02/25/2025
SUNY Cortland will round out Black History Month (BHM) through February with lectures, workshops and panel presentations and will conclude with a gathering to remember one of the university’s most staunch supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion, the late Regina Grantham.
BHM campus events will be posted online on the Institutional Equity and Inclusion Office webpage. Events are open to the public and free unless otherwise noted.
Still to come are:
Ọlaọcha Nwadiuto Nwabara, assistant professor of Western African literature and culture at SUNY Geneseo’s Department of English, will share indigenous African ontologies of becoming and of one’s purpose read through contemporary Igbo literature, centering the journeys of non-heterosexual women, on Monday, Feb. 24. Her talk, titled will speak on “Becoming, Writing Home: Embodying Spirit as Gendered and Sexual Identity Representation in Igbo Literature,” will take place from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.
Bekeh Ukelina, SUNY Cortland professor of history, will discuss the important role of a key dam in the history of Nigeria, on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The rescheduled talk “From TVA to Kainji? Damming Nigeria’s New Deal Vision for National Transformation” will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. in Old Main Colloquium. Between 1964 and 1968, Nigeria built and completed Kanji Dam, one of the country's most significant infrastructural development projects following political independence from Britain. The vision of Nigerian leaders was that the dam will be socially and economically transformative like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) did in the Appalachian region of the United States.
Since the publication of Feminism. Now (Davis, Dent, Meiners, and Ritchie, 2022) by notable penal abolitionists, abolition feminism is starting to gain traction in feminist and social justice discourses, according to Mecke Nagel, SUNY Cortland philosophy professor. She will discuss the progress during a sandwich seminar titled “Abolition Feminism and Its Others” from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in Old Main Colloquium.
Assumptions and opinions can cause harm. SUNY Cortland Health Educator Lauren Scagnelli will discuss “Assumptions and Opinions” giving examples that include various aspects of diversity on Wednesday, Feb. 26. The talk, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Neubig Hall lobby, is sponsored by the Conley Wellness Wednesday series, Health Promotions, Multicultural Life and Diversity Office and wellness peer educators.
Jihon Kim, chief of policy with the Korean National Commission for UNESCO and a visiting scholar in the Harvard Asia Center, will discuss the fierce conflicts at UNESCO since 2015 over interpretations of Japan’s 20th-century colonial rule and wartime actions among Japan, Korea and China. The presentation, titled “Contested Heritage: Japan, Korea, China and the Struggle for Historical Narratives at UNESCO,” will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in Corey Union Fireplace Lounge.
A panel of Black students led by Kelly Tait will share their unique recent study abroad experiences during “Black Abroad” on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Panelists will reflect on how studying abroad has shaped their identities, discuss the challenges they faced, and list the triumphs they achieved while navigating new cultural environments, during the event from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Corey Union, Room 209.
Rob Haggar, a visiting scholar in the SUNY Cortland Economics Department, will discuss “Prisons, Anarchism and Black Power” at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge. They assert that New York, and specifically its vast constellation of jails and prisons, was a locus of the development of Black Anarchism. The discussion will focus on the life of Martin Sostre and the Attica Prison Revolt. International Programs sponsors this event.
Dahila Wilson and ballroom dancer will present a sandwich seminar on “Portraying Racialized Bodies in Early Modernity” Thursday, Feb. 27. The event runs from noon to 1 p.m. in Old Main Colloquium. Amid the constructs of race created by English persons during the early modern period, their investment in portraying Black, Brown, and mixed-race individuals invites reflection on what made these identities particularly essential to racial constructions. This presentation will explore the representations of these racialized bodies in drama, poetry and early modern material culture.
Dahila Wilson and ballroom dancer will later offer an educational celebration of Black excellence in arts, culture and leadership with a “Black History Exhibition” in the Corey Union Function Room from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27. Voice Office clubs will exhibit Black cultural items relating to hair, clothes, important figures, dances and more. Students, community members, faculty and staff are welcome.
A celebration of the life of the late Regina Grantham, titled “Regina Grantham: A Gentle Warrior,” will take place on Friday, Feb. 28. The event runs from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Sperry Center Vittor Lecture Hall (Room 205). An emeritus faculty member who served in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences for more than 30 years, Grantham served as department chair for 18 years. She helped establish and obtain accreditation for the Graduate Program. Grantham also tirelessly advocated and provided leadership to a multitude of diversity initiatives at the university, in the community and in the field of speech-language pathology. The epitome of Black resistance, resilience and success, she endured significant challenges when attending a predominantly white institution in the 1960s. Ultimately, she was named an ASHA Fellow by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the field’s highest honor.