Digital program available here. (Content also available below.)

VIRTUAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

(with AI-powered live transcription at each session)

THURSDAY, MARCH 10 – ROUNDTABLES AND WORKSHOPS

12:15-1:15pm EST
Session A: Building a Professional Community in Grad School and Beyond
Much of academic work is done individually. Research & writing, course development & grading: these activities are conceived by most as solitary tasks. It comes as no surprise, then, that many view their job search as a similarly independent undertaking. This presentation challenges this point of view and will demonstrate the importance of building a professional community from the very start of your academic life. We will address how to locate resources, identify mentors, and build a support system that enables you to conduct your job search (whatever your career path) in a more deliberate, but holistic, way.

Presenter Bio: Celeste Cruz-Carandang is the Coordinator for the PATHS (Professional Development for Humanists and Humanistic Social Scientists) program at the University of Chicago. In her role, she works with on and off-campus partners to support the professional advancement of Ph.D. students in the Humanities Division, Social Sciences Division, and Divinity School. A Chicago-area native, Celeste graduated from UChicago’s M.A. Program in the Humanities and worked at University of Chicago Press and the Art Institute of Chicago prior to joining UChicagoGRAD.

12:15-1:15pm EST
Session B: Best Practices for Conducting (Ethical, Virtual) Faculty Searches
On this roundtable, faculty members will discuss best practices of equity and inclusion in faculty searches—what we are doing to ensure these—while also reviewing the challenges and opportunities of doing a search entirely via video conference. We will discuss how our best practices have been impacted by the pandemic, and how they have also evolved more generally as we keep equity at the forefront of our searches.

Moderator: Dr. Patrick Otim, Asst. Professor of History, Bates College
Dr. Krista Aronson, Assoc. Dean of the Faculty; Professor of Psychology, Bates College
Dr. Leo Garofalo, Assoc. Professor and Chair of History, Connecticut College
Dr. Jacqueline Hidalgo, Assoc. Dean for Institutional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Chair and
Professor of Latina/o Studies; Professor of Religion, Williams College
Dr. Daniel Silva, Assoc. Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies; Director of Black Studies, Middlebury College

1:30-2:30 EST
Session A: How to Apply to Grad School
Trying to figure out where to begin the graduate-application process? Want advice about how to build a strong application for graduate school? Curious to learn more about the different roles that the statement of purpose, the personal statement, GRE scores, and the writing sample play in a complete graduate-application packet? Wondering about how to ask your professors for letters of recommendation? These questions and many more will be the focus of this interactive workshop, which is geared toward helping you begin to develop a concrete graduate-application strategy.

Presenter Bio: Dr. Alberto Ledesma grew up in East Oakland, CA and received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Berkeley. He earned a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies in 1996 and is a former faculty member at California State University, Monterey Bay, and a lecturer in ethnic studies at UC Berkeley. He has held several staff positions at UC Berkeley, including director of admissions at the School of Optometry and writing program coordinator at the Student Learning Center. He is the author of the award winning illustrated autobiography, Diary of A Reluctant Dreamer.

Q&A Facilitator: Brenda Rosado, Romance Languages & Literatures, UC Berkeley

1:30-2:30 EST
Session B: Applying to Liberal Arts College Faculty Positions
This panel focuses on applying to open positions at liberal arts colleges. Junior faculty in various fields will discuss what hiring committees look for in cover letters, teaching statements, research statements, and diversity statements.

Moderator: Dr. Rashida K. Braggs, Assoc. Professor of Africana Studies; Faculty Fellow of the Davis Center and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Williams College
Dr. Marcelle Medford, Asst. Professor of Sociology and Africana, Bates College
Dr. William Tarimo, Jean C. Tempel ’65 Asst. Professor of Computer Science, Connecticut
College; Founder, Discovery Teaching; US Board of Directors, The Sasamani Foundation
Dr. Alena Williams, Asst. Professor of Art History, Williams College
Dr. Gary Winslett, Asst. Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College

2:45-3:45pm EST
Session A: Grief and Growth in a Time of Ambiguous Loss
The last two years have been a time of significant loss. Many people, even those who have been spared the worst losses of life, health, job and home, may still keenly feel the ambiguous losses of a sense of normalcy or safety, canceled travel, anxiety around in-person events, or fewer casual meals and hangouts with friends. We may be grieving these losses, too, but feel we don’t have permission when “it could be so much worse.” Join Dana for learning, conversation and ritual to support yourself and others through this period of shared grief.

Presenter Bio: Dana Brinson, founder of Consulting Betwixt, is a witchy intellectual who partners with people through change as a transition coach, grief partner, and end-of-life doula. A queer woman and first-gen college grad who dropped out of her history PhD, she has navigated change and grief and now shares research, insights, rituals and practices that promote grief and death literacy for thriving lives.


2:45-3:45pm EST
Session B: Working Outside of Academia, PhDs and ABDs
More and more, graduate degree programs and employers are recognizing the value that doctoral training can bring to work outside of the academy. As tenure track jobs become fewer and more hyper-specialized–and the bounds of scholarly impact broaden and expand–it is essential for graduate students to envision and prepare for jobs across a range of possibilities. In this session, panelists will discuss our transition to post-ac positions and the skill sets that have contributed to our success.

Moderator: Dr. Celina Chatman Nelson (Ph.D., Psychology), Assoc. Dean for Academic Diversity & Inclusion, Columbia University
Dr. Amanda Healy (Ph.D., English and Women’s Studies), University-Community Partnerships Manager, Ginsberg Center for Community Service & Learning, University of Michigan
Allen Linton II (A.B.D., Political Science), Director of Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives, Associated Colleges of the Midwest
Dr. Aileen Liu (Ph.D., English), Director of Curricular Engagement Initiatives, UC Berkeley
Dr. Kerby Lynch (Ph.D., Geography), Program Manager, Ceres Policy Research

4-5pm EST
Session A: Things No One Told Me About Grad School
This panel will focus on those tidbits of important information about being a graduate student that applicants to selective R1 universities rarely see on university websites. What are some of the disciplinary expectations that graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds are surprised by once we enter our respective programs? What are some aspects of cultural life in graduate school – both on and off campus – that graduate students had not anticipated before they arrived? What advice do current graduate students wish they had received before coming to graduate school?

Moderator: Dr. Ariella Rotramel, Vandana Shiva Assoc. Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and
Intersectionality Studies, Connecticut College
Kailani Acosta, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Columbia University
Evelyn Campbell, Committee on Microbiology, University of Chicago
Caleb Dawson, Critical Studies of Race, Class & Gender, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education        
Raúl Gámez, Higher Education, University of Michigan School of Education
Omi Salas-SantaCruz, Social & Cultural Studies, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education


4-5pm EST
Session B: Surviving and Thriving as a New Faculty Member
Transitioning from graduate school to being a faculty member, and from a research university to a liberal arts college, is challenging. In this panel, junior faculty members discuss best practices for making this transition, including how to balance competing demands of our time and working in a new professional environment and community, especially during the current pandemic.

Moderator: Dr. Ajay Verghese, Asst. Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
Dr. Victor Cazares, Asst. Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Williams College
Dr. Yunkyoung Garrison, Asst. Professor of Psychology, Bates College
Dr. Zu Wei Zhai, Asst. Professor of Neuroscience, Middlebury College

FRIDAY, MARCH 11 – RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

12:15-1:15pm EST
SESSION 1, Witnessing and Exposing Police Violence

Moderator: Dr. Nakia Hamlett, William Meredith Assistant Professor of Psychology, Connecticut College
Kimberly Burke, “‘Reasonable’ Force: Examining Institutional Determinants of Police Violence” (Sociology, UC Berkeley)
Lisa Del Sol, “‘Can I Get a Witness?’: Living While Black Death is Trending” (English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University)
Xavier Durham, “Spit Happens: Pandemic Policing and the Weaponization Hypothesis” (Sociology, UC Berkeley)

12:15-1:15pm EST
SESSION 2, Using Art to Transcend or Reinforce Borders

Moderator: Dr. Dima Ayoub, Assistant Professor of Arabic and CV Starr Fellow in International Studies, Middlebury College
Rachel Chery, “Tuning into the Tele-Nation: Radio, Music, and YouTube in Haiti and its Diasporas” (Music, University of Chicago)
Lorena De Leon, “Restricted to the Genre: Jennifer Lopez in the Romantic Comedy” (Film Studies, Connecticut College)
Dr. Matthew Gonzales, “Vallejo, Zurita, and In Plain Sight: Artist Intervention in the Air and on the Ground” (Ph.D., Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley; and Postdoctoral Fellow in English, Williams College)
Laila Riazi, “War, Remotely: Diasporic Poetry’s Response to the War on Terror” (Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley)

1:30-2:30pm EST
SESSION 3, Confronting Racial Inequality in Education

Moderator: Estéfani Marín, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Irvine 
Bridgette Davis, “Access Delayed, Success Denied: How Administrative Burdens Shape College Opportunity for First-Generation, Low-Income Students of Color” (Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago Crown Family School; and incoming Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, UMass Amherst)
Annalissa Lane, “The Southlake Phenomenon: Whiteness and Protestantism in American Public Education” (Religion, St. Olaf College) (C3 Undergraduate Fellow)
Hilary N. Tackie, “‘Not Entirely Sure, But Will Need to Figure it Out’: Teachers’ Instructional Choices in Response to Racial Injustice” (Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago)
Aya Waller-Bey, “‘I am here and that’s enough’: Narratives of Resistance” (Sociology, University of Michigan)

1:30-2:30pm EST
SESSION 4, Stories of Identity and Inequality in Immigrant and Trans Communities 

Moderator: Dr. Erica Rand, Professor of Art & Visual Culture and of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Bates College
Oliver Barrera, “Nepantla as Home: Understanding Trans Women’s Migration from Latin America to the United States through Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza” (Politics and Latin American Studies, Bates College)
Lu Mila, “Who’s That Chick?” (Theatre, Middlebury College) 
Daniela Quezada, “Reproductive Justice and Immigrant Latinas” (Latin American Studies and Sociology, Bowdoin College) (C3 Undergraduate Fellow)
Kerry White, “Testimonios Trans: Narratives of Racialized Gender Between Cuba and the United States” (American Culture, University of Michigan)

2:45-3:45pm EST
SESSION 5, State Violence: Race, Ethnicity, and Trauma

Moderator: Lauren Krebs, Ph.D. Candidate in History, University of Florida
Marcos Pacheco Soto, “Police Violence and Generational Trauma: The Evolution of Collective Memory and Policing in the Chilean Post-Dictatorship (Politics, Bates College)
Salvador Robayo, “A Conquering Culture: Fascism and the Construction of Whiteness in Latin America” (History, Williams College)
Nikki Sadat, “The Ethnic Threat: Uyghur Internment in China” (International & Global Studies, Middlebury College)

2:45-3:45pm EST
SESSION 6, Space and Place and Wellness

Moderator: Bridgette Davis, Ph.D. Candidate in Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago Crown Family School (and incoming Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, UMass Amherst)
Bader AlBader, “Going Mental on Campus: Spatializing the Work of Wellness” (Architecture, University of Michigan)
Dianna Georges, “Sexual Assault Prevention in Small Colleges” (Environmental Studies, Bates College)
Andrea Jacobo, “Creating a Beloved Community: Healing Movement Arts, Place, and Wellness in Memphis, TN,” (Public Health, UC Berkeley; and Urban Studies Visiting Instructor and Public Health Director, Rhodes College)  
Ranjot (RJ) Lehal, “The Unseen War: Struggles of Andersonville Survivors” (History and Political Science, Gettysburg College)

2:45-3:45pm EST
SESSION 7, Limits of Language and the Law

Moderator: Dr. Brittany Meché, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Science & Technology Studies, Williams College 
Grace Argo, “False Memory, Men’s Rights, and Sex Abuse Allegations in American Courts” (History and Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Michigan)
Luz Colpa, “Tracing Emotional Geographies: Uses of Personal Biography in Writing of the History of Emotion in Africa” (History, Columbia University)
Chloé Samala Faux, “femicide” (Anthropology, Columbia University)

4-5pm EST
SESSION 8, Exploring Overlooked or Undervalued Art and Literature

Moderator: Grace Argo, Ph.D. Candidate in History and Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Michigan
Regina Gallardo, “The Folk Spirit in the Peruvian Indigenistas” (Art History and Latin American Studies, Wellesley College) (C3 Undergraduate Fellow)
Emily Kuwaye, “Fan Paintings in the Momoyama Period: Kano Sōshū’s Views of Kyoto” (History and Art History & Studio, Williams College) (C3 Undergraduate Fellow)
Yunzhi Liu, “Miyazawa Kenji’s Reception in Interwar Japan” (Japanese Studies and Classics, Middlebury College)

4-5pm EST
SESSION 9, Language: Structural, Cultural, and Political Perspectives

Moderator: Bader AlBader, Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture, University of Michigan
Eliana Al-Konsul, “The Emancipating Potential Of Linguistic Justice: Standardized Language In Higher Education and The Reproduction Of Oppressive Structures” (Anthropology, Bates College)
Ernesto Gutiérrez Topete, “Phonetic Effects of Code-Switching in Bilingualism Research” (Hispanic Linguistics, UC Berkeley)
Tran Truong, “Kinship and the Crossmodular Structural Parallelism Hypothesis” (Linguistics, University of Chicago)
Suria Vanrajah, “Maybe I’m Q? If I Was, This Is Exactly How I Would Do It: A Communicative Analysis of QAnon Organizing Logic and Content Formation” (Anthropology, Middlebury College)

Thanks and Gratitude

Thank you to all our panelists, moderators, and facilitators.

Thanks also to the members of the C3 Summit Planning Committee.

And finally, this Summit–and indeed the Creating Connections Consortium as an initiative–would not be possible without funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. To them, we extend our gratitude.

Planning Committee Members

Rachel Hynson, C3 Director, Chair of Planning Committee
Dana Bozeman, Director of Diversity & Inclusion, UChicago GRAD,
University of Chicago
Alexandre Dauge-Roth, Professor of French & Francophone Studies, Bates College
Nakia Hamlett, William Meredith Assistant Professor of Psychology,
Connecticut College
Jacqueline Hidalgo, Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion;
Chair and Professor of Latina/o Studies; Professor of Religion, Williams College
Nadia Horning, Associate Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
Darby Ray, Director of Harward Center for Community Partnerships; Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Professor of Civic Engagement, Bates College
Olga Sanchez Saltveit, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Middlebury College
Clinton Williams, Director of Pathways for Inclusive Excellence, Williams College

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