For Immediate Release:  January 19, 2007
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan    
610-328-8535     
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

'Cross-Cultural Collaborations' Lecture Series to Be Held at Swarthmore February Through April

A "Cross-Cultural Collaborations" lecture series organized by the Black Studies Program and the Intercultural Center at Swarthmore College will be held from February through April.  Four historians and an anthropologist will speak beginning on Thursday, Feb. 1, with Dr. Sandra Jowers of the University of the District of Columbia.
 
Jowers' talk, "We Refused to Leave Our Children Behind:  Miller versus Board of Education of the District of Columbia," is about the decision that ended the almost 50-year policy of educational segregation for hearing impaired African American students from Washington, D.C.  Her talk in the Science Center, Room 101, at 7 p.m. is co-sponsored by the Linguistics Program and is free and open to the public.

In 1952, as African American parents in the District of Columbia sought educational equality for their children in the segregated school system, parents of deaf and hard of hearing students refused to leave their children behind.  Six parents of the deaf and hard of hearing sued the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, demanding equal access for their children.  They won their case in Miller v. Board of Education, becoming the only successful pre-Brown v. Board of Education challenge to the District of Columbia's policy of educational segregation.

Jowers teaches U.S. history, African American history, and Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement and directs the Oral History Program at the University of the District of Columbia.  She received her Ph.D. in U.S. history, as well as her M.A. and B.A. from Howard University.

Other lectures in the "Cross-Cultural Collaborations" series are:

•  "Radicals in Black & Brown:  Of Young Lords, Black Panthers, and the Social and Economic Roots of Late Sixties Radicalism"
  by Johanna Fernandez, historian, Carnegie Mellon University,
  Thursday, Feb. 22, at 4:30 p.m., Science Center, Rm. 101
  
  
•  "Racial Divisions, Common Struggles:  Asian & African Americans in the Age of Emancipation"
  by Moon-Ho Jung, historian, University of Washington,
  The Genevieve Ching-wen Lee '96 Memorial Lecture  in Asian American Studies
  (Co-sponsored by Asian Studies),
  Tuesday, March 6, at 4:30 p.m., Science Center, Rm. 101
  
  
•  "Nuestra America—Latino History as United States History"
  by Vicki Ruiz, historian, University of California at Irvine  (Co-sponsored by Latin American Studies),
  Wednesday, March 21, at 4:30 p.m., Science Center, Rm. 101
  
  
•  "Islam, African Immigration and the Black Encounter"
  by Zain Abdullah, anthropologist, Temple University,
  Wednesday, April 18, at 7 p.m., Science Center, Cunniff Lecture Hall (Rm. 199)
  

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