American Studies Archives - ��Ƶ

Renaissance Woman, Hear Her Roar

Jamilah Simmons — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:36:14 +0000

Cynthia Leung grew up in an enclave of the Gravesend neighborhood that has one of the largest Chinese American populations in New York City. The daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong didn’t encounter many White people until she got to middle school, where they were suddenly a majority of her peers.

“It was the first time in my life where I felt like I didn’t really belong somewhere,” she says.

That sense of otherness led her to social justice spaces, first through the arts in middle school, and then through a climate science lens at the STEM-focused specialized high school she attended.

There, the “Park Slope kids who had been socialized to rule the world” sucked all the oxygen out of the air, she says. “Even the faculty favored them.”

That changed when she got to ��Ƶ, where she landed because many of her mentors told the top student that if she wanted a career in social justice, she should look to a CUNY college, rather than an elite private university.

“Initially, I thought I might transfer but I ended up finding my voice here,” says the American Studies major who is finishing her classes this semester. “I had professors who believed in me before anyone else did. I learned to believe in myself.”

An Active Academic Journey

With encouragement and mentorship from faculty members, Leung worked on research, found internships, and participated in programs that allowed her to nurture a whirlwind of interests. She’s a member of the advisory board of the newly-formed ��Ƶ AANAPISI Project. She’s also currently interning at the Vera Institute, a leading criminal justice reform organization located in Sunset Park.

With Aleah Ranjitsingh, an assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies, Leung embarked on research as part of about Eurocentric beauty standards, which helped her gain a previous internship at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, where she worked on a project on “beauty justice.”

In Professor Joseph Entin’s American studies class, she interviewed a sex worker for The ��Ƶ Listening Project, an assignment that facilitated another internship at Red Canary Song, a coalition that works for the rights of Asian massage parlor workers. The organization is planning to turn her interview into an audio essay for their social media channels.

“Their stories are so important,” says Leung.

The experience made such an impression on her that it influenced Leung to consider law school for her future, so she can be a public defender for sex workers.

But that’s only the part of the plan.

Breaking a Leg

Leung, an experienced actress and model with representation who has been honing her craft since middle school, is ready for her big break. Her credits include a demo for Google, a stint as a model in an Amazon Prime show called “Modern Love,” and an appearance in Vogue magazine for a fashion show she organized.

Last academic year, she earned a Rosen Fellowship, which in part helped her attend a two-week program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts this summer. There, she put on a show at the storied Orange Tree Theater.

As a second part of the fellowship, she is penning a one-woman show that she describes as a series of short monologues that will span her personal journey through issues of justice and safety.

“It will be an East Asian perspective on everything from intergenerational trauma to ideas around corporal punishment, which is a big issue in immigrant families,” she explains.

More Dreams and Degrees

After graduating in December, Leung is hoping to score a prominent fellowship (which she doesn’t want to name for fear of jinxing it) to attend a master’s program in criminology in the United Kingdom. Then, she’s thinking of a master’s in social work.

“I just want to gain different insights and maybe be an expert in something before I go to law school,” she says. “I know my resume is a little all over the place. Ultimately, the thread for all of the work I plan to do will be justice. Restorative justice, climate justice, ending cycles of violence.”

In the meanwhile, she’s fostering all of her dreams.

“I’m going to be famous in the next year,” she says, and then again, trying to speak it into fruition. “I’m going to be famous. I’m going to be in a big movie or TV show. It’s going to be my big break. I’m putting it out into the universe.”

Pausing to consider everything she plans to juggle, she doubles down.

“I can do everything that I want to do,” she says. “I believe in myself.”

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Author and Activist Barbara Smith to Lecture at ��Ƶ on March 16

Communications — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:32:57 +0000

In one of her first public appearances since 2020 that will serve as an extraordinary complement to ��Ƶ’s Women’s History Month celebration, author and activist will discuss the values that have shaped her remarkable life with the extended campus community on March 16 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Smith’s lecture, “What I Believe,” will be an intimate exploration into her life as a trailblazer who broke new ground as a Black feminist, lesbian, activist, author, publisher, and independent scholar who inspired generations. She was among the first to define an African American women’s literary tradition and to build Black women’s studies and Black feminism in the United States. She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s.

“I am so honored to serve as the Hess Scholar-in-Residence during the 2022–23 academic year,” Smith said. “At a time when some in our nation wish to limit the information and ideas that students can access, I look forward to expansive dialogues with members of ��Ƶ’s wonderfully diverse community.”

“As a writer, publisher, teacher, and organizer, Barbara Smith is a transformative force for justice. Her work has reshaped the American academy and society. We are honored to host her for a week of events culminating in the Hess Memorial Lecture,” said Gaston Alonso, interim director for the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities and associate professor of political science at ��Ƶ.

This lecture event is free and open to the public and serves as the main highlight of the college’s for 2022–23.

The event will also feature President Michelle J. Anderson as well as , distinguished professor of political science, and Professor of English , interim dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

On November 29, Smith was part of a conversation on campus with Theoharis when they discussed selected clips from the documentary , which features Smith and is based on Theoharis’ research and of the same name.

A prolific writer and publisher, Smith has edited three major collections about Black women: Conditions: Five, The Black Women’s Issue (with Lorraine Bethel, 1979); All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies (with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell-Scott, 1982); and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983). She is also the co-author, with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt, of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (1984). Smith is the general editor of The Reader’s Companion to U.S. Women’s History (with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem, 1998). A collection of her essays, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom, was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith, was published by SUNY Press in 2014.

The evening will also include mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and the Conservatory Singers, ��Ƶ’s select chamber ensemble, who will perform “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.” The group will be conducted by Associate Professor/Director of Choral Studies , director of the New York Philharmonic Chorus.

This signature event will be held on Thursday, March 16, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Claire Tow Theater at ��Ƶ. It will also be livestreamed on the .

Highlights From the Hess Week Calendar, March 13–20

Full calendar and speakers

Barbara Smith—Hess Scholar-in-Residence Library Exhibit: An exhibit located in the main entrance of the ��Ƶ Library that will highlight the works and legacy of Barbara Smith. Archival material from the Robert L. Hess Collection will also be presented. Curated by Professor and Librarian Helen Georgas.

March 13, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m.: President Anderson Welcomes 2022–23 Hess Scholar-in-Residence Barbara Smith Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and on Zoom

March 13, 2:15–3:30 p.m.: “If Black women were free…”: The State of Black Feminism 2023 Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and on Zoom

March 14, 2:15–3:45 p.m.: “Transforming the U.S. Academy” Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and livestreamed on the .

March 15, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.: “Justice or Just Us?: Defining a Queer Agenda” Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and livestreamed on the .

March 15, 3:40–4:55 p.m.: “Teaching as a Liberating Practice” Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and livestreamed on the .

March 16, 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.: “Working for Liberation and Having a Damn Good Time” Woody Tanger Auditorium, ��Ƶ Library, and livestreamed on the .

March 20, 6–7:15 p.m.: “Putting Class Back Into Intersectionality” Online via Zoom

About the Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program

The Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program, established by ��Ƶ, is supported by the Robert L. Hess Fund. The program serves as a permanent tribute to the scholarly commitment of Robert L. Hess, exemplified during his tenure as president of ��Ƶ. It represents the ideal of the educated individual—knowledgeable, thoughtful, inquiring, alive to the shared purposes and concerns linking all intellectual pursuits. More particularly, it evokes the scholarly and academic virtues embodied in the curriculum at ��Ƶ.

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Author and Activist Barbara Smith Serving as ��Ƶ’s Hess Scholar-in-Residence for 2022-23

Susan Landers — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:43:45 +0000

Barbara Smith—who has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s as an author, activist, and independent scholar—is ��Ƶ’s Hess Scholar-in-Residence for 2022-23. Smith was among the first to define an African American women’s literary tradition and to build Black women’s studies and Black feminism in the United States.

Jeanne Theoharis

On November 29, from 2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Smith will be part of a conversation on campus with ��Ƶ’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science Jeanne Theoharis. The pair will discuss selected clips from the documentary, “,” which features Smith and is also based on Theoharis’ research and book of the same name. Smith and Theoharis will explore Rosa Parks’ life of freedom fighting, how the many myths of Parks and the movement cloud our understandings of social change, the roles and experiences of women in the movement, and the lessons this history provides for the work of organizing and social justice today. After their conversation, there will be a Q&A period for students, staff, and faculty.

The event will be held in the library’s Woody Tanger Auditorium and will also be livestreamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube channel. At the speaker’s request, masks are required for the in-person event. Room 441 in the library will also be open for guests to watch the lecture online.

You can watch the livestream of the event

To stream the documentary for free before the event, ��Ƶ students, faculty, and staff can email: wolfeinstitute@brooklyn.cuny.edu

More Hess Scholar-in-Residence lectures will be held in March 2023, and a complete schedule of events will be made available soon.

About the Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence Program

English and American Studies Professor James Davis is New Professional Staff Congress President

Susan Landers — Mon, 24 May 2021 13:51:42 +0000

James Davis, a professor of English and American Studies who has been at the college for nearly 20 years, has become the new president of the Professional Staff Congress, the union that represents 30,000 faculty and staff members at CUNY. He will succeed outgoing President Barbara Bowen, who has led the PSC for more than two decades. Davis has been ��Ƶ’s union chapter chair since 2015, a position he used to broaden the base of member involvement and developed effective campaigns to enforce the contract and amplify the voices of faculty, staff, and students.

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Conor Tomás Reed Awarded Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Adjunct Faculty Fellowship

Susan Landers — Thu, 21 May 2020 15:44:01 +0000

Conor Tomás Reed, an adjunct assistant professor in Africana Studies and American Studies at ��Ƶ, was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Adjunct Faculty Fellowship.

The Career Enhancement Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, seeks to increase the presence of underrepresented junior and other faculty members in the arts and humanities by creating career development opportunities for selected fellows with promising research projects.

The award will support Reed as they (Reed’s pronoun of choice) complete a book about the rise of Black, Puerto Rican, and Women’s Studies and cultural movements at the City College of New York and in New York City from 1960 to the present.

Reed is also developing a trilingual anthology on Black Women’s Studies in the Americas and the Caribbean, which will culminate in a November 2020–January 2021 residency at in Brooklyn and a 2021 publication. During the fellowship period, Reed will teach a ��Ƶ course, “Literatures of the African Diaspora,” to facilitate the Wolfe Institute’s fall reading group on “Land, Decolonization, and the University,” and organize with Free CUNY and Rank and File Action (RAFA).

The Fellowship provides Reed with a six-month stipend; a research, travel, or publication stipend; participation in a professional development retreat; and working with a mentor from a professional network of tenured former Career Enhancement Fellows. Reed will be mentored by ��Ƶ associate professor of English and Gender Studies, Rosamond S. King, whose scholarly work focuses on sexuality, performance, and literature in the Caribbean and Africa.

Reed received their Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center’s English Program, and their B.A. from the City College of New York. About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society. The 2020 Career Enhancement Fellows represent top institutions from across the country. Fellows work in such disciplines as African American and diaspora studies, English, LGBTQ studies, political science, sociology, and musicology.

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Two Professors Pen Separate Books on Influential Caribbean Literary Figures

Susan Landers — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 17:34:10 +0000

Two ��Ƶ faculty members have recently published books that shed new light on influential literary figures—one nearly forgotten and one who rose to prominence posthumously.

English Professor James Davis’ book, (Columbia University Press, 2015), takes a look at the life of the little known Harlem Renaissance writer who was one of the first to depict the lives of Caribbean people in American fiction. Becoming Julia de Burgos: The Making of a Puerto Rican Icon (University of Illinois Press, 2014) by Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Professor Vanessa Pérez-Rosario is the first book-length work in English that explores the life of poet and political activist Julia de Burgos, including her experience of migration and her legacy in New York City.

Davis wasn’t exactly looking for Walrond. It was more like the late author’s work found Davis while he was digging through the archives at Columbia University. Thumbing through an old publisher’s catalog, he stumbled upon an announcement for a book on the history of Panama, written by Walrond.

“I knew I had to come back to this,” says Davis. “I had always read this was an author who people really admired, who was well known at the time but that basically he had written one book and flamed out.”

Davis did more than revisit the research—he ended up turning it into a book that draws a more complete picture of the life of the literary luminary who was largely assumed to have dropped off the face of the earth.

Walrond’s only book, Tropic Death, published in 1926, along with his journalistic writing and short stories that appeared in popular magazines, had earned him the respect of peers like Langston Hughes. He even went on to win a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction. But not too long after his book was published, he moved to England, ended up working as an accountant, and eventually committed himself to a mental institution—where he incidentally started a literary magazine and published his history of Panama in installments.

“It was super strange,” says Davis. “I’m leafing through pages of a mental hospital magazine and there’s something on the cricket match between the patients and the wardens and then a puzzle and then this heavily researched, foot-noted, academic treatment of the history of Panama sandwiched in between.”

Davis employed a lot of detective work, searching through archives from New York to Panama and England, to piece together what happened to Walrond and to detail in the book his relationships with several prominent Harlem Renaissance-era writers like Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston.

“When you are trying to do research on someone whose fame declined into negligible terms, you don’t have a central repository. But this guy knew everyone. So the challenge was to locate the information in all these disparate libraries.”

Davis, who also teaches in American Studies, pieced together grants from PSC-CUNY and the Tow Foundation and a one-year fellowship from the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in order to complete his research for the book.

“I would mostly just like people to read his work,” says Davis. “That’s my main goal.”

Pérez had a similar motive in writing about Burgos. “We celebrated the centennial of her birth in 2014 and still there was no book published on her in English,” says Perez. “It was time.”

If Burgos, a native of Puerto Rico, is a Latina icon today, she was an iconoclast during her time. She is celebrated for knocking down stereotypes about women’s role in society, Latino culture, and for fighting for Puerto Rican independence.

Pérez started her book journey by reading Burgos’ poetry and then did some research on the political and social forces that surrounded her and informed so much of her writing. Perez also interviewed people who either knew the late poet or claimed her as an influence.

“I started out wanting to avoid the biographical,” says Pérez. “I later realized that it was the stories of her life, her migration, and her death that captured the imaginations of so many.”

Burgos grew up in a barrio in Puerto Rico where conditions were so dire, six of her siblings died of malnutrition. She ended up earning a scholarship to attend college, graduated at the age of 19 and then had a brief stint as a teacher, a job that was reportedly derailed by her political beliefs. She ended up marrying young, but like her teaching career, her marriage was short lived. Burgos yearned to live a more independent life which, eventually, turned her into a social pariah. She traveled to and New York and Cuba, journeys that introduced her to literary luminaries like Nobel Prize winners Juan Ramón Jiménez and Pablo Neruda, both of whom saw in Burgos a very promising poet.

She continued to fight for her island’s independence from the U.S. and as a writer for the New York based Spanish weekly Pueblos Hispanos, she developed a keen sense of Latin American solidarity and tried to connect and assist the immigrants living in New York. She ended up dying alone at the age of 39 after collapsing on a street in Harlem.

“Her life didn’t end as a tragedy; she was not a victim,” Pérez recently told NY1 Noticias. “Her legacy and her influence in the ’60s and onward has continued.”

What Pérez hopes readers take away from her work is “a better appreciation of the complexity of this figure, and also a better understanding of the political, social, and historical forces that she contended with in her life,” she says.

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Students Take Home Top Prizes in Labor Arts Contest

Susan Landers — Mon, 12 May 2014 17:06:01 +0000

Several ��Ƶ students took home awards in the , an annual competition that aims to expand student engagement with the history of labor and workers in the United States, and to revitalize the study of labor history at the City University of New York.

Sponsored by CUNY and , an organization whose mission is to present images that encourage understanding of the contributions working people make to our society, the contest’s organizers asked students to submit entries that were about work and workers, and that fit one of four categories: essay, poetry, fiction/non-fiction narrative, and visual art. ��Ƶ students won six of the total 15 awards that were selected from more than 120 contest submissions.

Senior Sean Blair, a television and radio major, placed first in the fiction/non-fiction category for his short story set in the Homestead Steel strike of 1892, a topic he has been interested in since high school. “I’m a huge history nerd so this was right up my alley,” he said.

Elizabeth Mahoney, a junior majoring in American studies, also placed first in the essay category for her piece on queer activism around labor issues. “There is a lot of silence about queer issues in labor unions,” says the Boston native. “There is really no precedent of talking about it. I’d like to try to open up the conversation.”

Two other students, junior Alicia Adams, a chemistry major, and sophomore Kendy Rodriguez, a film production major, got third place and an honorable mention respectively in the poetry category. Sophomore Amanda Williams, a computer science major, received an honorable mention in fiction/non-fiction narrative and sophomore Peter Freleng, a fine arts major, placed third in the visual art category.

The award ceremony was held April 30 at the College’s Graduate Center for Worker Education in lower Manhattan. The center has a new director, Lucas G. Rubin, the assistant dean of academic programs and continuing education.

Rubin said he plans to build on the center’s tradition of providing interdisciplinary courses, hosting special events and conferences, and building partnerships with community organizations to create a learning environment that supports adults.

“I was attracted to the opportunity to create something innovative, dynamic, and collaborative, and to pay respect to the traditional worker center while re-imagining it for the 21st century,” he said.

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American Studies Archives - ������Ƶ