Speakers Series
Speaker: Dr. Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor, Yale University
Date: October 25, 2024Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MDT
The ‘Code of the Street’ Revisited
Abstract: Of all the problems besetting the poor inner-city black community, none is more pressing than that of interpersonal violence and aggression. It wreaks havoc daily with the lives of community residents and increasingly spills over into downtown and residential middle- class areas. Muggings, burglaries, carjackings, and drug-related shootings, all of which may leave their victims or innocent bystanders dead, are now common enough to concern all urban and many suburban residents. The inclination to violence springs from the circumstances of life among the ghetto poor—the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug use and drug trafficking, and the resulting alienation and lack of hope for the future
Speaker: Dr. Heith Copes, Distinguished Professor, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Date: November 22, 2024Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST
Title: Caught In Between: Masculinity and Methamphetamine Use in Rural Alabama
Abstract: Heith Copes, Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, presents findings from a photo-ethnography with people who use methamphetamine in rural Alabama. Using Chico, a 50-year-old, Hispanic man who has used meth for nearly three decades, as an illustrative case, Copes explores how men who use methamphetamine are often “caught in between” two worlds: the violent world of drug use and the traditional world of the working-class. This alienation contributed to Chico presenting himself in two primary ways: as a rebellious, anti-authority menace to outsiders and as a caring, generous friend to insiders. Chico displayed these identities through visual symbols (on his home, property, and body) and through his stories and actions. Although brief, this glimpse into Chicos life highlights the tension that many living on the margins experience as they seek to live up to social expectations.
Speaker: Dr. Brielle Bryan, Assistant Professor, Rice University
Date: Friday, January 31, 2025Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST
Speaker: Dr. Justin Pickett, Professor, University at Albany (State University of New York)
Date: Friday, February 28, 2025Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST
Speaker: Dr. Rachel Ellis, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland
Date: Friday, March 28, 2025Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Dum, Associate Professor, Kent State University
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST