English Initiatives

Readings and Lectures

Yale English Initiative on Literature and Racial Justice
This series of readings and lectures highlights questions of race and resistance, and focuses on the ways that creative writers, performers, critics and readers have shaped histories of racial justice and empowerment over the centuries.

Initiative on Literature and Racial Justice: Randall Horton

Initiative on Literature and Racial Justice: A public conversation with Albert Woodfox, the author of Solitary

Workshops

The Department will host workshops on ‘Active Listening’ and a discussion of ‘What is an English Department?’ in Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 (dates tbc).

Reading Groups

Engaging Racial Justice in Our Classrooms

Convenors: Rasheed Tazudeen and Sunny Xiang

The broad aims of the group are to provide a space to discuss anti-racist teaching philosophies and practices from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, to think through ways to incorporate anti-racist pedagogy into our course designs and classrooms, and to put the work of critical pedagogy and literary studies in deeper theoretical and practical conversation with racial and social justice movements both locally and globally. We welcome Yale faculty, graduate students, and participants from all departments and disciplines.

Meeting summaries for the Engaging Racial Justice reading group

Race Before 1800 Working Group

Convenors: Ayesha Ramachandran and Xavier Lee

The Race before 1800 working group is back for an exciting semester of events. We have a full schedule of events planned. Feel free to plug these dates into your calendars.

Feb 10 @ 11:30am-1:00pm (Zoom meeting)
Mar 3 @ 11:30am-1pm (Zoom meeting)
Mar 17 @ 11:30am-1pm (Zoom meeting)
Apr 7 @ 11:30am-1pm (Zoom meeting)
Apr 12 @ 4:00pm-5:30pm (in-person mixer)
Apr 28 @ 11:30am-1pm (Zoom meeting)

Join our listserv and stay abreast of upcoming meetingshttps://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/race-1800

Fall 2021 Schedule

10/26/21: Scholars for Social Justice Presents, “Thoughts on Abolitionaist University: Freeing Higher Education From Itself”

Join Professor Roderick Ferguson and Professor Davarian Baldwin for a conversation on Professor Baldwin’s new book, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower. This event is sponsored by the Scholars for Social Justice. Tuesday, October 26 at 3:30 PM CT. Register here to attend

Spring 2022 Schedule

2/17/22: Black Activism Amidst Community Violence

Please join the Department of African American Studies for our first Spring 2022 Endeavors Seminar Series on “Black Activism Amidst Community Violence” Thursday, February 17, 202 @ 11:45 a.m. Register here to attend

FAS Senate Statement

February 9, 2022

Dear FAS Colleagues,

We are deeply dismayed and angered by the news that many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have received bomb threats —appallingly, even on the first day of Black History Month in the U.S. We understand the events of last week to be part of a broader pattern of intimidation within African American life. We denounce the racism implicit in these threats, which harm University community members and disrupt the research and teaching missions of these important pillars of the U.S. higher education system.

We ask you to join us in supporting the affected communities by reaching out to your HBCU colleagues. We stand in solidarity with our nation’s HBCUs and are united in recognizing the urgency of protecting every academic environment so that all have access to the freedoms that education brings.

Best regards,

Valerie Horsley, FAS Senate Chair
Aimee Cox, FAS Senate Deputy Chair
Sybil Alexandrov, FAS Senate Executive Committee member
Matthew Jacobson, FAS Senate Executive Committee member
Gerald Jaynes, FAS Senate Executive Committee member
Meg Urry, FAS Senate Executive Committee member