Our first talk for the Spring Quarter features Dr. Clare Cannon, Associate Professor of Social and Environmental Justice. Please join us for a great presentation, conversation, and food!
12:00pm-1:30pm
Hart Hall 3201
Abstract: This talk presents a narrative review of environmental sociology research focused on the empirical application of intersectionality theory to environmental justice. We included in this review sociology research that engaged both environmental justice and intersectionality theory, which used empirical methods including quantitative, spatial, qualitative, and case study approaches (n = 30). Intersectionality refers to how the intersecting systems of oppression along lines, such as race, gender, and class, produce differential levels of vulnerability and privilege. In reviewing research in environmental sociology, we find that intersectionality is most often employed to inform analytical decisions (i.e. methods), with limited research theorizing intersectionality theory with environmental concerns. Nonetheless this emerging scholarship advances valuable insights on specifying nuances of who is impacted by the distribution of environmental inequality. This collection of papers points towards novel avenues of research, such as investigating the linkages between environmental inequality and the carceral state and homelessness. We encourage more environmental sociology research to build on the methodological advances made in this body of work and to also consider examining procedural and recognitional forms of injustice. Such efforts have the potential to advance research beyond an analysis of power into what redress for oppression could look like.
Our second talk for the Spring Quarter features Dr. Milmon Harrison, Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies. Please join us for a great presentation, conversation, and food!
12:00pm-1:30pm
Hart Hall 3201
Bio: Milmon F. Harrison, Ph.D. (Sociology) is an Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies. He is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research and teaching focus on the experience of people of African descent within the United States. Using qualitative and digital humanities-based approaches, his work engages questions of race, religion, public policy, socioeconomic and geographic mobility, and the telling of stories about all of the above. His Current, in-progress, book project is titled Black Valley: The World African Americans Made in the Great Central Valley California.
Title: Black Valley: The World African Americans Made in the Great Central Valley of California
Abstract: This paper focuses on the rich yet generally overlooked history of African Americans within California's Great Central Valley. Drawing from my in-progress book, Black Valley: The World African Americans Made in the Great Central Valley of California, I explore through stories the experiences, the vibrant communities, and significant contributions of African Americans within this important geographical region, beginning in the 19th century and extending into the mid-20th. Based primarily on archival research, I argue that the presence and contributions of African Americans in the West, in California, and in the Central Valley—as opposed to some of the state's coastal urban spaces—have tended to be under-researched, under-reported, and effectively erased from dominant historical narratives of both California and the United States. This erasure has led to a skewed understanding of who was present, when, and who played a crucial role in building the state and by extension the nation. By unearthing and telling these neglected stories, this presentation aims to contribute to the larger conversation and project of racial reckoning and reparations in the context of the current political climate. It underscores the importance of acknowledging and integrating these histories into our collective memory to foster a more inclusive and accurate understanding of our past as well as our future as a state and a nation.
Our third talk for the Spring Quarter features Dr. Darnel Degand, Assistant Professor in the School of Education. Please join us for a great presentation, conversation, and food!
12:00pm-1:30pm
Hart Hall 3201
