2022-’23 Events
Spring 2023 events
Wednesday, March 29 | 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
If on campus, join us in the Student Union’s Popp Martin Theater for the Webinar
Dr. Linda Beatrice Brown
“Daughters of Harriet”
Lecture & dialogue with author, scholar, and activist about the role of Black women in the freedom struggle—“the daughters of Harriet Tubman”
Linda Beatrice Brown is the author of three novels and numerous poems, plays, short stories, and essays. Her latest novel, Black Angels, a novel for young people, is set during the Civil War.
A retired professor of African American Literature, Linda graduated from Bennett College in 1961 where she took part in the historic Greensboro sit-ins. Her 2013 book Belles of Liberty grew out of her life-long decision to speak out for justice and equality and to teach about the participation of Bennett women.
Linda’s latest book is a collection of poems entitled A Mother Knows Her Child, focused on the Mother of Jesus. A second collection, Something of His Mother to Remember, was published in 2016. Linda’s latest book, published in 2021, is a collection of poems that were written during the first year of the Covid pandemic, entitled The House of Gratitude.
For more about Linda Beatrice Brown: www.lindabeatricebrownauthor.com.
More information about this event: Dr. Janaka Lewis: J.Lewis@uncc.edu; Dr. John Cox: jcox73@uncc.edu
Co-sponsored by UNC Charlotte’s Center for the Study of the New South, Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies, Department of Africana Studies, Department of English, Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, Women + Girls Research Alliance, Women’s & Gender Studies, and the Romare Bearden Branch of Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
This event is part of the 2023 {WE MOVE} Feminisms Day.
Earlier events
Beyond the Headlines:
The Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: What’s Next?
Wednesday February 15 | 2:30 – 3:45 pm | Fretwell 113
Join the Faculty of the Department of Global Studies in a conversation that will go beyond the headlines of the recent disaster and discuss its political, social, cultural, and environmental consequences. In our globalized world these (un)natural disasters affect all of us.
Bring your comments and concerns, and join the conversation.
Sponsored by UNC Charlotte’s Department of Global Studies and the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights
February 1, Atkins Library – Halton Reading Room, 2:00pm – 3:15pm
“Audacity: The Life and Liberation Legacy of local civil-rights hero Robert F. Williams”
Connie Williams speaks on her new book about her cousin, pioneering figure in the Black freedom struggle Robert F. Williams of Monroe, NC
Connie Williams is a local figure known for her distinguished career as a skillful writer of prose and poetry. Until her retirement in 2014, she was a lecturer of English Composition and Rhetoric at UNC Charlotte. Author of numerous books, Williams has also dedicated her life to arts education and outreach. Williams created the Emily’s Blues Self-Actualization Project, and she volunteered her services to help deter high school dropouts. More about Connie Williams
Robert F. Williams was a civil rights leader whose open advocacy of armed self-defense anticipated the movement for “black power” in the late 1960s. Elected president of Monroe’s chapter of the NAACP, he soon made international headlines for his role in the so-called “Kissing Case,” in which two black children were jailed for kissing a young white girl. In 1959 he began publishing his own newsletter, the Crusader. He was eventually driven into exile by the US government, as he was several years ahead of his time in advocating uncompromising tactics of self-defense. More about Robert F. Williams
Sponsors: UNC Charlotte’s Center for the Study of the New South, Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Department of Africana Studies, Department of English, Honors College, J. Murrey Atkins Library, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Romare Bearden Branch of Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Fall 2022 events
Lecture & dialogue with Noe Pliego Campos
Doctoral candidate at Notre Dame; recent graduate of UNC Charlotte with degrees in History and Latin American Studies
FEMINIST ACTIVISM IN MEXICO CITY SINCE THE 1970S
Tuesday October 18, 1:00 – 2:15, Fretwell 100
After the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, many U.S.-based activists wondered what could be done. Some people pointed to recent, creative forms of feminist activism in Mexico City, which has included large marches as well as confrontational defiant acts against police and government officials to demand and earn reproductive justice.
Noe Pliego Campos historicizes this activism by tracing its developments since the 1970s. For historians, students, and activists alike, this session offers much to discuss.
More Information: Emek Ergun (eergun@uncc.edu), John Cox (jcox73@uncc.edu)
Sponsored by the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies
UNC Charlotte History Department and the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies presents
Dr. Roy Knocke
Director, Potsdam Lepsius House & Associate Lecturer
Humanitarianism and the Armenian Genocide
October 3, 2022
4:00pm-5:15pm
Denny 120
Dr. Roy Knocke is the director of the Potsdam Lepsius House and an associate lecturer at the University of Potsdam with focus on the history of genocide, history of humanitarianism, and the moral history of extreme political violence in the 20th century. He has published on the moral and socio- philosophical aspects of genocide, on Franz Werfel and the Armenian Genocide and on the origins, manifestations, and aftermath of political violence in the 20th century. Currently, he is working on a four-volume annotated historico-critical edition of Johannes Lepsius’ works on the “Armenian question.” Lepsius was a key figure in the German humanitarian pro-Armenian movement.
Dialogue with Carl Wilkens
“Why I Stayed in Rwanda”
Thursday April 28, 2022
2:30 – 3:45pm
Rowe Hall, room 130
“So what would you do if, like Carl Wilkens, you were caught in the middle of a genocide?,” asked Nicholas Kristof in a New York Times profile of Wilkens. “U.S. officials and church leaders ordered Mr. Wilkens to join an emergency evacuation of foreigners from Rwanda, and relatives and friends implored him to go. He refused.”
Carl Wilkens was the only American who chose to stay in Kigali, Rwanda throughout the 1994 genocide. Venturing out each day into streets crackling with mortars and gunfire, he worked his way through roadblocks of agitated soldiers along with paramilitary units (Interahamwe) armed with machetes and assault rifles in order to bring food, water, and medicine to groups of orphans trapped around the city.
For over a decade, Carl Wilkens has been sharing stories around the globe to inspire and equip people to “enter the world of The Other.” Each year he returns to Rwanda with students and educators to see for themselves how people are working together to rebuild their country and rebuild trust.