“Towards a City-wide Response to the African American Incarceration Epidemic”
The 5th University-Community Dialogues on Critical Social Justice & Community Health Issues: “Towards a City-wide Response to the African American Incarceration Epidemic”
In Celebration of Black History Month--February 25, 2016, 11-3:30pm
Co-Sponsors: University of Maryland-HBCU Scholarship Fundand the Nyumburu Cultural CenterLocation: Nyumburu’s Multipurpose Room, University of Maryland, College Park
The University-Community Dialogues integrate three of the post-retirement projects initiated by University of Maryland Anthropology Professor Emeritus and CuSAG Director, Dr. Tony Whitehead. These include (1) a portion of the community research component of Whitehead’s Applied Urban Ethnography class; (2) a series of public forums on critical health or social justice issues; and (3) a fundraiser for the UMD-HBCU Graduate Mentoring Scholarship Fund.
Community research, or ethnographic fieldwork is the cornerstone of cultural anthropology. Each term the students in Dr. Whitehead’s ethnography class focus on a specific critical health or social issue, learn ethnographic methods for studying the issue, and then do fieldwork in a local community to learn how the issue is being addressed by various service organizations. The topic of focus for the current Dialogues is the African American Incarceration Epidemic, which basically refers to not only the disproportionate impact of the US mass incarceration on the life course of African American individuals; but also on black families and communities, as well as its costs to the wider US society. The U-C Dialogues were created to complement students’ fieldwork efforts by first bringing community members to students and also provides an opportunity for organizations to recruit students for volunteer and internship possibilities.
Tentative Program Schedule
11:00am-12:50pm: Closed Lunch- Dr. Whitehead, other Researchers, and Community Guests
11:00-11:15am:Welcome, Introductions, and Introduction to Program Format
11:15-11:35am: “Cultural Systems Approach to Halting the Incarceration Epidemic”—Dr. Whitehead
11:35am-12:50pm: Lunch and An Open Discussion Exploring the Feasibility of Developing a Local Cultural Systems Approach to Halting the Incarceration Epidemic
1:00-3:30pm: A Student Directed Public Forum
1:00-1:15pm: Dr. Whitehead Welcomes Students and Others to Afternoon Session
1:15-1:35pm: Dr. Whitehead Provides Brief Summaries of the Local Challenges of the AAIE and the Lunch Discussion
1:35-2:30pm: Organizational Representatives Report on their Organization’s Services
2:30-2:40pm: Break
2:40-3:10pm: Open Discussion with Questions from Dr. Whitehead’s Class.
3:10-3:30pm: Moving Forward, Potential Student Contributions, and Closing Comments
* The Dialogues are free and open to the public. But donations to the UMD-HBCU Scholarship Fund of any amount would be greatly appreciated. Anthropologically themed T-shirts are available for donations of $30 or more.(See http://tony-whitehead.squarespace.com/donations for donation information and to view T-shirts).
Published on Thu, 01/28/2016 - 14:39