A DISORIENTATION GUIDE TO the University of Virginia
AN INTRODUCTION TO
DISORIENTATION
Welcome to the Disorientation Guide, your first step toward peeling back the sanitized public face of UVA and revealing its true character and history. You probably remember your summer orientation, stumbling through the Good Ol’ Song (why is it so fast?) and maybe feeling a bit out of place in a sea of sundresses and ill-fitting khakis and pastel shorts. This guide aims to subvert the Southern traditionalist culture of the University and reveal a brutal, unjust legacy—but also a radiant history of radical activism that continues today. We aim to educate and inspire our readers to take action, because we believe we love our university most when we change it for the better. Remember what UVA has been, and imagine what it could be. As you read through this guide, you may feel uncomfortable as this perfectly curated image of the university begins to falls apart -- and that is good. You have begun the first step, which is acknowledging the injustices and how UVA as an institution and you as a student are complicit in furthering that. The next step is action, in which we hope that this guide, in addition to other things, can serve as a catalyst. You are going to find information on different student groups that have been consistently and effectively organizing around a variety issues, from living wage to immigrant justice -- and we encourage to reach out and learn more about their work. You are going to be introduced to a number of classes and professors who are committed to using education as a tool to fight injustice -- and so much more. We urge you not read this material casually or lightly but instead, we hope that critically engage with the content, as you challenge, confront, and challenge again the systems that have caused us to fight in the first place. When you reach the final page, we want you to leave feeling more knowledgeable about the University and its role in perpetuating oppression, more willing to not only stand but to act alongside the individuals who have been doing the work, day in and day out, and ready to hold UVA to task on being the university they claim to be.
DECONSTRUCT THE BICENTENNIAL CONTEXTUALIZING THE UNIVERSITY a look at history, governing bodies, and more
This semester marks the beginning of bicentennial events, but the mood is far from celebratory. As the University community reflects on the events of August 12th, we must also demand accountability and honesty from the administration when it comes to our University’s history. Those interested in exploring UVA’s long and complicated past will be disappointed by the events planned. Granted, there is a symposium on slavery this fall, and this type of event is a step in the right direction. However, a large, public event like the bicentennial could be an opportunity to highlight the other parts of UVA’s history that need to be addressed, and suggests that racism on grounds is part of the distant past. For example, Cabell, Rouss, and Cocke Hall were constructed to block the view of a community of freed black slaves called Canada. In 1921, the KKK donated money to the construction of a gymnasium, as part of the “centennial endowment fund.” A series of articles in the Daily Progress articles in late 1922 give concrete evidence of a Klan chapter at the University. There is also a long history of student resistance to white supremacy which is not given enough recognition, and should be a point of pride for the University. Students pushed for the integration of the University going back as far as 1935. This included a sit-in on the lawn in 1969 that thousands participated in. A hundred years ago, the Klan took part in the celebration of this University’s founding. As we begin to commemorate another hundred years, the eyes of the nation are on Charlottesville and UVA. We have a chance set an example and own up to all two hundred years of this University’s history, not just hide it in tiny plaques and footnotes.
THE BOARD OF VISITORS Who is the Board? UVA is structured like a corporation. So the president acts like a CEO, and she reports to the Board of Visitors who act like a Board of Directors. They decide the vision/ long-term strategy of the university. The BOV has its own special legacy of controversy, most notoriously in 2012 when three BOV members secretly decided to fire President Sullivan. They claimed it was because she didn’t have the leadership skills or “strategic dynamism” required to steer the University, but insiders agree that there was some ulterior motive. There’s quite a few good conspiracy theories out there, if you Google deep enough. Okay, but who’s actually on the BOV? The governor appoints people to the Board on a rolling basis, and he chooses people who donated a lot of money to his campaign. Newsflash: most Board members are rich, white, old, and have no background in education!! There are more men named John than there are women of color on the Board. There’s one student and one faculty member who sit on the Board, but they are not allowed to vote. What if I want to bring up a concern to the BOV? That’s gonna be hard since there’s no public comment period at the BOV meetings that happen about twice a semester, even though it’s a public governing body. Not to mention, there’s only one student member who reps 25,000 students, and that person doesn’t even have decision-making power. We can’t overstate this enough: the Board
TO BE HERE AND TO BE QUEER
of Visitors control the University. Even though they are a vague, abstract entity that is rarely on Grounds, they are incredibly powerful. Right now, Rusty Conner is the Rector of the BOV. He’s a Richmond lawyer, and he decides the meeting agenda and leads the BOV. At one point in your time at UVA, you should attend a BOV meeting, at the very least to indulge in the big-ass banquet (they probably paid for it with your tuition dollars so help yourself ). Then you can hear for yourself how disconnected they are from life on the ground at UVA. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll catch one of the members playing Candy Crush during a discussion on financial aid (believe me, it’s happened). Extra points if you attend a BOV meeting to participate in a protest! What Can I Do? Don’t get discouraged by your inability to create change through the Board of Visitors. They continually choose profit over the wellbeing of students and community members. Build grassroots campaigns that center student and community member concerns, use direct action, and disrupt their business as usual. The change we need requires a radical reimagining of our governance and our relationships to each other. In other words, we need to claim power in a bolder way. Imagine a Board of Students, Workers, and Community Members who have the power to control and decide the things that have direct impact on their lives. Stick to a bold vision and work to make it real.
Being queer at UVA is not easy. But you wouldn’t always know it based on the ways UVA constantly upholds its beloved diversity, inclusivity, and status as a cutting edge public university. This school is lot like the country as a whole: there’s a whole lotta people with “love is love” shirts, but verbal support for inclusivity belies the fact that marginalized voices are consistently silenced or ignored. Our administration wants us to believe that being queer is not radical. It’ll help you get a good internship, and if you’re as homonormative as humanly possible, the world will love and accept you. We can’t talk about queerness at UVA without talking about differing levels of privilege within the category of queer itself, remembering that while ‘queer’ pushes back against hierarchies, it is clear that at UVA it’s a whole lot easier to be queer if you’re rich, white, cis, and willing to attempt to join and support dominant UVA culture. In the way that many LGBTQIA rights efforts have only benefited a select, privileged few, UVA’s efforts at queer inclusivity completely ignore a vast majority of queer students, for whom queerness is but only one facet of their identity that dominant UVA culture rejects. Traditional queer spaces and well known faces here consistently reflect white male queerness, an extension of white supremacy and patriarchy that doesn’t disappear simply because we’re queer. Changing that narrative and allowing queer and trans people of color to lead us is the most radical thing our community can do. Make your own spaces, collectives, and groups. Uplift voices and nurture leaders that are not often heard at our school. Allow queerness to flourish in ways that don’t fit into the normative boxes set out for us by the administration and the students the administration ordains as “tomorrow’s leaders.” Be queer, be radical, be powerful, and be more than what they want us to be.
HOW DID WE GET HERE? a timeline of events
2015/2016 Local sentiment surrounding removal of the statue increases. Black Lives Matter is spray-painted on the base of the Lee statue and city council people start to take up the issue. In response, local white supremacist and graduate of UVA, Jason Kessler, forms the group Unity and Security for America. The hate group targets local activists of color, and Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy, for their work to remove the Lee statue. Over the next few months, Jason Kessler transforms Charlottesville into ground zero for the national “alt-right” movement. Kicking Nazis off the Downtown Mall Local organizers mobilize to ensure that Jason Kessler and his fellow Neo-Nazis are not welcome in Charlottesville during the Spring. Activists petition local businesses to ban their groups from stores, and in several cases, the white supremacists are forced off the Downtown Mall.
May 13, 2017 UVA grads Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler lead a mob of white men to circle the Festival of Cultures at then “Lee Park.” They rally at Jackson Park before community organizers force them out of downtown. That night, the Neo- Nazis return to hold a torch-bearing rally at the statue of Lee.
July 8th, 2017 A chapter of the KKK from North Carolina hold a rally in Justice Park, around the statue of Stonewall Jackson. Hundreds of community members show up to drown out the rally. The police protect the Klan as they enter the park and hold their racist rally. Cops are heavily militarized, incite conflict with protesters, make random arrests, and deploy chemical weapons. Although the “alt-right’ attempts to distance themselves from the Klan, they are often mentored by KKK members and follow in the racist footsteps of Klansmen. Members of several Neo-Nazi groups are present in the crowd of counter-protesters. They attempt to gather information on counter-protesters in order to dox people (search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet with malicious intent).
August 11-12th, 2017 Unite The Right Rally brings hundreds of Neo-Nazis together for a violent weekend of terrorizing the city. On Friday night, 30 students from a statewide coalition disrupt their torch-lit rally on the North side of the Rotunda with help from community members and anti-fascist groups. The next day, the Charlottesville community defends the city as best as possible from violent Neo-Nazis who stroll the streets with massive weapons. The police fail to intervene in the harm of most counter protesters.
May 14th, 2017 A counter-vigil at the Lee statue brings out hundreds of community members with candles. A banner reading “Black Lives Matter. Fuck White Supremacy,” is hung from Lee. Local white supremacist, Jason Kessler, shows up halfway through the vigil and attempts to remove the banner. He is arrested later that night after community activists successfully kick him out of then “Lee Park.”
June 3rd, 2017 March for Community Defense from the Rotunda, down Main St. to then “Lee Park.” Community members led the March down the middle of Main— stopping for no one and successfully evading the cops. March 31st, 2017 Conservative Congressman Tom Garrett hosts a closed Town Hall at UVA. Jason Kessler and other Neo-Nazis show up in support of the Congressman. Activists disrupt the Town Hall and rally outside.
Throughout the entire day there are reports of violence against people of color and large trucks full of white men attempting to run into counter-protesters. A young Nazi from Ohio commits an act of terror by driving his car into a celebratory march of community members. More than 30 are injured and 1 person is murdered.
June 5th, 2017 Charlottesville City Council votes to rename Lee and Jackson Parks to Emancipation and Justice, respectively.
RAGE RAGE FOR A LIVING WAGE The Living Wage Campaign at UVA
ORGANIZING ON GROUNDS
Just as the profit-driven model of the University drives up tuition & burdens students with a cycle of debt, it ties workers here with stagnant wages that are not really enough to get by. If it wasn’t clear from the title of this section, the University does NOT pay its employees a living wage (a living wage is essentially what it sounds like; enough for a family of four to afford their basic needs -child care, health care, food, housing, transport, other necessities -- and live in the city that they work and NOT be in poverty or on welfare) which raises the question: why don’t we as radically loving Wahoos support the people we see everyday at UVA that are already struggling the most? The answer isn’t a financial one: our endowment is a staggering $7.6 billion (can we say this number enough?!!!) and from the University’s own internal calculations, it would cost just .06% of its annual operating budget to pay all employees a living wage.
employment practices and benefits to the Charlottesville community, their poverty wage policies are pushing people of low incomes out of the city; and often, this means pushing people of color out of Charlottesville too. African Americans make up 23.5% of clerical/secretarial employees, and 53.9% of service/maintenance employees and only 3.7% of University instructional/research faculty.
Yet the University maintains that the treatment of the lowest paid employees is “none of their business” and refuses to audit Aramark, the University’s contracted dining services provider (Google: aramark human rights abuses) and largest contractor, to disclose their wages. With a 20-year contract, and a direct wage that only goes up when we put PRESSURE on the administration, this issue isn’t going away: we need you to stand up and tell your institution to do better and not perpetuate the injustices begun by Mr. In Charlottesville a living wage is $13.72 Jefferson. an hour PLUS benefits. The university pays their direct employees $11.76 an hour, but If you’re a student, worker, community contracted employees (see Aramark below) member or want to join the fight, in any cacould be paid as little as Virginia minimum pacity, here’s how: we meet every Monday at wage, $7.25. As Central Virginia’s largest 8:00pm in Monroe 122; off campus meetemployer, and a public university, UVa has ings upcoming. Bring a friend! We are deda responsibility to combat negative impacts icated to fighting for fair wages and treathere. From the most recent census statistics, ment, to reaching out to UVa workers, and Charlottesville has only 3% unemployment, working with their immediate needs and but there is an astounding 25% poverty rate, wants. Plus, check out our web page: more than double Virginia’s average. http://livingwageatuva.wixsite.com/lwc-uva While the University extolls their virtuous
BLACK STUDENT ALLIANCE In September of 1950, Gregory Swanson entered the UVA school of Law. He was the first black student to attend the University of Virginia, 115 years after slaves at UVA gained their freedom. Fast-forward to 1951 and Swanson, who had already obtained a law degree from Howard, was gone. Why did he leave so soon you might ask? Racism. It would take an additional two years before another African-American would finally graduate from the University of Virginia. That resilient soul was none other than Walter Ridley, who in 1953 earned his doctorate from UVA’s Curry School of Education. Even in the face of good ole Virginia racism, incessant taunting, and bigotry, Walter Ridley stayed the course, and earned his degree. As a result, whenever the going got tough for the Black students who came after Walter (and you best believe that times got hella tough), students would encourage each other with the slogan “Walter stayed;” affirming that if Walter had the strength to endure UVA’s bullshit, they could too. In the 60’s a number of trailblazing Black students flooded (more like trickled in, but to a school like UVA at the time it was a flood) UVA’s student body, ready to shake up grounds. Thankfully, UVa was prepared for this influx of minority students, and took the necessary steps of hiring black faculty, endowing a number of minority scholarships, and establishing an Office of African American Affairs, to help Black students feel a sense of belonging in such a predominately white space. Sike! It took countless student protests, and three whole-ass research reports (Audacious Faith I & II and Towards a Better University) before UVa even begun to get the ball rolling on diversity and racial equity programs for Black students (and we’re still fighting). Now, even though the Black student experience at UVa has largely been an uphill battle with many hard fought victories, Black students are still thriving on grounds, never backing down from the opportunity to reclaim our time in the face of white supremacy.
FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYONE
Feminism is for Everyone (FIFE) is a feminist organization dedicated to fostering feminist community and promoting intersectional activism for gender equality within and outside of UVA. FIFE holds weekly discussion meetings where general body members come together to discuss a wide variety of topics relating to feminisms. Discussions are set to take place on Wednesdays at 7pm in the LGBTQ Center. FIFE also values activism and advocacy as ways to create progressive change in our community; FIFE holds its own activist events, such as an annual bake sale and tampon drive to benefit The Haven downtown, and directs members to other direct action and activist efforts at UVA and in the Charlottesville community. Additionally, FIFE understands the impact of incorporating arts in our feminisms; each semester, FIFE creates a zine composed entirely of student submissions, and hosts an open mic event. Finally, FIFE holds various social events to further strengthen our sense of feminist community. No dues are required to join, all are welcome! For more information, please email uvafife@gmail.com.
THE UVA GRADUATE STUDENT COALITION FOR LIBERATION
WHO WE ARE The UVa Graduate Student Coalition for Liberation is an expanding interdepartmental group of graduate students committed to making the University of Virginia and the city of Charlottesville more just places to live and work. In our unique position as students, researchers, and educators, we seek to pool and share knowledge. And in our position as workers and community members, we seek to build coalitions with undergraduates, fellow University workers, and other community members in Charlottesville, holding our University accountable to all those it serves and affects. Our organization was founded with the goal of creating a campus environment where resources for learning about and combating white supremacy (such as discussion forums; visiting scholar and activist talks; syllabi; direct actions; trainings; and safe and accountable spaces) are readily available. The GSCL is also responsible for the Charlottesville Syllabus, which currently takes the form of a zine. This Syllabus is to be used to educate readers about the long history of white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia. Created in order to illuminate and give context to local, contemporary injustice, the Syllabus is in constant revision.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED The GSCL welcomes new graduate student members who are committed to prioritizing the needs of students most affected by the terrors of white supremacy.
DREAMers on Grounds was founded in the Fall of 2015 by two undergraduate students who saw a lack of advocacy & inclusion for undocumented students at the University of Virginia. DREAMers aims to create a more inclusive environment & safe space for all undocumented students (DREAMers) at UVA through education, advocacy, and allyship.
Graduate students may join our central organizing committee or simply join as someone who prefers to be delegated organizing work. Community members interested in being kept up to date with our collaborations, events, and work, may join our mailing list.
In the Spring of 2016, DREAMers On Grounds applied for Contracted Independent Organization (CIO) status. After we were denied of CIO status from Student Council at the University of Virginia, we decided that change needed to be made. We wrote a petition demanding that Student Council be held accountable for the mistakes that were made during this process. After more than 1,000 signatures, DREAMers On Grounds was declared an official CIO at the next Student Council meeting. Since then, we have worked vigorously in obtaining a university environment where DREAMers feel empowered, included, and safe.
If you’d like to be a part of the Charlottesville Syllabus revision project--suggesting articles, contributing artwork, doing research, writing pieces, giving it shape--or if you’re interested in some level of involvement with the Coalition; or if your group is interested in collaborating with us; please fill out our web form and specify your desired level of involvement in the comments box at: gradcoalition.com/wp/contact-us/
In Spring, DREAMers On Grounds holds an annual “DREAM Week” in which we invite the UVa & Charlottesville community to participate in weeklong events that depict the DREAMer experience. Furthermore, we provide faculty & staff with tools & information to help in their interactions with undocumented students, such as through UndocuAlly Trainings. UndocuAlly Trainings are a learning opportunity/workshop for educators & peers to develop & enhance their working knowledge regarding undocumented student populations at UVa. We are also committed to having strong ties with administrations, most importantly Student Financial Services, in order to provide students with the necessary resources to make their experience a successful one. DREAMers On Grounds is a part of the Virginia Intercollegiate Immigrant Alliance, a coalition of university organizations with similar purposes. Follow Us! www.facebook.com/dreamersongrounds www.instagram.com/dreamersongrounds
HERE TO STAY.
UVA STUDENTS UNITED UVA Students United is small, scrappy group of students who aim to challenge the corporate university at every turn. We started in 2013 when the Board of Visitors cut AccessUVA’s no-loan policy. Students were outraged by this because now low-income students were forced to take out loans. Despite having just built a $12 million squash court facility, not to mention hoarding a $5 billion endowment, the BOV thought AccessUVA was too expensive. After huge student protests, the BOV finally acceded and announced a $8 million gift to the endowment. Ever since then, we have been organizing students against tuition hikes. In spring of 2015, UVASU got word that the BOV was going to raise tuition 11%. We quickly mobilized students in just a couple days to disrupt the BOV meeting with chants of “whose university? Our university!” Although the BOV, after much conflict, ended up passing the massive tuition increase, the student protests and ensuing battles with the General Assembly shifted the public debate around tuition. UVASU values democratic governance and student voice, and ran a campaign for a public comment period at BOV meetings. Though UVASU primarily organizes students, in the fight against the corporatization of higher education we understand we must also build relationships with Charlottesville community members. We have proudly stood with Charlottesville activists in their fight against gentrification, for justice for Sage Smith, and against white supremacy in all its forms. Join us if you are ready to take direct action for a more democratic, diverse, affordable, and accessible University that works for ALL of us.
Founded in the Spring of 2016 after the needs and voices of Latinx activists were not being addressed, PLUMAS seeks to creates civic engagement and awareness of social and political issues through education, advocacy, and direct action. The University of Virginia’s chapter of Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society (PLUMAS) is a social justice/activist group that engages the Latinx community by providing a safe, proactive space for students to vocalize, discuss, and act on substantive social justice issues affecting the Latinx community both on Grounds and in the Greater Charlottesville Community.
2015 at Virginia Commonwealth University. Issues we tackle in PLUMAS are hate crimes, police brutality, disproportionate amounts of Latinxs suspended/in prison, immigration, Black Lives Matter and the rights of trans/queer Latinxs.
Our first action as a group was after the white nationalist “Unite the Right” protests held on the UVA Grounds and the city of Charlottesville on August 11th & 12th, 2017. A rally of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klan members in downtown Charlottesville led to violent clashes with counter-protesters leaving one person dead. PLUMAS condemned the deplorable actions of these “alt-right” protesters and expressed its immense grief for PLUMAS was originally created at the Uni- all those affected by their senseless violence versity of Maryland-College Park Campus through an open, public statement. in February 2013 by UMD Alumnae Karen Guzman and Jennifer Avelar. The word In the future we hope to hold discussions “PLUMAS” is symbolic because it means a about the struggles marginalized and opfeather or a pen in Spanish, and for many pressed communities face. Our liberation cultures, such as for the Egyptian and Na- is bound together and we need each other tive American cultures, feathers symbolize to fight for freedom and justice. Follow heightened awareness and progress. The sec- us! https://www.facebook.com/Plumas-atond chapter of PLUMAS was established in UVA-1430583773700207/
VIRGINIA STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition is a network of young people uniting across Virginia to end the extraction of communities and people. We work to fight extraction in all its forms — from fossil fuel extraction to the economic devastation of rural communities to the devastation of black and brown communities by police and prison systems. We see that Virginia has faced many waves of extraction — from the enslavement of African people to the tobacco industry and today the fossil fuel industry. From one extractive economy to the next, the wealth and power of an elite class of people has grown. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is proposed to be constructed south of Charlottesville in Buckingham County by an energy monopoly called Dominion Power. The most dangerous part of the pipeline, the compressor station, is proposed to the built in the heart of the Union Hill community, a majority black and low-income community. We are committed to fighting white supremacy in all its forms -- from pipelines that threatening black communities in Virginia to confronting white nationalism. The Virginia Student Environmental Coalition mobilized a contingent of youth to confront the white supremacist Nazis last weekend, where were surrounded by torch-bearing nazis on Friday night and members of our group were wounded by the terrorist attack on Saturday. In Charlottesville, we’ve resisted these pipelines using a variety of tactics from testifying at government hearings, disruption of political events, and direct action. We fight alongside people living in the proposed route of the pipeline in neighboring Buckingham County and the Union Hill Community. The Union Hill community was initially created by Freedmen. Dominion has purchased the very land of the former plantation. Heads up! Through the power of the pipeline fight, both pipelines have been significantly delayed — though not yet stopped. The pipelines are scheduled to begin construction in November. This September 29th - October 1st, VSEC will be hosting a Direct Action camp to train young people from across Virginia on the skills and strategies we need to stop these pipelines. Come camp out, meet young people resisting across VA and skill up on tools for social change. We strive to actively intervene in this future we’re inheriting together. We meet on Tuesdays at 8pm in Clark 101.
WXTJ Student Radio exists to bring diverse and interesting music to the University. This includes playing music on air, creating a sub-community of students who are passionate about music, and hosting or promoting house shows and concerts on-grounds and around Charlottesville. Each DJ has a two hour time slot once every one or two weeks. We also host house shows once every few weeks which are open to everyone. We are a freeform station which means that students can play and discuss whatever they want on air (so long as it is FCC approved). Right now we are encouraging our DJs to use our media platform as a tool for political and personal empowerment.
RADICAL READING TO MOVE TO THE TOP OF YOUR ‘TO-READ’ LIST The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis Ella Baker and the SNCC: Grassroots Leadership and Political Activism in a Nonhierarchical Organization ( Joan Charles) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: Rise and Fall of a Redemptive Organization (Emily Stoper) SNCC, the new abolitionists by Howard Zinn Student Political Activism: An International Reference Handbook by Philip Altbach The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights by Jon N. Hale “Radical Academia”? Understanding the Climates for Campus Activists: New Directions for Higher Education Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject by Mark Edelman Boren Sitting in and Speaking Out: Student Movements in the American South, 1960-1970 by Jeffery A. Turner This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement by Sarah Gelder The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965–1972 by I. Rogers Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives by Rachel Brooks Student Protest: The Sixties and After by Gerard J. De Groot
RADICAL CLASSES TO MAKE YOUR SCHEDULE WORTHWHILE Fall 2017 Race, Medicine, and Incarceration - Talitha LeFlouria Queer American History - Doug Meyer Nationalism, Racism, Multiculturalism - Richard Handler History of American Labor - Claudrena Harold The Politics of Developing Areas - Robert Fatton Border Media - Camilla Fojas Revolutionary Struggles in the African Atlantic - Kwame Otu Systems of Inequality - Sabrina Pendergrass Postcolonial Theory - Marlene Daut Fall 2016 Comparative and Transnational Studies - Mrinalini Chakravorty Culture, Gender, and Violence - Richard Handler Race, Space, and Culture - Marlon Ross and Ian Grandison Race and Real Estate - Andrew Kahrl Documentary Film and the South - Grace Hale Black Women and Work - Talitha LeFlouria Spring 2017 Intro to Citizenship and Activism: Critical Exam of Jefferson’s University - Walt Heinecke Queer Theory - Doug Meyer Power and the Body- George Mentore Modern Central America - “Herbert “”Tico”” Braun” Anthropology of Globalization - Ira Bashkow Black Fire - Claudrena Harold Booms and Busts - Laura Goldblatt Liberation Theology Surveillance and the US Empire - Camilla Fojas Whiteness and Religion - Jalane Schmidt Spring 2016 Critical Race Theory - Marlon Ross Capitalism: Cultural Perspectives - Kath Weston World Contemporary Architecture - Shiqiao Li Race in American Places - Ian Grandison Colonial Indians in the West: Negotiation, Appropriation and Assimilation - Geeta Patel Queer Africas - Kwame Otu