The Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop on Democracy under Threat: Public Scholarship and Teaching is organizing two online teach-ins in July

“Racial Justice Protests and Social Change: Connecting Local Movements – Stories, and Analysis from Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.”

An Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Online Teach-In

Wednesday, July 29, 2020, 12:00-3:00 p.m. (CST), 1:00-4:00 (EST)

In recent weeks, we have witnessed massive protests across our nation and around the globe in response to the murder of George Floyd and the numerous Black men and women murdered by police, including Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and so many more.  Peaceful protests have generated violent government and police responses as well as growing pressure on elected officials and policy makers to address demands for the reform, defunding, and/or abolition of police and for racial justice and an end to institutionalized racism. This online workshop will focus on the dynamics of protest in historical and comparative perspective, and the political, social, and cultural impact of protest, examining the conditions under which protests produce, or fail to produce, enduring institutional, cultural, and personal change. In this online workshop, we will learn from the experiences of veteran and current activists as well as scholars and policy makers. Our hope is that this knowledge will contribute to our efforts to better understand the complex relationship between protest and change and to promote systemic change. 

These teach-ins are free, open to the public, and will be accessible via Zoom links.

Organizers: These two events are being organized by faculty and students in the departments of African American & African Studies, History, Political Science, and Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, along with faculty and students in the same four departments at three Historically Black Colleges – Howard University (in Washington DC), and Morehouse College and Spellman College (both in Atlanta, GA). Faculty, students, and community activists from each of the four institutions and three cities will participate in each teach-in.