Monday, May 7 4-6 p.m.

Maryland Room (0100 Marie Mount Hall)

Free and open to the public

Ms. Blank will have copies of her book available.  For more about the books:

Straight : The Surprisingly Short History of Hetereosexuality http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=4443

This year, we are excited to present Dr. Jo Paoletti’s baby guessing game, a trivia contest modeled after the 1904 World’s Fair on the heels of her newly published book Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America.  There will be prizes for contestants with all correct responses and a free copy of her new book will be given away to one lucky winner.

Also, the U.S. Latina/o Studies Program is partnering with the Spanish Department and the Latin American Studies Department to present the contributions of the Latino community in Maryland.  The exhibit will feature dance performances and a chance to be part of the 2012 Virtual DC Latino Tour with Dr. Ana Patricia Rodriguez.

The AMST table will be located in the ARHU tent near Woods Hall and the USLT table will also be located on the mall.  We hope you will join in the fun at Maryland Day 2012!

Where:     1101 Holzapfel Hall

The Cultural Landscapes Working Group has organized a visit by Dr. Kwame Holmes to give a talk, “Planning Around ‘Queer Time’: Rethinking the Problem of Racial Nostalgia Along the Shaw Cultural Heritage Trails in Washington, D.C.”

In 1996 the D.C. Humanities Council, Washington Historical Society and the D.C. Preservation Office joined with over 15 preservationist groups to promote “the city beyond the monuments” by marking cultural heritage trails that would attract tourists into the District of Columbia. In marketing Shaw as a “historic” attraction, planners crafted a vision of the neighborhood’s past that emphasized its ethnic diversity and black civic, educational, and religious institutions.  Missing, however, were the experiences of black entrepreneurs like Odessa Madre, a major figure within D.C.’s policy game and a purported lesbian or artists like Essex Hemphill, whose poetry takes readers on an alternative, queer tour of Cardozo’s Meridian Hill, after dark, in the 1980s.  This presentation employs Judith Halberstam’s theory of queer time to illuminate the problem of racial nostalgia within the planning and production of the “Heritage Trails” within the Shaw neighborhood in Washington, D.C.  It would be a mistake to suggest that “homophobia” explains these exclusions.  Rather, this talk argues that African American queer bodies like Madre and Hemphill operated outside of the normative times signatures that organize contemporary preservationists’ commitment to promoting particular kinds of economic growth in neighborhoods like Shaw; territories that often contain an unruly past.

Dr. Holmes is currently postdoctoral fellow of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia.

This event was co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology and by the LGBT Studies, Historic Preservation, and Urban Studies and Planning Programs.  Please contact Dr. Christina Hanhardt or Dr. Mary Corbin Sies for more information.

Monday, March 26: Book Signing and Presentation of Latinos in American Society: Families and Communities in Transition by Ruth Enid Zambrana

Tuesday, March 27: Documentary Screening of The Rights of the Butterflies followed by discussion with guests from the Gandhi Brigade and Casa de Maryland moderated by Dr. Perla Guerrero.

Wednesday, March 28: “Latina Immigrant Rights and Prison Abolition: A Necessary Conversation” presented by  USLT Keynote Speaker, Dr. Martha Escobar from California State University, Northridge

Thursday, March 29: Mi Cuerpo/Struggles of the Flesh: Embodiment, Self Image, and Reclaiming the Latina Body.  A conversation/community art project among Latinas focusing on how Latina bodies are constructed in relation to U.S. popular culture images.

Friday, March 30: Latinas and Academia: Consejos and Graduate School Preparation.  Join Semana de la Latina graduate students and faculty in a conversation about our experiences in academia as Latinas and helpful advice about preparing for graduate school.

For more information please contact Maria Elena Vargas at mvargas5@umd.edu.

When:         Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Where:       Shoemaker  0114

Event Type(s) : Diversity

Creating healthy bodies requires a redefinition of the food stories that define our cultures.  If we accept that this is true, then humanities scholars can intervene in questions of nutrition and food policy by discouraging people from demonizing and degrading the foods that help to create and sustain our communities.  Rather than urging people people to change what they eat, a more effective approach may be to help communities incorporate more healthful preparation techniques and ingredients into foods already rich in cultural meaning.  This interactive discussion is designed to weigh issues like abandoning culturally specific foods like corn pudding in favor of the “naturally fresh” salad.  It encourages us to consider an “and”/”or” versus a paper vs. plastic mentality.  All perspectives are welcome!

For more information, contact:

Jingqing Liu

+1 301 461 6724

pandaljq@umd.edu

• Dr. Jason Farman, author of Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space & Locative Media (Routledge)
• Dr. Katie King, author of Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledge Tells (Duke)
• Dr. Jo Paoletti, author of Pink & Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America (Indiana)

The event will be on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 7th, from 2-4pm in the Women’s Studies Conference Room in Woods Hall.  A question and answer session will follow the discussion.

Jason Farman
Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media (Routledge, 2011).

Katie King
Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledges Tell (Duke, 2011)

Jo Paoletti
Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America (Indiana University Press, 2012)

Light fare will be available; cash bar featuring Franklin’s award-winning brews.
This event is open to the public.

The event is free but requires tickets for entry.  Please call (410) 617-5757 or visit http://www.loyola.edu/mlkconvocation/12/ for more information.