Affinity Networks 2019 Schedule

A list of classes open to visitors is available online, and will be provided in your registration packet.

Various locations

Stop by to pick up your name tag and program information. Open until 5 p.m.

First Floor Lobby, Science Center

• Memory and the Black Experience at Amherst - Drop in to see Amherst's Black History preserved in the Amherst College archive. (Lower Level, Frost Library)
• Share Your Story - 9 a.m. - Noon.  Sign up for a timeslot during which you can share and record your story to add to Amherst's Black History archives. Timeslots are 30 minutes. Sign-ups will begin in March. (The Octagon)

Various locations

Meet at the Office of Admission (Wilson Center, 220 South Pleasant Street) for tours and information sessions.

• Tours - 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• Information Sessions - 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Wilson Center

Meal tickets provided in registration packets. Dining hall open until 2 p.m.

Valentine Dining Hall

Today Amherst College is significantly more diverse than it was even 20 years ago. With the varied experience of black students in mind, this session references how student participants in the Amherst Uprising articulated challenges to inclusivity, and examines how the College works to promote inclusion and a sense of belonging among students, faculty and staff of color. Staff from the office of Diversity and Inclusion will discuss the challenges for inclusion and equity in higher education today, and how their roles and campus partnerships work to shape dynamic resource centers for students of many different identities; nurture inclusive leadership across the college; and sustain best practices for recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty and staff. Featuring Katyana Dandridge ’18 and Christine Croasdaile '17 two of the group of students who played leadership roles in the Amherst Uprising; focus will be given to the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) now celebrating its 10^th anniversary. Ends at 2:30 p.m.

Friedmann Room, Keefe Campus Center

Join faculty members and alumni from the Black Studies department for a discussion about how the department prepares students for academic research, and new trends in research on race. Featuring Rhonda Cobham-Sander, Emily C. Jordan Folger Professor of Black Studies and English and Chair of Black Studies; John Erwin Drabinski, Charles Hamilton Houston '15 Professor of Black Studies; Amira Lundy-Harris '16, doctoral student, University of Maryland-College Park; Austin Lee '17, doctoral student, University of Pennsylvania; and Yasmina Martin '14, doctoral student, Yale University.

Lipton Lecture Hall (E110), Science Center

When student protesters occupied the Amherst College library for four days in November of 2015, the campus community was transfixed by the painful testimonials shared by marginalized students about their experiences at Amherst as individuals identifying as Black, brown, female, queer, trans, disabled, international, among others. In response to letters from a Black neuroscience major and a non-binary biochemistry and biophysics major, every STEM department wrote a letter of support, pledging to work with students to address their concerns. The following semester, Chemistry professor Sheila Jaswal collaborated with students to develop a project-based course, titled "Being Human in STEM" (HSTEM), to actively engage STEM students and departments in learning about and enhancing inclusion in STEM settings. Now in its sixth iteration, students drive the academic inquiry, investigating both the local experience and the literature on diversity in STEM. They then use that research to design tools and interventions to share with and enhance their own STEM community. In this panel, current HSTEM students Sam Amaka '19 and Jada Palmer '19 and Professor Sheila Jaswal will describe how HSTEM course projects and activities have continued the conversation started by students during the Uprising, connected STEM inclusion efforts across the Amherst campus, and produced resources such as the "Inclusive Curricular Practices" handbook, that have been used by STEM educators from high schools, colleges, universities, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence institutions.

Sanyu Takarimbudde '18, one of the organizers of the sit-in that led to Amherst Uprising, and one of the student pioneers who created Being Human in STEM, will join us in person or by video.

Lipton Lecture Hall (E110), Science Center

Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres and drinks while you reconnect, and make new friends. Visit the Moss Quantitative Center named in honor of Onawumi Jean Moss, Emeritus Dean of Students, who will be present. Take a tour of the new Science Center. Brief remarks at 6:00 p.m.

Living Room, Science Center

Join us for a fellowship dinner to find community with others and to celebrate the many ways that the black community at Amherst provides leadership on campus, within the alumni body, and in the larger world. Ends at 9 p.m.

Lewis-Sebring Dining Commons, Valentine Hall

Stop by to pick up your name tag and program information. Open until 10:30 a.m.

Val Atrium

Reserved tables in the mezzanine will allow alumni the option to network, in smaller groups around affinities and identities: LGBTQ+, first generation, student athlete, participant in a student performance group and more. All are invited to suggest other groups for connection when you register. Dining hall is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Meal tickets will be in your registration packet.

Mezzanine, Valentine Dining Hall

This presentation will look at some of the ways digital humanities approaches might be implemented in the service of re-membering the experiences of Black alumni at Amherst College. "Digital humanities" describes a broad constellation of methods for using digital technologies to collect, analyze, and present different kinds of information. In this presentation we will survey a variety of techniques and approaches that can also potentially help audience members get started with their own explorations in digital storytelling. Panelists include: Marisa Parham, Professor of English, Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Officer; Andrew W. Smith ‘18 and Christin Washington ’17.

Pruyne Lecture Hall, Fayerweather Hall

Enjoy BBQ lunch with peers and students over a panel discussion about careers. Panelists at different moments of life and career will offer brief remarks about navigating careers and sustaining identity in a variety of environments, after which time the program opens up for larger discussion. Panelists include: Stephen M. Jackson '94, Senior Scientist, Translational Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Development, Morphotek, Inc.; Nicholaus Mollel '10, programmer, Boston Software; Annette Sanderson '82, Executive Director, City of Hartford Housing Authority; and Savannah West '15, second-year student at the University of Chicago Law School. Moderated by Emily Griffen, Director of the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning. Co-Sponsored by the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning.

The Powerhouse

Join us for the final Bi-Semester of the semester. Beginning with its first service 24 years ago, the Hermenia T. Gardner Bi-Semester Worship Series, was designed for and by students to provide an on-campus Christian worship experience which affirms African-American religious traditions. The uniqueness of the African-American religious experience lends itself to the renewal of our deep spiritual feelings and to the uplifting of ourselves and our community. We welcome Rev. Timothy Adkins-Jones as the preacher. The entire college community is warmly invited to come share with us in the worship service and the time of fellowship with soul food immediately following. We are excited to welcome returning alums as we celebrate! Ends at 3 p.m.

Chapin Chapel, Chapin Hall

• Mead Art Museum - Recent Acquisitions by Artists of Color
  Student educator DeLyna Hadgu '21 will guide conversations in the Mead's study room, where recent acquisitions by artists of color will be on view, or visit on your own to see the Mead's great collection
• Memory and the Black Experience at Amherst - Drop in to see Amherst's Black History preserved in the Amherst College archive. (Lower Level, Frost Library)
• Share Your Story - Sign up for a timeslot during which you can share and record your story to add to Amherst's Black History archives. Timeslots are 30 minutes. Sign-ups will begin in March. (The Octagon)
• The Beneski Museum of Natural History: The Museum houses outstanding collections and exhibits that include vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, minerals and other geologic specimens collected locally and from around the world since 1825. Particularly noteworthy is the world-famous dinosaur track collection. Bring your cameras!

Various locations

Black history at Amherst is continually being made through the achievements and work of students, faculty, staff and alumni. Learn how these histories are reflected in the College archives through a joint presentation by Mike Kelly, head of the Archives and Special Collections, and Ramses Ngachoko '21, student researcher. The presentation will walk through some of the significant material in the archives, interpret some of the historical stories that the material supports, and identify questions and needs that can potentially be answered by alumni/students willing to share their stories for posterity. Topics explored will be campus activism, the evolution of student organizations and the lives of black alumni from the nineteenth century.

Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

Bulaong Ramiz-Hall, Director of the Multicultural Resource Center, will moderate a discussion which will bring students and alumni together in exploring their time on campus across generations to identify common challenges, and sources of strength.

Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall

Follow up with students/alumni you met over the course of the weekend over drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Reception ends at 7:30 p.m.

Lobby, Converse Hall

Come through in your best cultural or formal wear. We’ll be celebrating Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora by coming together with great food, great company and great performances! Alumni attendees and guests for Black Alumni Weekend are welcome to join, please register for the dinner.

The Powerhouse

Walk into town or to Valentine for dinner on your own, with old friends and/or new friends in order to extend conversations begun in the course of this reunion.

Light refreshments will be provided. Co-sponsored by the African and Caribbean Students' Union (ACSU), the Black Student Union (BSU), the Council of Amherst College Student-Athletes of Color (CACSAC), and Remnant.

The Gerald Penny '77 Center, the Octagon

Meal tickets are provided in registration packets. Dining Hall open until 9:30 a.m.

Valentine Dining Hall

Remember and honor our brothers and sisters who have passed away since the last Black Alumni Weekend in 2017 and all Amherst College Black alumni, faculty and staff who have passed through and passed away since the beginning of the College. Facilitiated by Everett "Skip" Jenkins '75.

Gerald Penny Center, Octagon

Meal tickets are provided in registration packets. Dining Hall open until 2 p.m.

Valentine Dining Hall