlantic World and the English Colonial World that much of their current research takes place – the Molly House Project. The other geographic focus of Dr. Victor’s research is that of the American West, with an eye to the mining frontiers of the 19th century. It is within this sphere their second ongoing research project, the Highland City Project, takes place. Dr. Victor received their B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan (2010), their M.A. in 2012 and their Ph.D. in 2018, both from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dr. Victor is currently an Assistant Professor at Queens College-CUNY. DR. MICHAEL BRONSKI is an independent scholar, journalist, and writer who has been involved in social justice movements since the 1960s. He has been active in gay liberation as a political organizer, writer, publisher and theorist since 1969. He is the author of numerous books including A Queer History of the United States (Beacon Press) which won the 2011 American Library Association Stonewall Israel Fishman Award for Best Non- Fiction. In 2014 he published You Can Tell Just by Looking and Twenty Other Myths about LGBT Life and People. In 2019 he published A Queer History of the United States for Young People. He is Professor of the Practice in Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media in the Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University. DR. KARA FRENCH is director of the Gender and Sexuality studies program and chair of the History Department at Salisbury University. She holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and a Ph.D. in History and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan. Her book, Against Sex: Identities of Sexual Restraint in Early America, was recently published in the University of North Carolina Press’ Gender and American Culture series. She has also presented work on the history of asexuality as a sexual identity. Dr. French is currently writing a biography entitled Democratic Queen on the life of first lady Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of James Buchanan, and the queer family dynamics of America’s only bachelor president. At Salisbury, she teaches courses on women’s and gender history, LGBTQ studies, and the history of sexuality.
Virtual
Giuliana Furci, Chile’s first female mycologist, founded the Fungi Foundation, the first NGO in the world working solely for the protection and promotion of fungi, with offices in Chile and the USA. Her work triggered the inclusion of fungi in Chilean environmental legislation and made it possible to assess the conservation status of over 80 species of fungi. Furci has described several species of fungi and conducted mycological expeditions in close to 20 countries.
Virtual
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