The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University

I had a great opportunity to facilitate a colloquium on 11/20 with Hofstra’s Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice.  We in the Hofstra community are so fortunate to have this Center on campus, and I was honored and humbled to contribute to its very important work. We had a very stimulating and wide-ranging conversation about the problem of managing student resistance to course material that involves racial and social justice issues, with particular attention to how an instructor might manage class discussion. We started by replicating a discussion I run each year with my Writing Studies 1 students, who are part of the cluster for first-year engineering students. I presented details derived from a student essays related to the issue of the Belo Monte Dam, currently under construction in Brazil’s Amazon basin.  Basically, the dam would help Brazil with energy and economic growth, but it would disrupt and displace indigenous peoples whose lives and li...

My experience as a Visiting Research scholar at the Center of “Race,” Culture and Social Justice at Hofstra University was most productive and enjoyable. It gave me the opportunity to meet people of excellence and being able to learn from their views regarding politics, culture, society, social justice, race, education, internationalization of higher education, and more. I was impressed by the hospitality that my wife and I received. We had the opportunity to meet with administrators, faculty members and students and all of them were highly responsive and engaging. There are places where you go and you immediately feel like being at home, this is how I felt in the days I spent at Hofstra University during my Visiting Research Scholarship, from September 26 to October 9, 2019. It was a great pleasure going to classes to teach and interact with the professors and students. I held presentations in three courses that are part of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and I spoke abou...

Arriving to Hofstra University, and visiting the Center of “Race,” Culture and Social Justice as scholar in residency, was a unique experience for me since the beginning. I was hosted on the first day by one of the Center’s directors, professor Benita Sampedro, who provided me with office space to work during my stay, to prepare for meetings, teaching sessions and interviews. She was very welcoming from the star, and attentive all throughout, what made me feel very comfortable during my entire residency.  I especially appreciated the invitation to teach one of professor Sampedro’s classes, where I talked to her students about some aspects of Brazilian identity as displayed in contemporary art. It was an amazing opportunity for me to engage in dialogue with her students about Brazilian culture, in a course and program about Latin American Studies with a focus on the Spanish-speaking world. In my presentation, I provided examples from literature, music and the plastic arts. Throug...

On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, delivered a presentation at Hofstra University as part of its year-long  commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of the arrival of enslaved peoples to the Americas. This event was organized by Center for "Race" Advisory Board member Mario Murillo, and scheduled as part of the Center for Civic Engagement programming for Day of Dialogue, with the co-sponsorship of the Center for "Race," Culture and Social Justice. The lecture is available at this link: https://soundcloud.com/mamaradio-1/ron-daniels-on-the-quest-for-reparatory-justice-to-achieve-a-more-perfect-union