Spring 2018 ‘Incllusion’ Series Continues

02/21/2018 

Anthropology doctoral candidate Megan Springate will discuss her research that focuses on the many under-told women’s stories that are part of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer history across America, on Tuesday, March 6, at SUNY Cortland.

Springate, who is pursuing her doctorate at University of Maryland at College Park, will present, “LGBT Historic Spaces: Telling All American Stories,” will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105.

Her talk continues the College’s year-long “Incllusion” series of lectures, films and common readings planned by SUNY Cortland’s Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC) for the 2017-18 academic year.

This year’s series explores the concept that inclusion necessitates the recognition of “The Other,” that is those who are not “like us,” against whom we form our identity and over whom we seek to maintain power or distance. It requires that we think deeply and act inclusively with regard to who “counts” as a human being and who belongs in “our” community. The series, which has at its heart the philosophy of highly acclaimed, provocative New York Times bestseller Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will focus on inclusion as a fundamental condition for equity and human rights.

All “Incllusion” events are free and open to the public.

Springate is the lead researcher on LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, a 1,200-page edited volume published in 2016 by the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service. She will discuss this study, which attempts to tell all Americans’ stories through National Park Services parks and programs.

The series will continue as follows: 

Christa Chatfield, a SUNY Cortland associate professor of biological sciences, will moderate a panel discussion on “Women of STEM and Beyond: Stories of Personal Heroes” on Wednesday, March 7. Panelists and their departments include Avanti Mukherjee, economics; Laura Eierman, biological sciences; and Jolie Roat, mathematics. The talk begins at 4:30 p.m. in Corey Union Fireplace Lounge.

 David Omotoso Stovall, a Chicago-based scholar on the influence of race in urban education, community development and housing, will address “Are We Ready for the Abolition of ‘School’?: Lessons on Community Engaged Struggle for Quality Education” on Wednesday, March 7. He will start at 7 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 204.

A professor of African American studies and educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Stovall’s work looks at the significance of race in urban education, especially in economically challenged communities. An historian, he has a Ph.D. in educational policy studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Sociologist Stefanie DeLuca, whose research and writing explores the social contexts of disadvantaged youth with a special focus on education and housing, will lecture on Tuesday, March 20. DeLuca, the James Coleman Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Johns Hopkins, will present “Coming of Age in the Other America,” will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 106.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING EVENT WAS CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED

A.K. Summers, author of the memoir Pregnant Butch, will speak at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 12, in Sperry Center, Room 105. Pregnant Butch, in comic format, describes a self-identified butch lesbian’s experiences with pregnancy and childbirth.

The talk is co-presented by the Distinguished Voices in Literature series organized by the English Department. Pregnant Butch was nominated for a 2015 Lambda Literary Award and Summers was included in the 2015 Best American Comics as a notable comic. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives with her son in Providence, R.I.

Additional spring series events will be posted in a future Bulletin.

By using a different intellectual theme each year, the CICC committee aims to generate common topics of discussion and to establish traditions of intellectual discourse on SUNY Cortland’s campus. The series encourages faculty and staff to infuse the theme into their course curricula, engage in classroom discussions and debates around the theme, and propose campus events or speakers on related topics.

For more information on CICC events this semester, visit the CICC website or contact CICC co-chairs Barrett at 607-753-2330 or Curtis at 607-753-2979. For more information on this fall’s Distinguished Voices in Literature presentations, visit the English Department website.