Past Events

Spring 2023

April 11, 2023 Roundtable on Indigenous Pedagogies

 

 

Family, Freedom & Security, Feb. 8, 2023

Fall 2022

“An Ontology of Betrayal”: A virtual conversation with FRANK WILDERSON III,  SELAMAWIT TERREFE and JOY JAMES

November 15th, 2022

This virtual conversation with Frank B. Wilderson, III, Selamawit D. Terrefe, and Joy James focuses on political theory, antiblackness, gender, political violence, and freedom movements. This event is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative.  This initiative aims to tell a different, more complete story of New England and its global connections– past, present, and future– titled “Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty, and Freedom.” The concept for this discussion originated with Black doctoral students and postdocs immersed in the possibilities of organizing against repression.

This event is part of the Captivity, Betrayal, Community Just Futures Roundtable series and is co-sponsored by the Oakley Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Following the Spring 2022 ENTWINED: Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, African American roundtable series organized by the Williams Just Futures grant, Captivity, Betrayal, Community examines how the historical impacts of enslavement and dispossession impact and are confronted by contemporary educational and ethical endeavors.

Spring 2022 Roundtables

Entwined

Poster for Entwined roundtables, featuring image of Black Lives Matter and Land Back/Kin Back beaded medallions.

In partnership with the Oakley Center, Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Pathways for Inclusive Excellence, Just Futures hosted  a series of exciting and innovative online roundtables. The Williams College Spring ’22 roundtable series “Entwined: Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, African American” focuses on four themes central to communities: Spirituality, Security, Sovereignties, and Freedom invited academics, artists, and activists to discuss communal agency and historical/contemporary justice. The Mystic Seaport Museum advisory community developed the concept “Entwined” to encompass Indigenous, African, Afro-Indigenous, African American Spirituality and Sovereignty. Transcripts for the Entwined Roundtables are forthcoming; closed captioning is available via YouTube.

Roundtable One: Spiritualities

The first discussion in this series featured Akeia de Barros Gomes (Mystic Seaport Museum), Whitney Battle-Baptiste (Anthropology, UMass Amherst), Leah Hopkins (Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University), and Rebecca Wilcox (Princeton Theological Seminary), and was moderated by Christine DeLucia (History, Williams College).

Watch Just Futures Roundtable – Spiritualities on YouTube

Roundtable Two: Security

The second discussion in the series featured José Constantine (Geoscience, Williams College), Mary McNeil (Harvard University, History PhD candidate), Brittany Meché (Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Williams College), Paul Gallay (Columbia Climate School), and moderator Tom van Winkle (Executive Director, Williams-Mystic).

Watch Just Futures Roundtable – Security on YouTube

Roundtable Three: Sovereignties

This third discussion in the series featured a conversation between Katy Hall (Associate Professor of Marine Policy, Williams-Mystic), Ernest Tollerson (Board Chair, Riverkeeper), Brad Lopes (Program Director, Aquinnah Cultural Center and Social Studies teacher, Wiscasset Middle High School), and moderator Ngoni Munemo (Chair of Global Studies, Williams College).

Watch Just Futures Roundtable – Sovereignties on YouTube

Roundtable Four: Freedom

This fourth roundtable in the series, to conclude the Spring 2022 Entwined series, featured  Anthony Bogues (Director, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and Professor of Africana Studies, Brown University), Barbara Krauthamer (Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and Professor of History, UMass Amherst), Kyle Mays (Assistant Professor of African American Studies, UCLA), Jasmine Syedullah (Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Vassar College), and was moderated by Joy James (Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, Williams College).

Watch Just Futures Roundtable – Freedom on Youtube

Curricular Enhancement Grantee Spring 2022 Roundtable

In this online discussion, Margaux Kristjansson (Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Native American and Indigenous Studies in the American Studies Program, Williams College) hosts a conversation between Dian Million (Tanana Athabascan, Associate Professor in American Indian Studies, University of Washington), Stephanie Lumsden (Hoopa Valley Tribe, PhD candidate in Gender Studies, UCLA, Ford dissertation fellowship awardee) , and Joy James (Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, Williams College) on Indigenous resistance to the carceral state, care, poetics, and the necessity of abolition for Indigenous liberation. Kristjansson organized this discussion as part of her American Studies course “Policing Nations: Indigenous Nations and the Carceral State.” A transcript for this roundtable is  forthcoming; closed captioning is available via YouTube.

Watch Abolition, Care and Indigenous Liberation on Youtube

Williams College Alumni: Faculty Forum, Sept. 30, 2022

Project team members shared out grant motivations, developments, and future elements with alumni at a Faculty Seminar during The Greylock Fall Mini Reunions in 2022.  The conversation that followed drew highly engaged comments and questions from Williams alumni, especially regarding student involvement and experiential learning.

Watch the Faculty Forum on Youtube