The sixth annual Abriendo Brecha Activist Scholarship Conference, an annual event at The University of Texas at Austin that focuses on research and creative intellectual work in alignment with communities, organizations, movements and networks working for social justice, will be held Feb. 20-21.
It is organized by the Office of Thematic Initiatives and Community Engagement (TICE) in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.
This year’s conference features a roundtable discussion from 5-7 p.m. on Feb. 20, with activists scholars from universities around the country who will share perspectives on their own work and reflect on the discussions carried out in a closed retreat preceding the roundtable. All roundtable attendees are invited to attend a reception and gallery talk at the Carver Museum and Cultural Center that evening from 7:30-9. Prison protest art will be displayed that evening.
The following day, Feb. 21, from 9-11:30 a.m., these scholars will hold a workshop for students and others interested in carrying out activist research. The roundtable discussion and workshop will be held in the in the TICE Community Engagement Center at 1009 E. 11th St. (Marvin C. Griffin Building). The conference is free and open to the public.
Invited scholars include the following:
- Jessica Gordon Nembhard, visiting assistant professor, Center for Race and Wealth, Howard University; visiting scholar, Centre for the Study of Cooperatives, the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Gordon Nembhard’s recent publications include “Wealth Accumulation and Communities of Color” in the U.S.: Current Issues.
- Joy James, the McCoy Presidential Professor of the Humanities and professor in political science at Williams College, and a senior research fellow in the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. James is the author of “Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics.”
- Dylan Rodríguez, associate professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California Riverside. Rodríguez is the author of “Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime.” His upcoming book is “Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition.”
- Andrea Smith, assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside and a co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and the Boarding School Healing Project. She is the author of “Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances.”
- Astrid Ulloa, professor in the Department of Geography at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Her most recent book is “The Ecological Native: Indigenous Movements and Ecogovernmentality in Colombia.”
For more information about Abriendo Brecha, see www.utexas.edu/diversity/abriendobrecha.
This year’s Abriendo Brecha is being held as part of Freedom Weekend, which also includes the Bringing Human Rights Home Conference sponsored by the Rapoport Center for Human Rights, part of The University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
Bringing Human Rights Home focuses on the relevance of human rights as a tool for Black self-determination. For more information about that conference and other Freedom Weekend events visit www.utexas.edu/law/conferences/bringing-human-rights-home/.
