IPRH presents the following:         

“Immigrant & Refugee Detention in the U.S.” is on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at La Casa Cultural Latina (1203 W. Nevada, Urbana).  Virginia Raymond (JD, PhD) currently represents many migrants held in immigration detention centers in Texas.  In this talk, she will discuss immigration law and her experiences with women and children held in prolonged detention.

Organized by The Borders and Migration in the Americas Working Group.  Sponsored by the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Gender and Women’s Studies, Latina/o Studies, Student Cultural Programming Fee, and La Casa Cultural Latina. 

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Sidonie Smith, Mary Fair Croushore Professor of the Humanities, Professor of English and Women’s Studies, and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, speaks on "Manifesto for the Humanities: A 21st Century Doctoral Education" on March 31, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the IPRH Lecture Hall, Levis Faculty Center, Fourth Floor (919 West Illinois Street, Urbana, IL). 

Abstract: At this historical moment, the challenge facing faculty invested in educating future generations of academic humanists is the conceptualization of a 21st-century doctoral education.  It must be an education adequate to the lived realities of the academy now; to the energies of students who make the choice to pursue a doctorate; and to the intellectual, affective, and social attachments that drive the pursuit of excellence in scholarly inquiry and teaching.  What is fast becoming the “new normal” in the everyday life of academic humanists will require people to be intellectually nimble; conversant in digital media, networks, archives, and identities; energized by collaboration; informed about the possibilities of work that lives open access; flexible in their modes of address; imaginative in their pedagogical practice; and adept at telling the story about what they do. 

For me, the place to focus attention is on the capstone project we call the dissertation.  I argue for breathing life into doctoral programs by expanding the repertoire of possible kinds, media, and modes of the dissertation, so that the proto-monograph is only one model for a successful capstone.  Other transformations, both modest and far-reaching, will relate to the structure of courses and to the goals, organization, and results of coursework, as well as the opportunities for doctoral students to gain new skills and competencies important for humanities scholarship and transferable to other careers graduates might imagine.  I am convinced that, through a 21st-century vision, doctoral programs will become more innovative, inclusive, and vibrant.               

Sidonie Smith is Mary Fair Croushore Professor of the Humanities, Professor of English and Women’s Studies, and Director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan. She is a past-President of the Modern Language Association of America (2010). Her most recent book is “Manifesto for the Humanities: Transforming Doctoral Education in Good Enough Times” (2015).  It is now available open access through the Digital Culture Series of the University of Michigan Press.  She is author of “A Poetics of Women's Autobiography: (1987) and “Subjectivity, Identity, and the Body” (1993).  With Julia Watson, she co-authored “Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives” (2001; expanded edition, 2010); and co-edited five volumes, including “De/Colonizing the Subject:  The Politics of Gender in Women’s Autobiography” and “Getting a Life: Everyday Uses of Autobiography.”  With Kay Schaffer, “she authored Human Rights and Narrated Lives” (2004). 

Thanks to the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities for this information item.

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