2013 Schedule

November 13-15, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All events listed below are free and open to the public.

Film screening: Safe & Sound?: Artists Respond to Police Violence
Don’t miss this community-based documentary about police violence in Portland.  The project is a collection of short videos of three types of stories: accounts of egregious violence where community members lost their lives at the hands of police, stories of racial profiling and excessive use of force told by survivors of police brutality, and narratives of community resistance.  Safe & Sound? was collectively produced by artists/activists Jodi Darby, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke in 2012-2013.  View the trailer and learn more about the project here.
Locations and times:
Wed., Nov. 6-Fri., Nov. 8, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Templeton Campus Center, Trail Room Alcove
Mon., Nov. 11-Tues.,. Nov. 12, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Templeton Campus Center, Fields Foyer
Wed., Nov. 13-Fri., Nov. 15, 8 a.m.-7 p.m., J.R. Howard Hall main foyer

 

Wednesday, Nov. 13

3:30-5:00 p.m., Council Chamber
Undocumented, Unafraid! Stories from the Front Lines of the Fight for Migrant Justice
Dulce Guerrero and Luis Leon, members of National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and Dream Activists

Introduced by Claire Flanagan, L&C ’12, coordinator, Portland Central America Solidarity Committee

Dulce Guerrero was born in Mexico and migrated to the U.S. with with her family at the age of two. Growing up she knew that the threat of deportation and family separation was real, but never imagined that it would hit so close to home. In January 2011, Dulce became involved in immigrants’ rights after a traffic violation landed her mother in jail.  She is currently an undocumented youth organizer and the Secure Your Own Community trainer for NIYA. From organizing walk-outs, to stopping deportations and participating in civil disobedience, Dulce has become active in defending the community which she has been a part of for the last 18 years.

Luis Leon was born in Veracruz, Mexico. When he was 5 years old, his family moved to North Carolina, where he lived until finishing high school in 2011.  Unable to afford college, Luis returned to Mexico on his own to continue his education.  After the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) legislation passed, he resolved to come back to the US.  In July 2013 Luis became part of the Dream 9, a group of undocumented youths who had been deported because of their immigration status and attempted to cross the US border.  He was detained for 15 days with the rest of the Dream 9, and he was released and allowed to return to his home in the US as a result of organizing efforts by NIYA and other groups.


Keynote Event
7:00 p.m., Council Chamber
“A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice”
Paul Butler
, professor of law, Georgetown University Law Center

Introduced by Libby Olga Howard, L&C ’14

Presentation abstract:  Hip-hop culture has documented the costs of mass incarceration and racial inequality in criminal justice more than other art form.  Many of the artists come from communities which make them at risk of being victims of crime, and at risk of being arrested or stopped by the police.  In their music, hip-hop artists imagine a justice system where everyone would be more safe and more free.  In this presentation, Paul Butler uses hip-hop philosophy, music, and video to teach us how American criminal justice really works, and how it can be improved.


Thursday, Nov. 14


11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Smith Hall
Race, Place, and Power: An Open Session of the Ethnic Studies Colloquium

Taught by Reiko Hillyer, assistant professor with term of history
This interdisciplinary class examines the cultural geography of segregation and inequality, and how ethnic and racial minorities have resisted and reclaimed segregated spaces.  Join the ethnic studies students as they open up their class to the community with a discussion of the prison-industrial complex.  Themes that will be explored include the origins and rise of the current prison boom, the relationship between prisons and the political economy, the spatial dimensions of the “carceral landscape,” and racism in the criminal justice system.
Coffee and cookies will be provided
.  No outside reading is required for this discussion.

 

Panel Discussion
1:45-3:15 p.m., Stamm
Pushed Out, Left Behind: The School-to-Prison Pipeline
African-American and Latino youth face exclusionary discipline in schools at a disproportionate rate.  Within Portland public schools, African American children are suspended or expelled almost five times as often as white students, and nearly seven times as often as whites in middle schools in particular [1].  Black children are subjected to these disciplinary decisions mostly for minor, subjective, non-violent offenses such as making noise or loitering [2].  Concerns about civil rights violations and the criminalization of youth of color have prompted investigations by federal officials as well as grassroots activism by coalitions of parents, students, and advocates.   

Moderator: Tricia Brand, L&C Associate Dean of Student Engagement
Sheila Warren
, founder, Portland Parent Union
Etta Harris, Portland parent
Lundyn Warren, Portland student
Ben Keefer, principal, George Middle School in North Portland
Tammy Jackson, director of student services, Portland Public Schools


Panel Discussion
3:30-5:00 p.m., Stamm
Criminalization of Immigration
The immigration debate is inherently part of the incarceration conversation.  According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the criminal prosecution of undocumented persons in the U.S. has jumped significantly from 3,000 illegal entry prosecutions in 2002 to 48,000 illegal entry prosecutions in 2012 [1].  Citizenship battles without strong legal representation, family-splitting deportation, and unlawful detention display the injustice within this system. The link between immigration and criminalization, or crimmigration, has created a global crisis. The rights of undocumented families, indigenous groups, refugees, and people who look “other” are threatened every day while their stories go untold. The activists, scholars, lawyers, and crimmigration experts who expose their battles will share insight into the current system and explore possibilities for change on local, national, and international levels.

Moderator: Sarah Warren, L&C assistant professor of sociology
Stephen Manning, partner at Immigrant Law Group, L&C adjunct professor of law
Juliet Stumpf, professor of law, L&C Law School, “Civil Detention and Other Oxymorons”
Andrew Gardner, associate professor of anthropology, University of Puget Sound, “Other Migrations, Other Places: ‘Bachelors’ in Qatar and the Gulf States”

 

Keynote Event
7:00 p.m., Council Chamber
“Inhabiting the Impasse: Incarceration, Insurgencies, and the Logic of Racial Genocide”
Dylan Rodríguez, professor and chair of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside

Introduced by Elliott Young, L&C associate professor of history

Presentation abstract:  To exist in the impasse of racial genocide is not a choice—it is an involuntary, coerced historical condition in which people are differently located.  Racial genocide’s historical regimes of epochal violence—from chattel slavery and land displacement to gendered sexual violence and cultural extermination—never truly go away.  Rather, they lurk within our historical present tense in ways that make it clear that these regimes of violence remain significantly intact.  This discussion begins with a definition of racial genocide as a socio-historical force that produces multiple, dynamically related systems of physiological, civil, and social death.  Central to this genocidal force is its “logic of evisceration,” in which physical death is often secondary to the immediate, distended violence of terror, humiliation, and degradation.  Racial genocide is, in this sense, as focused on the creation of oppressive and repressive conditions of existence as it is with constructing systems of physical human extermination.  

The discussion directs central theoretical attention to the political and cultural work emanating from two recent struggles, both of which emerge from the primary institutional apparatus of US racial genocide, the prison and criminalization regime.  We will consider, for a sustained moment, the significance of the 2010 Georgia Prison Strike and the 2011/2013 Pelican Bay Prison (and California prison-wide) hunger strike. 

 

Friday, Nov. 15


Panel Discussion
9:45-11:15 a.m., Stamm
To Serve and Protect: Police Accountability and Oversight
Stop-and-frisk policies in New York City became the focal point of recent debates about racial profiling by law enforcement officials.  In Portland, police officers stop and search African American and Latino drivers twice as often as whites [1]. Concerns about civil rights violations have produced local and national efforts to hold accountable those who serve and protect our communities.  Panelists representing a new movement of public intervention will share their perspectives on improving the role of the men and women in blue.

Moderator: Diana Leonard, L&C assistant professor of psychology
Karen Gibson, associate professor of urban studies and planning, Portland State University, and Leanne Serbulo, instructor in University Studies, Portland State University, “Black and Blue: Police-Community Relations in Portland’s Albina District, 1964-1985”
Jo Ann Hardesty, community organizer and activist; former Oregon state legislator; steering committee of Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform
Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, assistant professor of social psychology, Portland State University, “The Role of Racial Stereotyping in Police-Suspect Interactions”
Chief Ronald Louie, retired Hillsboro chief of police, widely consulted on police accountability, racial profiling, and related law enforcement issues, “Changing Police Culture: Racial Profiling, Use of Force, and Training Protocols”


Panel Discussion
11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Council Chamber
Student Research Presentations: Racial Politics, Identity, and Popular Culture
Join us for an interdisciplinary discussion with students who will share original research projects that are in their developing stages.  Their projects address issues of race and ethnicity at national, international, and transnational levels.  Bring your lunch.  Coffee and cookies will be provided.

Moderator: Seraphie Allen, L&C ’15 and symposium co-chair
Anna Daggett, L&C ’14, History, “Multiculturalism and the Rise of Dual Immersion Language Programs in Portland”
Daniela Jimenez, L&C ’14, History, “Corporeal Politics, Health Care, and Citizenship”
Hannah Atkinson
, L&C ’14, Sociology/Anthropology, “Oral Traditions and Cultural Revival in Northwest Alaska”
Isabel Ball, L&C ’15, Psychology, “Tattoos as a Performance of a Transnational Identity”
Libby Olga Howard
, L&C ’14, Religious Studies, “(T)werking out the Kinks: Miley Cyrus Meets        Racial/Sexual Politics in America”
Ted Jamison
, L&C ’15, Ethnomusicology, “Jazzlandia”

 

Panel Discussion
1:45-3:15 p.m., Stamm
War on Drugs
Since the 1960s, the U.S. has squandered trillions of dollars on a failed drug war.  Internationally, much of our “war” has taken place in Latin America, where U.S.-trained police have filled prisons, and prohibition has fueled murderous gang wars.  In the U.S., incarceration rates have ballooned as a result of aggressive efforts to prosecute drug use.  Panelists will address why, despite negative impacts and unsuccessful results, many continue to support policies that violate human rights, destroy the environment, and continue a racist system also known as “The New Jim Crow,” and they will explore different ways to promote public safety and decrease drug dependencies.

Moderator: Aliza Kaplan, L&C associate professor of law
Lisa Daugaard
, policy director, Racial Disparity Project, and adjunct professor of law, Seattle University School of Law
Paul Solomon, executive director, Sponsors, Inc., a social services organization providing re-entry assistance for individuals released from correctional facilities, “Prisoner Reentry: Where We Go From Here”
Elliott Young, L&C associate professor and chair of history, “Narco Wars in Mexico and the Politics of Ungovernability”


Panel Discussion
3:30-5:00 p.m., Stamm
Resistance
A broad coalition of social justice activists has criticized the massive build-up of the prison industrial complex in the United States.  Some call for reform of the prison system, while others call for its abolition, but all envision alternative ways of creating a safe and just society.  Within prisons, there is a long tradition of resistance and activism.  The 1971 Attica prison riot was based upon prisoners’ demands for political rights and better living conditions. Earlier this summer and fall, many men within the California prison system conducted a two-month hunger strike to protest isolation policies and conduct by prison officials.  Panelists will speak about an array of resistance efforts and strategies to produce social change. 

Moderator: Sepideh Bajracharya, L&C assistant professor of anthropology
Walidah Imarisha, poet, activist, scholar, “Resistance within and to the Carceral State”
Anoop Mirpuri, assistant professor of English, Portland State University, “Resisting Ordinary Punishment, or, Against Prison Reform: Abolition in an Age of Crisis”
Emanuel Price, executive director of Second Chances are for Everyone (SCAFE)

 

Keynote Event

7:00 p.m., Stamm
Race Monologues

In poetry and prose, Lewis & Clark students express their understandings of race, ethnicity, and identity.  Each year a new group of students writes an original series of monologues to share powerful feelings and experiences.

Featuring L&C students Hawi Abbajobir ’15, Jacob Ahearn ’15, Danni Green ’16, Khethiwe Gumede ’14, Libby Olga Howard ’14, Jose Huape ’16, Nikhil Mahapatra ’14, Hannah Manetta ’14, Nima Mohamed ’15, Katherine Quaid ’14, Julia Withers ’16

Welcoming remarks by Race Monologues coordinators Hannah Atkinson, L&C ’14, and Raymond Fenton, L&C ’16