Posted on January 24, 2022 at: 10:33 am
Dear supporters of the UD Anti-Racism Initiative,
Lynnette Overby and I would like to thank Dr. KC Morrison for his time and leadership and to wish him well in his retirement (which began in January). We are thrilled to introduce Dr. Earl Smith as a new co-chair of UDARI.
Posted on at: 10:19 am
Using materials from Special Collections and University Archives, students in the fall 2021 seminar Race and Inequality in Delaware investigated the history of the University of Delaware in the age of enslavement and emancipation.
Members of the University of Delaware and Newark community joined the seminar’s students and faculty as they shared their research on Delaware College’s ties to slavery, and its relationship to neighboring communities of indentured, enslaved and free people of color in the 1830s to 1850s.
Inspired by the UD Antiracism Initiative, Race and Inequality in Delaware was the first in a series of team-taught seminars that examine legacies of slavery and dispossession in Delaware’s past, and ask how to redress these histories in the present. Professors Laura E. Helton and Dael Norwood joined by their students for this presentation.
A recording of last month’s symposium on “Delaware College and Newark in the Era of Slavery, Indentured Labor and Abolition,” is now available on the UD Library site; details below.
“Delaware College and Newark in the Era of Slavery, Indentured Labor, and Abolition,” Scholar in the Library series, UD Library, December 7, 2021, https://library.artstor.org/public/31899789 (alt link: https://library.udel.edu/events/events/?id=408)
Posted on November 22, 2021 at: 9:44 am
The following subcommittees of the UD Anti-Racism Initiative have been awarded grants for anti-racist projects or events they are organizing this academic year: Associate in Arts Equity and Inclusion Subcommittee, Legacies of Dispossession and Enslavement Subcommittee, Anti-Racism Programming Subcommittee, First State First Chance Subcommittee, Asian-American Anti-Racism Initiatives (AAAI) Subcommittee, The Indigenous Programming Subcommittee, The Latino and Hispanic Heritage Caucus.
Posted on November 16, 2021 at: 12:34 pm
The UD Anti-Racism Initiative’s Indigenous Programming committee organized a visit with the historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. As a chronicler of white supremacy and Native American history, Roxanne spent much of the day with our students and colleagues. She was a guest speaker in Dr. McKay Jenkins’s Environmental Humanities class; then at an informal “coffee hour” with faculty and members of the Lenape and Nanticoke tribes; and lastly in a major lecture that was attended by some 270 people from UD and the surrounding community.
Passcode: UMSREC04!
Posted on August 4, 2021 at: 11:00 am
UDARI Grant Report: Asian American Subcommittee
Fighting for All: Legacies of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs
The Asian American subcommittee applied and received a grant in the amount of $1000 from
UDARI to support our project Fighting for All: Legacies of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs.
The project consisted of two major weeklong events, each comprising a public film screening, a
structured panel of discussion, structured questions from graduate students and undergraduate
students, and finally a Q&A period open to all participants. Both events are virtual. We had a
record of 237 registered participants for the first event, and 186 registered participants for the
second event. Panelists in the first event included the Kochiyama Family members (Audee,
Akemi, and Zulu) and renowned film producer Rea Tajiri. Grace Lee was the guest of honor for
the second event. Peter Feng and Madinah Wilson-Anton moderated both events. Participants
for structured Q&A sessions were: Angela Yu (undergraduate student, president of Asian &
Pacific Islander Student Association), Marissa McClenton (undergraduate student, vice
president of Black Student Union), Danni Statia (undergraduate student), Jessica Thelen
(graduate student, English), and Jennifer Semrau (faculty member, Women’s Caucus). Drs.
Michael Vaughan and KC. Morrison gave opening remarks at the beginning of each event.
The Asian American subcommittee also worked with UD’s Admissions Office to invite high
school teachers and students from Delaware and nearby states to participate in both events.
Additional funding (see below) allowed the subcommittee to acquire rights for participating
high schools to stream films about Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs for 14 days. We also
developed teaching materials and circulated them to participating high schools in advance of
the events.
For this project, the Asian American Antiracism subcommittee received a grant from UDARI in
the amount of $1000. We subsequently raised additional funds from the Center for Black
Culture ($500), Student Diversity and Inclusion ($1000), the Center for Global Studies ($200),
the Department of History ($100), the Department of Art Conservation ($200), the Department
of Art History ($200), the Department of English ($200), and the Japanese Studies Program
($100). UD’s Office of Equity, Equality, and Diversity generously financed all participants’
background check fees. UD Admissions kindly covered the costs of all PR and service to
circulate materials to all high schools in Delaware and nearby states.
Respectfully submitted,
UDARI- Asian American Subcommittee
