{"id":7199,"date":"2016-02-24T14:49:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T18:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=7199"},"modified":"2025-05-06T08:34:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:34:51","slug":"blacknesscolloquium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/blacknesscolloquium\/","title":{"rendered":"Colloquium About Blackness to Occur at Kalamazoo College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7200\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7200 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle.jpg\" alt=\"Colloquium About Blackness at K\" width=\"400\" height=\"644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle-186x300.jpg 186w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>Kalamazoo College will present the <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/ethnicstudies\/events\/\"><strong>Physics of Blackness Colloquium<\/strong><\/a> on March 31 and April 1. March 31 features a lecture (7 p.m. in Dalton Theatre) by Michelle M. Wright, Professor of African American Studies and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University, and author of <em>The Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology<\/em>. Wright\u2019s lecture is titled &#8220;Blackness by Other Names: Beyond Linear Histories.&#8221; On the next day (April 1, 5 p.m. in the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership) will follow an interactive event developed by the Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers. That group includes <strong>Justin Berry<\/strong>, assistant professor of political science; <strong>Nakeya Boyles \u201916<\/strong>; <strong>Quincy Crosby \u201917<\/strong>; <strong>Reid G\u00f3mez<\/strong>, the Mellon visiting assistant professor of ethnic studies; <strong>Allia Howard \u201917<\/strong>; <strong>Bruce Mills<\/strong>, professor of English; and <strong>Shanna Salinas<\/strong>, assistant professor of English. &#8220;Wright looks at the argument of race, particularly Blackness, and the ways that argument plays out in economic, political and physically embodied ways,&#8221; says G\u00f3mez. &#8220;Her work will help us look at differences within difference and move beyond thinking in categories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to G\u00f3mez, the colloquium will stress three themes, all of which relate to one another: horizontal connections instead of vertical frameworks; the inability of temporally linear progress narratives (which often structure the notion of Blackness) alone to realize the broad and complicated truth and meaningfulness of Blackness; and a &#8220;See Me-Hear Me&#8221; approach during the colloquium that will ask participants to enter each others\u2019 lives in meaningful ways. Wright\u2019s book uses concepts from physics to expand thinking and discussion beyond linearity that makes &#8220;it difficult to understand or accept people, places, or event that do not easily fit inside a single narrative,&#8221; explains G\u00f3mez. Toward that end G\u00f3mez has helped facilitate &#8220;The Physics of Blackness at Kalamazoo College,&#8221; a blog in the form of a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/physicsofblackness.blogspot.com\/\">mosaic<\/a><\/strong> that makes approaching the subject of Blackness nonlinear and dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>Nonlinearity is the true nature of the physical universe, wrote G\u00f3mez in a summary of Wright\u2019s book. Such nonlinearity doesn\u2019t preclude all cause and effect, but instead complicates it. G\u00f3mez writes that Wright &#8220;cautions against cause and effect laws that make history solely the consequence of oppression, where Blackness only appears in terms of resistance to, or the direct result of, that oppression.&#8221; The ability to think and discuss freed from such overly narrow restrictions allows us to &#8220;reimagine choice and agency in relationship to Blackness,&#8221; says G\u00f3mez, &#8220;the choice to \u2019notice and wonder\u2019 at what is left out of linear progress narratives, and to conceive of self outside those terms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers group invites colloquium participants to help one another prepare for the event by sharing talking points, images and points of entry into Wright\u2019s theory via <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/_bmp._\/\">Instagram _bmp._<\/a><\/strong> and <strong>Twitter @_bmpo_<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kalamazoo College will present the Physics of Blackness Colloquium on March 31 and April 1. March 31 features a lecture (7 p.m. in Dalton Theatre) by Michelle M. Wright, Professor of African American Studies and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University, and author of The Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology. Wright\u2019s lecture [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[234],"tags":[43,54,144,39,44,24,20,38],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-7199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-community","tag-english","tag-ethnic-studies","tag-faculty","tag-humanities","tag-sciences","tag-social-justice","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Colloquium About Blackness to Occur at Kalamazoo College - News and Events<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kalamazoo College will present the Physics of Blackness Colloquium on March 31 and April 1. 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aria-label=\"archive of category Events\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/events\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Events<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/community\/\" rel=\"tag\">community<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/english\/\" rel=\"tag\">English<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/ethnic-studies\/\" rel=\"tag\">Ethnic Studies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/faculty\/\" rel=\"tag\">faculty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/humanities\/\" rel=\"tag\">humanities<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/sciences\/\" rel=\"tag\">sciences<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/social-justice\/\" rel=\"tag\">social justice<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/students\/\" rel=\"tag\">students<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/blacknesscolloquium\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/blacknesscolloquium\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/blacknesscolloquium\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7200\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7200 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2016\/02\/olloquiumArticle.jpg\" alt=\"Colloquium About Blackness at K\" width=\"400\" height=\"644\" \/><\/a>Kalamazoo College will present the <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/ethnicstudies\/events\/\"><strong>Physics of Blackness Colloquium<\/strong><\/a> on March 31 and April 1. March 31 features a lecture (7 p.m. in Dalton Theatre) by Michelle M. Wright, Professor of African American Studies and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University, and author of <em>The Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology<\/em>. Wright\u2019s lecture is titled &#8220;Blackness by Other Names: Beyond Linear Histories.&#8221; On the next day (April 1, 5 p.m. in the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership) will follow an interactive event developed by the Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers. That group includes <strong>Justin Berry<\/strong>, assistant professor of political science; <strong>Nakeya Boyles \u201916<\/strong>; <strong>Quincy Crosby \u201917<\/strong>; <strong>Reid G\u00f3mez<\/strong>, the Mellon visiting assistant professor of ethnic studies; <strong>Allia Howard \u201917<\/strong>; <strong>Bruce Mills<\/strong>, professor of English; and <strong>Shanna Salinas<\/strong>, assistant professor of English. &#8220;Wright looks at the argument of race, particularly Blackness, and the ways that argument plays out in economic, political and physically embodied ways,&#8221; says G\u00f3mez. &#8220;Her work will help us look at differences within difference and move beyond thinking in categories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to G\u00f3mez, the colloquium will stress three themes, all of which relate to one another: horizontal connections instead of vertical frameworks; the inability of temporally linear progress narratives (which often structure the notion of Blackness) alone to realize the broad and complicated truth and meaningfulness of Blackness; and a &#8220;See Me-Hear Me&#8221; approach during the colloquium that will ask participants to enter each others\u2019 lives in meaningful ways. Wright\u2019s book uses concepts from physics to expand thinking and discussion beyond linearity that makes &#8220;it difficult to understand or accept people, places, or event that do not easily fit inside a single narrative,&#8221; explains G\u00f3mez. Toward that end G\u00f3mez has helped facilitate &#8220;The Physics of Blackness at Kalamazoo College,&#8221; a blog in the form of a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/physicsofblackness.blogspot.com\/\">mosaic<\/a><\/strong> that makes approaching the subject of Blackness nonlinear and dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>Nonlinearity is the true nature of the physical universe, wrote G\u00f3mez in a summary of Wright\u2019s book. Such nonlinearity doesn\u2019t preclude all cause and effect, but instead complicates it. G\u00f3mez writes that Wright &#8220;cautions against cause and effect laws that make history solely the consequence of oppression, where Blackness only appears in terms of resistance to, or the direct result of, that oppression.&#8221; The ability to think and discuss freed from such overly narrow restrictions allows us to &#8220;reimagine choice and agency in relationship to Blackness,&#8221; says G\u00f3mez, &#8220;the choice to \u2019notice and wonder\u2019 at what is left out of linear progress narratives, and to conceive of self outside those terms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers group invites colloquium participants to help one another prepare for the event by sharing talking points, images and points of entry into Wright\u2019s theory via <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/_bmp._\/\">Instagram _bmp._<\/a><\/strong> and <strong>Twitter @_bmpo_<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7199"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24770,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions\/24770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=7199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}