Past events - Spring 2022

April 30, 2022

Colby College Model UN Conference
Topic: Economic Sanctions
1:30 to 4:30 p.m., Location TBD

In light of recent discussions about sanctions against Russia after invading Ukraine, the topic for the debate is economic sanctions. Research materials, including a topic background guide and country assignments, will be provided on Saturday, April 23rd to everyone who signs up. The Oak Institute will provide free food and beverage. You do NOT need prior MUN experience to participate in the conference. The tools and information will be sent to you prior to the 30th. To sign up, click this link and fill out the Google form. Don’t hesitate to contact us ([email protected]) with any questions or concerns!

April 26, 2022

Freedom and Captivity Keynote
Nikole Hannah-Jones in conversation with Professor Cheryl Townsend Gilkes
7:00 p.m., Live Zoom Webinar

The Center for the Arts and Humanities is delighted to announce that Nikole Hannah-Jones will be the keynote speaker for this year’s humanities theme, Freedom and Captivity. Nikole Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. She has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius grant, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards and the National Magazine Award three times. Hannah-Jones also earned the John Chancellor Award for Distinguished Journalism and was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists and the Newswomen’s Club of New York. In 2020 she was inducted into the Society of American Historians and in 2021 she was named a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she is founding the Center for Journalism & Democracy. 

This event is graciously supported by the Office of the President, African-American Studies department, Colby Libraries, Colby Museum of Art, the Cultural Events Committee, Lunder Institute of American Art, the Oak Institute for Human Rights, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Office of the Provost. 

April 21, 2022

Philosophy Symposium, Philosophies of Freedom and Captivity with Professor Lisa Gunther of Queen’s University
6:00 p.m., Parker-Reed Room, SSW Alumni Center

Join the Philosophy Department, the Oak Institute for Human Rights, and the Center for the Arts and Humanities to hear Professor Lisa Gunther of Queen’s University unpack how philosophy can help us think about mass incarceration and solitary confinement.

Members of PL422: Philosophies on Freedom and Captivity will also present their research.

March 10, 2022

Indigenous Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence
4:00 p.m., Live Zoom Webinar

Join the Critical Indigenous Studies Initiative for a discussion with prominent artists and scholars who mobilize, disrupt, and theorize AI through Indignous epistemologies and lived experiences. Jason Edward Lewis, Noelani Arista, Archer Pechawis, and Suzanne Kite will join us for a roundtable discussion of their recent work, moderated by Willi Lempert and Colby student Kale Sapiel. Followed by a Q&A with attendees. 

Sponsored by the American Studies Department, the Center for the Arts and Humanities, Davis AI Institute, Oak Institute for Human Rights, Art Department, Environmental Studies Department, Cinema Studies Department, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, and the Science, Technology, and Society Program. 

Have 30 minutes for some engaging reading? We highly recommend that you check out the panelists’ co-authored piece “Making Kin with the Machines” before the roundtable.

March 9, 2022

A Vigil for Ukraine
6:00 p.m., Miller Steps

Colby joins in solidarity with the people in Ukraine and those who have been displaced and impacted by the attacks on Ukrainian territory. Gather with the community to hear reflections, music, and poetry from Ukrainians and those directly affected. All are welcome.

March 7, 2022

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
6:30 p.m., Live Zoom Webinar

Join us for a conversation with the award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers as she discusses her two most recent books, The Age of Phillis (2020) and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois (2021). Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry. Honorée has won fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Aspen Summer Words Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the MacDowell Colony, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Witter Bynner Foundation through the Library of Congress. In consideration of Honorée’s scholarly research on Phillis Wheatley Peters, she was elected to the American Antiquarian Society, a learned organization to which fourteen U.S. Presidents have been elected. She has won the 2018 Harper Lee Award for Literary Distinction, and in 2020, she was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame; both notations recognize lifetime achievement.

Sponsored by the Center for the Arts and Humanities, The Margaret T McFadden Fund for Humanistic Inquiry, Cultural Events Committee, and the Oak Institute for Human Rights.