Past Events
2022-2023 Theme: Afrofuturism
Out of this World: Afrofuturist Expressions across Science, Art, Tech and Design
The Black Faculty Speaker Series will create a campus culture in which Black thought, experience, and creativity are visible and vital. Each visiting speaker provides a unique voice and perspective on Black futurity.
Afrofuturism is this year’s theme for the Black Faculty Speaker Series. It is an orientation or a way of thinking that defies simple classification. It is expansive, interdisciplinary, and revolutionary beyond conventional notions of resistance. Afrofuturism’s practitioners blend imagination, research, experimentation, and Black ancestral knowledge to invent worlds that transcend our present condition and fuel new possibilities for a more just and sustainable planet.
Ibrahim Thiaw | Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Ibrahim Thiaw was appointed as the Under Secretary General of the United Nations and the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on January 31, 2019. With four decades of experience in sustainable development and environmental governance, he is well-prepared to spearhead global initiatives focused on land restoration, drought resilience, food security, gender equality, and the protection of land rights for vulnerable populations. Prior to this role, he served as the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for the Sahel, where he supported the UN Integrated Strategy for the Sahel and developed a comprehensive UN Support Plan for the region. From 2013 to 2018, he held the position of Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and earlier in his career, he has held various leadership positions at UNEP and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Ruha Benjamin | Wednesday, January 25 & Thursday, January 26, 2023
Ruha Benjamin is a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and author of the award-winning book Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, among many other publications. Her work investigates the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology, focusing on the relationship between innovation and inequity, health and justice, and knowledge and power. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. Her most recent book, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want, was born out of the twin plagues of COVID-19 and police violence, and offers a practical and principled approach to transforming our communities and helping us build a more just and joyful world.
Race/Remix Podcast Episode 1: "When Justice Goes Viral: Ruha Benjamin"
Listen to the podcast "When Justice Goes Viral: Ruha Benjamin" featured on Race/Remix, a program of Racial Justice Studio, an initiative of Arizona Arts Division.
Silas Munro | Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Silas Munro is an artist, designer, writer, curator, and partner of Polymode, a studio that leads the edge of contemporary graphic design for clients in the cultural sphere. Collaborations include the City of Los Angeles, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, David Kordansky Gallery, MoMA, and MOCA. He is a curator and author of Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest which opened at Letterform Archive in 2022. Munro’s writing appears in the book, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. Munro expanded this research as a co-author of the first BIPOC-centered Design History course: Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design, which will be published in book form in 2023. Munro holds an MFA from CalArts and a BFA from RISD. Munro is the Founding Faculty and Co-Chair for the MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Race/Remix Podcast Episode 2: "A Typeface for Change: Silas Munro"
Silas Munro was featured in the podcast "A Typeface for Change: Silas Munro" on Race/Remix, a program of Racial Justice Studio, an initiative of the Arizona Arts Division.
This series was organized by a sub-committee of the Black Faculty Affinity Group including:
- Dr. Mamadou Baro, Chair of BARA, Associate Professor, School of Anthropology
- Dr. Amy Kraehe, Associate Vice President, Equity in the Arts and Associate Professor, School of Art
- Dr. Tarnia Newton, Assistant Clinical Professor, College of Nursing
- Dr. Gloria J. Wilson, Associate Professor, School of Art
Planning Team
- Judy Marquez Kiyama, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Development, Office of the Provost and Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education, Dept of Educational Policy Studies & Practice
- Odette Vargas, Event Planner, Office of the Provost
Coordination of the series was supported by Faculty Affairs and funded by the Office of the President.
Co-Sponsors & Collaborators include: Racial Justice Studio – Arizona Arts, Arizona Institute for Resilience, Biosphere 2, BIO5 Institute, Beyond Juneteenth Committee, Center for Digital Humanities, College of Fine Arts, College of Education, College of Science, Department of Africana Studies, Faculty Affairs, Honors College, Indigenous Resilience Center, John and Sandi Flint, The Nurse-Midwifery Specialty - College of Nursing, The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Research, Innovation & Impact (RII)