ICLS’s webinar series: “Understanding Systemic Racism”

The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society is committed to the goal of social justice through education and critical scholarship. To address the urgent need to combat racism in our times, we introduce a new 2020-2021 conversation/lecture series called “Understanding Systemic Racism” to reflect on the roots of racial discrimination, class oppression, colonial injustice, and other institutionalized oppression and sanction for violence against Black people and peoples of color. We stress the importance of opening the U.S. centered conversations surrounding race and identity toward a broad and comparative reckoning with racism and its violent histories around the world. This exciting webinar series is programmed in conjunction with our Ambedkar Initiative that links Columbia University with the anti-caste legacy of B. R. Ambedkar to reflect on his continued relevance to discussions about social justice, affirmative action, and democratic thinking in a global frame.

The event schedule:

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor

Friday September 25  – Recording available on ICLS Columbia Youtube

Étienne Balibar, Columbia University

with Nahum Chandler, UC Irvine

Friday, October 9 at 12:00PM EST

Suryakant Waghmore, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Friday, October 23 at 10:00AM EST

Nico Slate, Carnegie Mellon University

Friday, November 6 at 12:30PM EST

Isabel Wilkerson, author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Friday, November 13 at 6:30PM EST

The Third Annual Ambedkar Lecture is cosponsored by the Office of EVP of Arts and Sciences; Barnard Provost’s Office; Office of the Deans of Humanities and Social Sciences; IRAAS; AAADS; IRCPL; MESAAS; CSER; CU Libraries; and CU Press