African American Read-In
The National African American Read-In encourages communities to read together, centering African American books and authors.
This year will featuring two sets, one from Dat Poetry Lounge reading original works and the other from the Black Student Union. All faculty, staff and students are welcome to participate. Contributions can be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, music, lyrics, etc. The event will continue through 4 p.m.
The Read-in was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month.
Anyone who wishes to participate is welcome; please sign up for a reading time by Feb. 12.
Microscholarship webinar: Justice and social change
Alumni are invited to learn more about what Augustana has done, is doing and planning to impact justice and social change.
Dr. Monica Smith, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, and W. Kent Barnds, executive vice president of external relations, will explain how Augustana worked and planned through the unrest in the summer of 2020 to serve students.
Dr. Smith will review the programming offered throughout the summer and fall. She and Barnds will describe the new Justice and Social Change Microscholarship program. It is designed to prepare new students for the complex discussions that happen at Augustana, and to show alumni working for justice and social change.
Artful Computing virtual art show
The class of CSC 150: Artful Computing class will hold a virtual art show twice today, from 10:15-11:45 a.m. and 2:15-3:45 p.m.
Student artists will give 5-minute presentations about their final project art exhibits, together with 5 minutes of Q&A after each piece. Their work in the class is computer-generated artwork (2D, 3D, interactive, movies, etc.)
Artful Computing virtual art show
The class of CSC 150: Artful Computing class will hold a virtual art show twice today, from 10:15-11:45 a.m. and 2:15-3:45 p.m.
Student artists will give 5-minute presentations about their final project art exhibits, together with 5 minutes of Q&A after each piece. Their work in the class is computer-generated artwork (2D, 3D, interactive, movies, etc.)
Justice and Indigenous Communities
Drs. Jane Simonsen, Adam Kaul, and Chris Strunk will offer an informative and interactive discussion: Justice and Indigenous Communities.
Using the film "Gather" to anchor the discussion, they will discuss the correlations between food, sustainability of indigenous cultures and justice.
Members of the Augustana community are invited to view "Gather" between Feb. 12-15 and then participate in the follow-up discussion to be held virtually.
"Gather" documents the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty. It serves as an introduction to historical traumas endured by indigenous nations and peoples even as it emphasizes ongoing efforts to sustain their cultures through food.
The film follows an Apache chief as he attempts to re-establish traditional foodways on his reservation, a young Lakota woman as she studies the effects of the destruction of the buffalo on her people's diet, and Yurok boys who battle a dam on the Klamath River.
The film and discussion is part of the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s justice, peace, and racial healing initiative.
Class Notes
Alumni share their latest news!
Tea Talk: 'Miss Me with the Misogynoir': Combating Anti-Black Gendered Racism through Black Women's Literature, Poetry, and Music
The first Tea Talk of 2021 — “Miss Me with the Misogynoir": Combating Anti-Black Gendered Racism through Black Women's Literature, Poetry, and Music — will be presented by Dr. Ashley Burge.
The annual Tea Talks are sponsored by Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Description: Malcolm X famously said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman."
Black women have been historically plagued by what Moya Bailey calls "misogynoir,” the "anti-black racist misogyny that Black women experience."
This talk will explore Black women's literature, poetry, essays, and music as avenues of empowerment in the midst of anti-Black gendered racism.
Dr. Burge will explore early American and Reconstruction activists Harriet Jacobs and Ida B. Wells, contemporary literary artists Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Audre Lorde, and contemporary music artists Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion to show how Black women continue to challenge one-dimensional, denigrating constructs of Black womanhood.
Dr. Ashley Burge is an assistant professor of African American literature at Augustana College. Her teaching and research emphasize the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class and their connection to Black feminism, the Black body, and ecocriticism.
She has published essays in the North Carolina Literary Review, The Encyclopedia of African American Culture, the MLA Approaches to Teaching series, and the anthology "Through Mama's Eyes." Her current book project uses Toni Morrison's oeuvre to create a theoretical paradigm that transmutes Black trauma into healing, catharsis, and redemption. She is currently developing courses on the full works of Toni Morrison and on Black horror in literature and film.
New IDEA supports first- and second-year physics students
In February, the physics department will launch a mentorship program to support majors of underrepresented identities through personal connections with peers and alumni.