Mixed Race Studies

One Drop of Love is coming to Massachusetts and New York in April

One Drop of Love: A Daughter’s Search for Her Father’s Racial Approval
2015-04-07

Photo by Jeff Lorch

“What Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni brings to the table is a moving and insightful microscope to our belief that there is such a thing as race and how the assignment of identity plays out in destructive ways that impact each and every one of us. This is a critical component that often gets missed in our attempts to dismantle this social construct.” —Carol Ross, Media and Climate Communications Specialist for Amherst, Massachusetts.

For more information, click here.

New Orleans Loving Festival

2015-03-21

The New Orleans Loving Festival™ is a Multiracial Community Celebration and Film Festival that challenges racism through outreach and education. The “Loving Festival” was inspired by the actions of a Hammond, Louisiana Justice of the Peace who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple in 2009.

The festival is an important community platform for showcasing films and other creative works that explore racial stereotypes and inspire people to work together for racial justice.

The Loving Festival is modeled after Loving Day multicultural celebrations across the country that organize people to fight racial prejudice through education and build multicultural community. The Loving Festival also honors the legacy of Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple whose 1967 landmark civil rights lawsuit “Loving v. Virginia” ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

For more information, visit the website or the Facebook page.

The Evolution of the Idea of Race: From Scientific Racism to Genomics

Oxford University Press Webinar
Oxford University Press
Friday, 2015-03-20, 18:00-19:00Z, 14:00-15:00 EDT

Join Oxford University Press on Friday, March 20th for a Webinar featuring Tanya Golash-Boza.

Tanya Golash-Boza is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at the University of California, Mereced, and the author of the acclaimed textbook, Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach.

In 1735, Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus divided the world into four groups: Americanus, Asiaticus, Europeanus, and Africanus. In the 1850s, Samuel George Morton measured human skulls to prove European superiority. His successor, Paul Broca, compared brain sizes. Psychologist R. M. Yerkes used IQ tests to the same end in the early 20th century, as did Herrnstein and Murray in the late 20th century. Today, scientists use genomics to prove there are biological differences between the races. What has changed and what has not? In this webinar, we will develop a sociological analysis of the evolution of the idea of race and of the persistence of racism.

For more information, click here.

MIXED Art Conference

Mixed in Canada
YMCA Central Toronto
20 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 2V5 Canada
Saturday, 2015-05-02, 09:00-18:00 EDT (Local Time)

M.I.X.E.D.: Multidisciplinary.Intersections.Xchanging.Empowering.Dialogue

The aim of this multidisciplinary art conference is to co-create an inclusive dialogue about racialized mixed identities and lived realities through an intersectional lens. “Un-Conference” attendees and facilitators will be able to engage with one another in dynamic group discussions filled with peer-to-peer sharing and learning. The contributions of all racialized participants are encouraged to be represented, acknowledged and honoured.

• Multidisciplinary the event promises to deliver something for everyone. There will be a curated art exhibit, live artistic performances and opportunities for attendees to co-animate the space.
• Keynote Speakers M.I.X.E.D. is proud to have community activist and educator Kim Katrin Milan and professor Dr. Minelle Mahtani to deliver opening and closing remarks at our inaugural event.
• Community Building Meet the phenomenal facilitators and amazing artists representing decades of working within intersecting communities. The mixed race experience and its intersections will be featured in our breakout group discussions and the day’s performances.
• Self Care Throughout the day, information and resources will be available to assist with possible triggering. We will also be featuring a wellness group exercise lead by Zainab Amadahy for some self-care debriefing at the end of the event.
• Accessibility We would like to have as many individuals participate in the event by reducing boundaries where possible. Gender neutral bathrooms will be available and the space is wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments and lunch will be served and the event is Pay What You Can but no one will be turned away at the door. We ask all attendees to come scent-free.
• M.I.X.E.D. is meant to be as safe a space as possible for all attendees which means no forms of racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, discrimination based on age, class, weight, creed, immigration status, xenophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny, cissexism, etc. will be tolerated.

For more information, click here.

Mixed Heritage Week 2015: AIDE Presents: “What Are You?” Exploring Biracial and Multiracial Identity (DICE)

The Ohio State University
Student Life Multicultural Center, Alonso Family Room
3034 Ohio Union, 1739 N. High Street
Columbus, Ohio
Thursday, 2015-03-26, 20:00-21:00 EDT (Local Time)

This presentation will provide an overview of the changing racial demographics in the United States in relation to multiracial people. This will include identifying issues multiracial college students face, U.S. Census data, examples of multiracial microaggressions, and examples of the use of multiracial identity in modern pop culture…

For more information click here.

Diversity Week Keynote Speaker 2015: “One Drop of Love” perfomed by Fanshen DiGiovanni Cox

Miami University
Oxford-Armstrong Student Center
Harry T. Wilks Theater
550 E. Spring Street
Oxford, Ohio
Thursday, 2015-03-12, 19:00-21:00 EDT (Local Time)

One Drop of Love produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, performed by Fanshen Cox Digiovanni is a multimedia solo show that tells the story of how the notion of ‘race’ came to be in the United States. In addition, Fanshen whom is of mixed race shares personal accounts of how it affected the relationship with her father.

Every spring, specifically in the month of March, the Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) plans and coordinates a week-long program known as “Diversity Week.” This week serves as a campaign that seeks to raise awareness of social differences, promote an appreciation for such differences, and encourage open dialogue about topics involving diversity.

The Diversity Keynote Address provides an opportunity for open dialogue about various diversity topics with students and the speaker.

For more information, click here.

IRRPP Annual Bowman Lecture: Fatal Invention: Why The Politics of Race and Science Still Matters

Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy
University of Illinois, Chicago
Student Center East
750 S. Halsted St, Room 302
Chicago, Illinois
2015-03-12, 16:00 CDT (Local Time)

Dorothy Roberts, Professor of Law and Sociology
University of Pennsylvania

Co-sponsors: Medical Education, Institute for the Humanities Health and Society Working Group, Gender & Women’s Studies, Sociology, Biocultures, Racialized Body Cluster, African American Studies

An acclaimed scholar of race, gender, and the law, Professor Dorothy Roberts is the fourteenth Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, George A. Weiss University Professor, and the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at University of Pennsylvania. She holds appointments in the Law School and Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology. Professor Roberts received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Harvard Law School.

This lecture was established to honor Phillip J. Bowman’s contributions to UIC during his tenure as Director of IRRPP and Professor of African American Studies. It features national scholars of race, ethnicity, and public policy who provide timely analysis of issues of critical importance to the field and to communities of color.

For more information, click here.

Being Mixed Race

Women of the World Festival 2015
Blue Bar at Royal Festival Hall
Southbank Center
Belvedere Road, London
Saturday, 2015-03-07, 13:30-15:00Z

Building on the findings of the Being Mixed Race panel discussions during WOW 2013 and WOW 2014, this workshop expands on issues identified during the previous conversations and focuses specifically on issues of terminology, colourism, hair and parenting. Led by visual sociologist Emma Dabiri.

Emma Dabiri is researching a PhD in visual sociology at Goldsmiths, and works as a teaching fellow in the Africa Department at SOAS, University of London. As a commentator she is frequently invited to contribute to discussions relating to Africa and the African Diaspora on topics including futures, gender, feminism, identities, literature, film and the politics of beauty. She has published in a number of academic journals, as well as in the national press and is one of the BBC’s Expert Voices.

For more information, click here.

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life [Live event at the National Archives Museum]

The National Archives Museum
William G. McGowan Theater
Corner of Constitution Avenue and 7th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
2015-02-27, 12:00 EST (Local Time)

Airs on C-SPAN 2, Sunday, 2015-03-08, 19:00 EDT. For more information, click here.

Between the 18th and mid-20th centuries, countless African Americans passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and community. Historian Allyson Hobbs explores the possibilities and challenges that racial indeterminacy presented to men and women living in a country obsessed with racial distinctions.

A book signing will follow the program. Purchase this book [A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life] on the day of the event from the myArchives Store and receive a 15% discount (members get 20% off).

For more information, click here.

Roundtable: Global Mixed Race

University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Political Science
The Lane Room (Ellison 3824)
Monday, 2015-03-02, 16:00 PST (Local Time)

The authors of the new book Global Mixed Race (New York University Press) will participate in a Roundtable on the subject. The authors are:

• G. Reginald Daniel, UCSB Sociology
• Adrienne Edgar, UCSB History
• Paul Spickard, UCSB History
• Lily Anne Y. Welty Tamai, Japanese American National Museum

Discussant: Ingrid Dineen Wimberly, University of La Verne

For more information, click here.