Convocation

Tag: Convocation

Ta-Nehisi Coates Convocation Thursday

We are fortunate to have on campus one of America’s rising public intellectuals, Ta-Nehisi Coates, to deliver the Convocation on Thursday.  His talk is “Race in America: A Deeper Black,” starts at 11:10 in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Mr. Coates is a recipient of one of this year’s Macarthur “Genius” Awards,  and his recent book, Between the World and Me, is a finalist for the National Book Award in non-fiction.

I became familiar with Coates from his writing in The Atlantic, where last year he wrote “The Case for Reparations,” where he argues that African Americans should be compensated for the past abuses of slavery, Jim Crow, “separate-but-equal,” and continuing racist housing policies.    A more recent piece, “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration” explores the devastation that a confluence of racist housing policies, drug laws, and differential policing has had on black families and communities.   The tragic thesis that Coates forwards is that the mass incarceration of African-American men is mostly by design, and not some unintended consequence of ill-conceived public policies.

The Convo is at 11:10.   I suggest you get there early if you want a seat.

Schumpeter Birthday Convocation

Mary Jane Jacob’s convocation lecture, “The Collective Creative Process,” is Tuesday at 11 at the Lawrence Chapel.  Here is the lowdown: 

Jacob is an independent curator known for her innovative, creative and collaborative projects Executive Director of Exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Jacobs has published many books and articles that examine ways to more fully involve the community into contemporary art by moving art out of “dead” museums and galleries into “living” spaces.  Her work began in the early 1990s with the “Places with a Past” exhibition in Charleston, SC where she collaborated with 23 artists who each set up a public installation in Charleston in an attempt to tell the history of the city.

A scouring of the internet tells me that Jacob’s “name is synonymous with the phrase ‘art as social practice’ or the field of art that is now more widely known as ‘Relational Aesthetics.'”  What that means, I am sure we will find out.

It is perhaps fitting that a faculty convocation celebrating “Innovation through Collaboration” coincides with the birthday of economist Joseph Schumpeter, who certainly needs no introduction on this blog.

But, of course, I am happy to give you one anyway.

Enjoy the Convo!

The Browning of America

PBS senior correspondent Ray Suarez will be on campus Tuesday to deliver the University Convocation lecture, “The Browning of America,” concerning the changing character of U.S. demographics.

Student attendance at Convocation has recently been low, so I hope you give this one a chance.  He is generally an interesting character, so the talk should be provocative. And the music and performances book-ending the speaker are generally superb at Convocations.

The action starts Tuesday, October 5 at 11:10 a.m. in Memorial Chapel.