Events Archives - Page 30 of 38

Honors Day 2014

Posted on November 4, 2014March 23, 2022

Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who received awards during the Honors Day Convocation, October 31, 2014, in Stetson Chapel. The awards include all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships, and special non-departmental awards. The Honors Day Convocation occurs annually, during the Friday community gathering of Family Weekend.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

THE BRIAN GOUGEON PRIZE IN ART, awarded to a sophomore student who, during his or her first year, exhibited outstanding achievement and potential in art.
Chiara Sarter
Petra Stoppel
Anja Xheka
Jie Xu

THE LILLIAN PRINGLE BALDAUF PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded to an outstanding music student.
Valentin Frank

THE FAN E. SHERWOOD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for outstanding progress and ability on the violin, viola, cello or bass.
Siwook Hwang

THE MARGARET UPTON PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded each year to a student designated by the Music Department Faculty as having made significant achievement in music.
Gabrielle Holme-Miller
Ian Williams

THE COOPER AWARD, for a junior or senior showing excellence in a piece of creative work in a theatre arts class: film, acting, design, stagecraft, puppetry, speech.
Kathryn Lee
Victoria Sebastian

THE THEATRE ARTS FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AWARD, given to a sophomore for outstanding departmental efforts during the first year.
Emma Franzel
Sarah Levett

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION

THE LEGRAND COPLEY PRIZE IN FRENCH, awarded to the sophomore who, as a first-year student, demonstrated the greatest achievement in French.
Maribel Blas-Rangel
Ellie Goldman
Gabrielle Holme-Miller

THE HARDY FUCHS AWARD, given for excellence in first-year German.
Yicong Guo

THE MARGO LIGHT AWARD, given for excellence in second-or third-year German.
Emily Walsh

THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN SPANISH, awarded for excellence in the first year in Spanish.
Shanice Buys
Olivia Weaver

THE CLARA H. BUCKLEY PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN LATIN, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the ancient Romans.
Danielle Gin
Alec Wright

THE PROVOST’S PRIZE IN CLASSICS, awarded to that student who writes the best essay on a classical subject.
Anup Bhullar
Marquis Griffin

HUMANITIES DIVISION

THE O. M. ALLEN PRIZE IN ENGLISH, given for the best essay written by a member of the first-year class.
Sara McKinney

THE JOHN B. WICKSTROM PRIZE IN HISTORY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in history.
Shanice Buys
Frances Heldt

THE VOYNOVICH COMPETITIVE SCHOLARSHIP, awarded to a first-year, sophomore or junior who writes the most creative essay based on a selected topic in the alternating areas of religion and science.
Ayaka Abe

THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in philosophy.
Andres ElAmin-Martinez
Jenna Sexton
Sarah Werner

THE L.J. AND EVA (“GIBBIE”) HEMMES MEMORIAL PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY, awarded to that sophomore who, in the first year, showed the greatest promise for continuing studies in philosophy
Jon Jerow
Caroline Peterson
James Reuter
John Wenger

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

THE WINIFRED PEAKE JONES PRIZE IN BIOLOGY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in biology.
Quinton Colwell
Kathleen George
Grace Smith
Eric Thornburg

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in chemistry.
Collin Steen

THE FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY AWARD, awarded to a sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated great achievement in chemistry.
Quinton Colwell
Emily Powers
Raoul Wadhwa

THE LEMUEL F. SMITH AWARD, given to a student majoring in chemistry pursuing the American Chemical Society approved curriculum and having at the end of the junior year the highest average standing in courses taken in chemistry, physics,and mathematics.
Daniel Karn

THE COMPUTER SCIENCE PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in computer science.
Liam Lundy
Griffin Smalley

THE FIRST-YEAR MATHEMATICS AWARD, given annually to the sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated the greatest achievement in mathematics.
Ngoc Truong

THE THOMAS O. WALTON PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS, awarded to a member of the junior class for excellence in the work of the first two years in mathematics.
Sarah Manski

THE COOPER PRIZE IN PHYSICS, given for excellence in the first year’s work in physics.
Nicholas Caywood
Daniel Moore
Katherine Pielemeier
Siyuan Zhang

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

THE DEPARTMENTAL PRIZE IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY, awarded for excellence during the first and/or second year’s work.
Sheila Carter
Daniella Glymin
Audrey Negro
Eli Seitz
Yaneli Soriano

THE WILLIAM G. HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in economics or business.
Philip Mulder
Emerson Talanda-Fisher
Scott Wharam

THE C. WALLACE LAWRENCE PRIZE IN ECONOMICS, awarded annually to a pre-business student who has done outstanding work in the Department of Economics and Business during the sophomore year.
Drew Hopper
William Cagney

THE IRENE AND S. KYLE MORRIS PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s courses in the Department of Economics and Business.
Robert Calco

THE WILLIAM G. HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in political science.
Melissa Erikson

THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY FIRST-YEAR STUDENT PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in psychology.
Sarah Bragg
Rachel Lifton
Ashley Schmidt

THE MARSHALL HALLOCK BRENNER PRIZE, given by family and friends in memory of Marshall Hallock Brenner (class of 1955), to be awarded to an outstanding junior for excellence in the study of psychology.
Alexandra Groffsky

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

THE DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION PRIZE, awarded to those students who, as first-year students, best combined leadership and scholarship in promoting athletics, physical education, and recreation.
Grace Smith
Andrew Kaylor

THE MAGGIE WARDLE PRIZE, awarded to that sophomore woman whose activities at the College reflect the values that Maggie Wardle demonstrated in her own life. The recipient will show a breadth of involvement in the College through her commitment to athletics and to the social sciences and/or community service.
Rachel Selina

SPECIAL COLLEGE AWARDS

THE GORDON BEAUMONT MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to the deserving student who displays qualities of selflessness, humanitarian concern, and willingness to help others, as exemplified in the life of Gordon Beaumont.
Kacey Cook
Bronte Payne

THE HENRY AND INEZ BROWN PRIZE, awarded in recognition of outstanding participation in the College community.
David DeSimone
Tibin John

THE VIRGINIA HINKELMAN MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to a deserving student who displays a deep concern for the well-being of children, as demonstrated through career goals in the field of child welfare.
Mele Makalo

“Wherefore art thou …?”

Posted on October 29, 2014March 23, 2022

Jenna Wood, Madison Donoho and Benvolio rehearsing — The clash of love and the world manifests in passion and violence in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. One fight scene beguiles (l-r) Tybalt (Jenna Wood ’16), Mercutio (Madison Donoho ’17), and Benvolio (Emma Franzel ’17). Costumes by Elaine Kauffman. Photo by Lanford Potts

Things are not always what they seem–and names (“What’s in a name?”) do not fully define identity. Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College opens its 51st season with a classic, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and with more, or less, historical accuracy than some would expect.

Originally, Shakespeare’s plays were performed exclusively by male actors playing both male and female roles. “Shakespeare’s male actors were not trying to lampoon women or comment on them. Rather, those actors were trying to behave truthfully in imaginary circumstances–they just happened to be playing women,” explains Todd Espeland, guest director.

Today, there are almost always more female actresses than male actors, so Espeland has decided to reverse the genders of the actors. Juliet is being played by a young man–as would have been the case in Elizabethan times–but Romeo will be played by a young woman. The experiment will deepen the experience of the play, Shakespeare’s first foray into the genre of tragedy.

“One of my jobs as a director in educational theatre is to provide the best experiences possible to grow and educate my students as well as our audiences,” says Espeland. “What we hope to do is look at the various ways power is a function of gender.”

“Now that I’m suddenly in many extremely powerless positions as Juliet, I’ve had to change my physicality,” says Thaddeus Buttrey ’17. “This is an extremely challenging role that puts me far out of my comfort zone, but it will make me a better performer, a better thinker.”

In the play, unclear thinking and rash decisions result in a variety of clashes, including sword fights. “I have learned a lot about how gender roles can sometimes influence action and the language that we use,” says Lindsay Worthington’17. “This has made me reflect on its role in my life outside the theatre.”

Because of its notoriety, the play challenges designers as well. “As a scenic and lighting designer, it has been fun to work on one of the most well-known plays in the English language and still make it original,” says Katelyn Anderson ’15. Others on the design team include Elaine Kauffman (costumes) and Arik Mendelevitz ’15 (sound). The fight scenes were choreographed by Jon Reeves.

The show opens on Thursday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. and runs Friday and Saturday, November 7-8 at 8 p.m. The show’s final performance is Sunday, November 9, at 2 p.m. For ticket reservations, please call 269.337.7333. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for seniors and $15 for other adults; they may also be purchased at the door. For more information about the 51st season at Festival Playhouse, call 269.337.7333 or visit online.

Jewish Studies Program Sponsors Panel Discussion

Posted on October 2, 2014March 23, 2022

Director of Jewish Studies Jeff Haus speaking with students

On Wednesday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m., the Jewish Studies program at Kalamazoo College will host a panel discussion titled, “Boycott Divestment Sanctions: Alternative Narratives.” The discussion will take place in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room and is free and open to the public. This program will add to the campus discussion of the issue of boycotts and divestment targeting Israeli companies and academics by placing the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a broader political and historical context. The panel will also consider the implications of some of the rhetoric surrounding the BDS movement.

Participants include historian Kenneth Waltzer and political scientist Yael Aronoff, both members of the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State University (Aronoff is the present director of the program, and Waltzer is her immediate predecessor), and political scientist Amy Elman, the Weber Professor in Social Science at Kalamazoo College. Both Waltzer and Aronoff will consider the issue of Jewish self-determination (which is often left out of BDS discussions), and provide a critical assessment of BDS and its implications. Elman’s presentation will discuss her recent research on the European Union and its policies toward Israel and Jews, and the inherent contradictions contained therein. Jeffrey Haus, director of Jewish Studies at Kalamazoo College, will moderate the program, which will also include a question and answer period for the audience.

Breaking down and crossing borders at “Art & Borders” performance

Posted on September 27, 2014February 5, 2025

For a moment, it was hard to distinguish reality from performance.

Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Michèle Ceballos Michot walk through a door in a wall of windows and onto a concrete porch at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Gómez-Peña lights a cigarette. Michot lifts a pickaxe and places the handle behind her neck, begins a series of stretches, then eases the pick down her neck, the point of it pressing a line into her skin.

It turns out it was just a pre-performance warm-up. But with an international reputation for performance art that precedes them both by miles, it’s easy to believe otherwise – or at least want to. A short while later, the plenary “Art and Borders,” began, one of several sessions on the first full day of the “With/Out Borders” conference hosted by the Arcus Center.

Michot begins a dance routine, a stand of tall trees glowing in afternoon sunlight framed in the glass wall behind her. She powders herself, then grabs a handful of powder and lets it sift through her fingers and into her mouth. After tip-toeing around the stage area, and sprawling out on her stomach, gasping, she enters the crowd, climbing over chairs and falling into the arms of a man whose face turns pink with blushing, places her behind in another man’s lap, reaching down to pick up his Starbucks drink, and takes a sip.

Actors perform during Arts and Borders at Arcus Center — Art & Borders became the first theatrical performance at K’s new Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

No one is off limits. All of the 100 or so in attendance are living props, it seems, characters in this improvised dance. There are no borders.

Meanwhile, Gómez-Peña, dressed in all black, eyes behind sunglasses, a black line drawn across his face, reads from a poem, the moving prose deriding the treatment of immigrants (“We shape your desire while we contract our services to postpone the real expulsion”) recognize the borders we put around ourselves (“We are equally scared of one another”) and realize the healing, paradigm shifting, immense power of art to break down those borders (“You just can’t take our art away).”

Later, Gómez-Peña and Adriana Garriga-Lopez, K’s Arcus Center chair and assistant professor of anthropology, participate in a question and answer session, the format of which, again, breaks through the borders of what is considered normal.

Gómez-Peña wears a dog collar attached to a chain that Garriga-Lopez is holding. She queries him on his motivations for performance art and what he hopes it achieves.

“How do you view the body?” Garriga-Lopez asks.

“The performance artist sees the body as a landscape, a map, an architectural artifact, mythological creature, text,” Gómez-Peña says.

“Do you see yourself as a poet, or a dancer, or a performance artist, or an activist? Or are all those things the same thing?” Garriga-Lopez asks.

She tugs at the chain.

“Are you choking me?” Gómez-Peña says. “I am this and that and everything in between.”

“What are you like in your personal life?” Garriga-Lopez asks.

“When I’m on stage, I’m more warrior-like, more Indian shaman, a little more queer, more deliberate and outrageous. And off-stage, I am just another perplexed mediocre human being.”

Perhaps. But like the start of his performance, it’s hard to tell.

Learn more about Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Michèle Ceballos Michot at www.pochanostra.com.

With/Out ¿Borders? Opens Thursday

Posted on September 24, 2014March 23, 2022

More than 500 social justice advocates, scholars and leaders ranging from civil rights icons and eccentric artists to young organizers and poet laureates will be on the Kalamazoo College campus, as well as locations throughout the city, this weekend, Sept. 25-28 to participate in the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) “With/Out ¿Borders?” conference.

Attendees will engage in questioning–and openly attempt to complicate –the political, ideological, cultural, and social barriers that make up our world. Thought-provoking plenary sessions, participatory think tanks, and moving and entertaining artistic performances are just some of the diverse and engaging platforms that will be used to question the borders that surround so much of our world today–and develop paradigms and strategies to break them down.

Well-known performance artists and cultural workers Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Michèle Ceballos Michot, whom make up the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra, will be on stage on Friday afternoon with Adriana Garriga-López, the Arcus Social Justice Leadership Assistant Professor of Anthropology. The trio will discuss, instigate, and agitate on the meaning of border politics, performance, and the role of art in the process.

Later that day, the conference will take on a more poetic note, as two well-known poets read form their work and engage with local poet and activist Denise Miller and Lisa Brock, academic director of the ACSJL.

Nikki Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry, and Keorapetse “Willie” Kgositsile, former poet laureate of South Africa, will bear witness to history and exile and set the stage alive with “truth telling” and love poems crafted out of the struggles of black people from both the southern areas of the United States and South Africa.

Civil rights icon Angela Davis will take to the stage on Saturday morning, along with distinguished African American studies expert Robin D. G. Kelley, peace activists Lynn Pollack and Leenah Odeh and academics Alex Lubin and Saree Makdisi, to discuss the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Movement emerging globally in support of the Palestinian people, who live in walled, or “bordered” territories.

Participants in this plenary session will ask if the BDS movement is the next critical solidarity movement of our time, who it’s for, who it’s against, and why.

Cities will take center stage later Saturday, when a plenary of scholars and organizers examine resistance movements in cities today. Organizer and writer Kali Akuno, Detroit-based activist shea howell and David Stovall, professor of African-American studies, will discuss teacher protests in Chicago, water rights issues in Detroit, city planning strategies in Jackson, Miss., and minimum-wage increase advocacy efforts nationwide at this plenary moderated by Rhonda Williams, associate professor of History at Case Western University.

The future of various social justice movements will be on display in the Hicks Center Banquet Room Sunday morning, where a host of young social justice advocates and organizers will discuss their own projects, talk about the need for more youth to become involved and analyze the New Youth Movement.

Civil rights organizers Phillip Agnew and Charlene Carruthers, undocumented immigrant advocate Lulu Martinez, climate change organizer Will Lawrence, sexual assault awareness organizer Zoe Ridolfi-Starr and voting rights advocate Sean Estelle will be in on the discussion, moderated by the Mia Henry, executive director of the ACSJL.

For a full list of events, go to the conference’s schedule page.

Arcus Center Building Dedication is Open to the Public, Friday Sept. 19, 4:00 p.m.

Posted on September 18, 2014February 5, 2025

Kalamazoo College hosts a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 P.M., Friday Sept. 19, for the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership building at 205 Monroe St., at the corner of Academy St. in Kalamazoo, Mich. The 10,000 sq. ft. structure—the newest on the K campus—was constructed by Miller-Davis Company of Kalamazoo and designed by Studio Gang Architects of Chicago.

The dedication event is free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to park in the K Athletics Fields parking lot, 1600 W. Michigan Ave., and take continuously operating shuttle vans to the ceremony.

Speakers will include Charlotte Hall ’66, chair, K board of trustees; Jon Stryker ’82, K trustee; Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang Architects; Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, K president; and Cameron Goodall ’15, K student commission president.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will include Carol Anderson, K professor of religion and chair of the Department of Religion; Lisa Brock, academic director of K’s Arcus Center; and Mia Henry, executive director of K’s Arcus Center.

Refreshments and an open house in the new building follow.

The Arcus Center building features offices, work areas, and classroom/seminar spaces situated around a central hearth and kitchen area. Wooden benches around the central fireplace preserve and repurpose wood from the site’s trees. The building’s structural frame includes 680 pieces of steel—many curved, some in two planes, and no two alike.

The building’s three-sided form emphasizes academic learning, relationships with the natural world, and interdependency of communities. A predominance of curvature represents arms open to all to join in social justice work.

The exterior cordwood masonry construction—northern Michigan white cedar logs of varying diameter in 11- to 36-inch lengths—symbolizes the diversity of humanity. While cordwood construction is traditional to the upper Midwest, this is believed to be the first commercial or institutional structure in North America to employ this technique.

The College will seek Gold LEED certification for the new building. Its geothermal heating and cooling system (12 wells drilled to a depth of 400 feet) meets the College’s stringent energy efficiency standard. A radiant and forced convection heating system transforms the Center’s entire floor into a heat duct, with air movement undetectable to the senses. Onsite drainage and retention reduces storm water runoff.

K gratefully acknowledges Steelcase Inc. and Custer Workplace Interiors for their generosity in helping supply office furnishings for the new Arcus Center building.

The Arcus Center building and its $5 million construction cost is a gift to the College from Jon Stryker, a member of the K board of trustees and of the K class of 1982. Jon is founder and president of the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org), a private, global grant-making organization with offices in New York City, Kalamazoo, and Cambridge, U.K., that supports the advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights, and conservation of the world’s great apes. Jon is a founding board member of the Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya, Save the Chimps in Ft. Pierce, Fla., and Greenleaf Trust, a trust bank in Kalamazoo. He also serves on the board of the Friends of the Highline in New York City. Jon is a registered architect in the State of Michigan. He earned a B.A. degree in biology from K and a M.A. degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang is the founder of Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based collective of architects, designers, and thinkers practicing internationally. Jeanne uses architecture as a medium of active response to contemporary issues and their impact on human experience. Each of her projects resonates with its specific site and culture while addressing larger global themes such as urbanization, climate, and sustainability. With this approach, Studio Gang has produced some of today’s most innovative and visually compelling architecture. The firm’s projects range from tall buildings like the Aqua Tower, whose façade encourages building community in the vertical dimension, to the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, where 14 acres of biodiverse habitat are designed to double as storm water infrastructure and engaging public space.

Founded in 1909, Miller-Davis Company is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., with an additional office in South Bend, Ind. It is a full-service construction company providing general contracting, construction management, design-build, and construction consulting services. Miller-Davis has served as the construction manager on numerous Kalamazoo College projects for more than 80 years. In addition to the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, these projects include Upjohn Library Commons, Hicks Student Center, the K Natatorium, Stetson Chapel, Mandelle Administration Building, Hoben Residence Hall, and Trowbridge Residence Hall.

The mission of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (www.kzoo.edu/socialjustice) is to support the pursuit of human rights and social justice by developing emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice, creating a pivotal role for liberal arts education in engendering amore just world. The Arcus Center was established at Kalamazoo College in 2009 through generous funding from the Arcus Foundation. In 2012, the College received a $23 million grant from the Foundation to endow the Center’s activities.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts and sciences college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

Working Together to End Violence

Posted on September 10, 2014February 5, 2025

Kalamazoo College’s Ethnic Studies program is collaborating with the student organization, Sexual Safety and Support Alliance, and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) to present “Working Together to End Violence.” The event will occur on Friday, September 26, at 2:35 p.m. in the ACSJL building on K’s campus, and it will feature a viewing and discussion of the film Hearing Radmilla. The film was produced and edited by Angela Webb and documents the turbulent reign of Radmilla Cody, Miss Navajo Nation 1997-98, and the first biracial person to hold that title. The film chronicles her development as the goodwill and cultural ambassador of the Navajo Nation and her success as an award-winning vocal artist. Later Cody was sentenced to 21 months in a federal corrections facility for misprision of a felony, essentially concealing knowledge of a crime. The extenuating circumstances included an abusive boyfriend involved in marijuana trafficking. When Cody was released in 2004 she became a passionate activist against domestic violence. Both Webb and Cody will attend and participate in the discussion, which is part of the social justice leadership center’s With/Out ¿Borders? Conference.

The film offers an unparalleled treatment of race and gender in the U.S., according to Reid Gomez, who directs the College’s Ethnic Studies program and will serve as the moderator of the event. “No other film crosses the firm racial boundaries that police the categories of Black and Indian. Significantly, the film also addresses the epidemic of domestic violence and the singular position of women in prison.”

The issue of domestic violence has been prominent recently as a result of developments in the case of former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice and his wife Janay Palmer Rice. But the issue is longstanding and particularly acute for indigenous women. “According to a U.N. report, indigenous women are eight times more likely to be murdered that non-indigenous women,” said Gomez. “The violence against Black and Indian/indigenous women has largely been ignored, disavowed, and rendered invisible.”

Gomez has high praise for the film. “Webb was able to tell Cody’s complex story (of colonialism, racism, and domestic violence) without resorting to any grotesque display or to the erotics of terror.”

Cities in Revolt: Ferguson and Beyond — Conference at Kalamazoo College Will Explore Complex Threads of Racial Injustice, Reconciliation, and Healing

Posted on September 5, 2014March 23, 2022

The complex issues surrounding the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., are sure to be discussed and analyzed for years to come. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College is making an early contribution to the discussion by convening leaders from many social justice fields—including some who have been on the ground at Ferguson and sites of other civil engagement—to explore policing, restorative justice, and resistance movements that are growing in American cities today.

Two major discussions are offered as part of the “With/Out – ¿Borders? Conference” hosted by the Arcus Center that will also explore other hot–button issues such as youth immigration and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., a think tank titled “Policing, Racial Profiling, and Restorative Justice” will be held at the Douglass Community Association, 1200 W. Paterson St. in Kalamazoo. Discussion leaders include:

Frank Chapman, Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression
Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Cooperation Jackson
Patrisse Cullors, Coalition to End Sheriff Violence in LA Jails
Ria Fay-Berquist, Leadership from the Inside Out
Mia Henry, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
Ryan Lugalia-Hollon, co-executive director of Youth Safety and Violence Prevention, YMCA, Metro Chicago

On Saturday, Sept. 27, from 1:40 to 3:10 p.m., a plenary session titled “Cities in Revolt!” will look at a range of racial and urban concerns, including policing, racial vigilantism, privatization, and political and economic disenfranchisement. Participants include:

Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Cooperation Jackson
shea howell, Detroit activist, professor, and chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.
David Stovall, education activist and associate professor of educational policy studies and African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Rhonda Williams (moderator), founding director of the Social Justice Institute and associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Borders are being questioned and, in some cases, challenged, everywhere,” said Lisa Brock, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Kalamazoo College and academic director of the Arcus Center. “Globalization and privatization are creating new borders between those who have access to education, food, clean water and those who do not.

“Do all citizens have equal right to participate without threat of a militaristic response?” she asks. “Scholars and grassroots activists working on these questions will address these and other issues facing cities today.”

All activists, artists, students, researchers, and others are invited to attend the “With/Out – ¿Borders? Conference.”

Preregistration is required to attend these events. Registration is on a sliding scale from $35 to $125 and registration closes Monday, Sept. 8. Space is limited, and interested persons are urged to register as soon as possible.

Accessibility and translation services can be made available upon request.

The mission of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership is to support the pursuit of human rights and social justice by developing emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice, creating a pivotal role for liberal arts education in engendering a more just world.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts and sciences college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

Convocation 2014

Posted on August 28, 2014March 23, 2022

With this ceremony we formally welcome the matriculating class into the Kalamazoo College community. President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Provost Michael McDonald, Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido, faculty, staff, and peer leaders welcome new students and their families. Brad O’Neill ’93, chief executive officer and co-founder of TechValidate Software (Berkeley, California), will deliver the keynote address. Convocation concludes with all new students signing the Matriculation Book. In case of rain, families may watch convocation in the Dalton Theatre.

“Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” movement against Israel will be discussed at Kalamazoo College conference

Posted on August 27, 2014March 23, 2022

From the 1950s through the 1980s, global activists organized economic boycotts, academic boycotts, and divestment campaigns to pressure South Africa’s government into abandoning its official policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid.

Today, a growing movement uses similar tactics against Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as recent actions that have caused the death of more than 2,000 Palestinians and the injury and dislocation of many more.

Israel and its supporters say its actions are required for national security and the safety of its citizens, and that the so-called “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” (BDS) movement is misguided.

The legitimacy, effectiveness, and future of the BDS movement will be among the issues explored by a plenary panel of leading activists and scholars at Kalamazoo College, as part of the With/Out – ¿Borders? Conference, September 25-28, hosted by the College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

The event is titled “Critical Solidarities: The Palestinian Question” and will be held Saturday, September 27, at 9:30 am. Panelists include:

Activist and scholar Angela Davis, distinguished professor emerita in the departments of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Alex Lubin, professor and chair of the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico, and a former director for the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut.

Lynn Pollack, a long-time peace activist and board member of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Saree Makdisi, professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA, and author of “Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation” and other books.

Leena Odeh (moderator), a Chicago-based activist who has spent the past year in Beirut and has contributed eyewitness accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to ElectronicIntifada.net.

The event is offered as part of the With/Out – ¿Borders? Conference that will explore other hot-button issues including youth immigration and the prison-industrial complex.

With/Out – ¿Borders? is billed as both a conference and “un-conference,” according to Lisa Brock, academic director of K’s Arcus Center.

“In addition to formal presentations, there will be performances, films, and informal spaces where attendees may share learning, give impromptu demonstrations, begin public discussions, stage a performance, and more,” said Brock

All activists, artists, students, researchers, and others interested in international movements and social justice are invited to attend the With/Out – ¿Borders? Conference. Registration is on a sliding scale from $35 to $125, and group rates are available. Space is limited, and interested persons are urged to register as soon as possible.

Accessibility and translation services available upon request.