The Lefler/Broom Lectures and Discussions on Race and History
Public Reckoning with the Troubled Past
The history of anti-Black racism casts a long shadow onto the present. What role do sites of memory — museums and monuments — play in our future? Can they become tools for change as well as oppression? This series offers the Carleton community an opportunity to hear from distinguished scholars who are actively engaged in thinking about how history can help us create a better future. Students, faculty, and staff are also encouraged to join a discussion group to continue the conversation.
These lectures are sponsored by the Herbert P. Lefler fund and the Broom Fund for Public Scholarship, and co-sponsored by Africana Studies. Lectures will be recorded and available afterwards.
Lectures
The 21st-Century Museum and Social Justice
Thursday, October 22, 5:00 pm CDT
Dr. Spencer Crew is the Interim Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). He is also the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of American, African American and Public History at George Mason University. He has served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and was the director of the National Museum of American History (NMAH), Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Crew will discuss how social justice and new technologies lie at the heart of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
This online lecture is open to Carleton students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.
Learning from the Germans
Monday, October 26, 1:00 pm CDT
Professor Susan Neiman directs the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard and the Free University of Berlin. She was professor of philosophy at Yale University and Tel Aviv University before coming to the Einstein Forum in 2000. In 2014 Neiman was awarded the Spinozalens by the Internationale Spinozaprijs Foundation, a biennial prize recognizing international thinkers who concern themselves with ethics and society. Professor Neiman’s lecture will ask what Americans can learn from the Germans about confronting the evils of the past.
This online lecture is open to Carleton students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public.
Discussion Groups for current students, faculty, and staff
We seek to build intentional spaces for conversation about white supremacy and racism in the United States. It is our hope that these discussions will spur our personal and collective growth. We encourage you to attend the public lectures (which will also be recorded), peruse the related readings, view the suggested webinars, and meet virtually to the degree your schedule permits. There will be groups to discuss the lectures as well as related topics; you are welcome to sign up for either or both. Discussions will be held on multiple dates throughout the term.
Questions? Contact Serena Zabin, History Department Chair
To sign up for a discussion group, click here
“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
— James Baldwin, “The White Man’s Guilt,” Ebony Magazine, August 1965