Speaker Biographies

atalibi — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 14:24:39 +0000

Speaker Biographies Aifer Talibi Thursday, 3/7/2019, at 9:24 AM

JOHN ERWIN DRABINSKI

John E. Drabinski teaches widely in the Caribbean and African-American intellectual traditions, with special emphasis on francophone critical theory and various ways of thinking about transnational cultural contact and cultural production in the African diaspora. He is Charles Hamilton Houston 1915 Professor of Black Studies in the Department of Black Studies at Amherst College. In addition to editing numerous books and journal issues he has published over three dozen essays in European and Africana critical theory. Some of his publications include Sensibility and Singularity (2001) and Levinas and the Postcolonial Race, Nation, Other (2011).

John's current research includes a recently completed manuscript Unimaginable Price: Baldwin and the Black Atlantic, a book-length study of James Baldwin and black Atlantic critical theory, and a short book entitled What is the Afro-Postmodern?

STEPHEN M. JACKSON '94

Stephen Jackson graduated from Amherst in '94 with a major in Biology and minor in Theatre and Dance Studies. Since receiving his doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UMASS Amherst, Stephen continues to lead a dual career. As Principal Scientist in both academic and biomedical industries, he pursues better understanding and eventual eradication of cancer and infectious diseases. He also founded his SJDP-PORABBA Dance Company to communicate love and social awareness through dance and mixed genre performances. As a guest lecturer, mentor, and theologian, Stephen emphasizes how the arts help influence creative thinking in the sciences which leads to unexpected breakthroughs.

SHEILA S. JASWAL

Sheila Jaswal is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department and Program in Biophysics and Biochemistry and Director of the "Being Human in STEM" (HSTEM) Initiative at Amherst College. With a team of undergraduate researchers, she studies the interplay between protein stability, dynamics and function using a combined biophysical and computational approach. In spring 2016 she collaborated with students to develop the Being Human in STEM" (HSTEM) course model in response to a campus-wide protest calling for a more welcoming and inclusive learning-living environment. In the course, students drive the academic inquiry, investigating both the local experience and the literature on diversity in STEM, then design tools and interventions to enhance their own STEM community and sense of belonging. As the HSTEM Director, she facilitates the HSTEM course in collaboration with students, staff and faculty colleagues, organizes campus and regional HSTEM events, gives talks and workshops at colleges, universities and conferences nationwide, oversees a growing HSTEM network and collaborates with HSTEM affiliates at other institutions, and shares curricular and other HSTEM resources at www.beinghumaninstem.com.

EVERETT W. JENKINS JR.

Everett W. Jenkins Jr., Senior Assistant City Attorney for the City of Richmond, California, has been recognized by Marquis Who's Who Top Lawyers for dedication, achievements, and leadership in legal services. With nearly 40 years of professional experience, Mr. Jenkins has served as the senior assistant city attorney for the City of Richmond, CA, since 2005.

Mr. Jenkins began his career as a student at Amherst College, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in 1975. He continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1978. While at Amherst he received the Robert Leeds Award for Public Service in 1975 and won the Kellogg Prize for Public Speaking in 1972. Mr. Jenkins was on the track team that won the Little Three Championship in 1972 and served as the Chairman of the Afro-American Society from 1974-1975. He was also the President (Coordinator) of the Amherst Debate Society in 1974.

In addition to his legal work, Mr. Jenkins is a celebrated author and respected voice in Islamic and African history. He is the author of the first three volumes of "Pan-African Chronology," the first two volumes of "The Muslim Diaspora," "The Creation," and "The Muslim Compendium."

For his contributions to his community, Mr. Jenkins was named Rita Davis Volunteer of the Year, Fred Breen Humanitarian of the Year by the West Contra Costa YMCA, and he received the President Volunteer Service Award from the YMCA of the East Bay. In addition, he was selected for inclusion in several editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the West, and Who's Who in the World.

MIKE KELLY

Mike Kelly is the head of the Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College, where he oversees the school's collection of more than 80,000 rare books along with a host of archival and manuscript collections. He has worked in special collections for over twenty years; he spent eleven years as the Curator of Books at the Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University before coming to Amherst in 2009. He has held many positions within the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association, including a term as RBMS Chair in 2011-12, and he is an active member of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums (ATALM).

He received his Master in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin where he spent two years as an intern at the Harry Ransom Center; he also holds an MA in English from the University of Virginia. In 2016, he was awarded the Reese Fellowship for American Bibliography and the History of the Book in the Americas by the Bibliographical Society of America for his work on the bibliography of Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut. He co-curated (with Carolyn Vega) the exhibition "I'm Nobody! Who Are You? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson" at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York which ran from January through May 2017.

AMIRA LUNDY-HARRIS '16

Amira Lundy-Harris is a third year Ph.D student in the Women's Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research explores how the language of kinship is used in textual exchanges among Black trans people to create networked bonds of shared knowledge and mutual support. He graduated from Amherst with a B.A. in Black Studies and Sexuality, Women's & Gender Studies. He is an Oakland native.

YASMINA MARTIN '14

Yasmina Martin is currently a first-year Ph.D student at Yale studying 20th-century African history. She graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in Black Studies and French in 2014. Between Amherst and graduate school, Yasmina taught high school in Boston and New York, worked as a disability advocate at the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx, and performed research on legacies of queer activism in Johannesburg as a Fulbright fellow. In her free time she enjoys running, trying to grow vegetables indoors, and playing violin with the New Haven Civic Orchestra.

NICHOLAUS MOLLEL '10

Nicholaus Mollel graduated from Amherst in 2010 with a Computer Science major. He moved to Boston to be a software engineer which is what he has worked as since then, mostly in the insurance industry. Beyond that he has over time, mentored a few African students from different schools in Boston whom he connected with through various different personal networks. He has also taught Swahili and done English-Swahili translations for students and researchers with work and interest in Kenya and Tanzania.

MARISA PARHAM

Marisa Parham is Professor of English at Amherst College, and directs the Immersive Reality Lab for the Humanities, which is an independent workgroup for digital and experimental humanities(irLh). Parham also serves as a faculty diversity and inclusion officer (FDIO) at Amherst College. As FDIO, Parham serves as an advocate, strategist, and consultant for diversity and inclusion, supporting both individual faculty and academic departments.

Dr. Parham's current teaching and research projects focus on texts and technologies that problematize assumptions about time, space, and bodily materiality. She is particularly interested in how such terms share a history of increasing complexity in texts produced by African Americans, and how they also offer ways of thinking about intersectional approaches to digital humanities and technology studies. Recent classes include Videogames and the Boundaries of Narrative, Black Speculative Fiction, and Deep Time: memory, media, and ecological imagination in the Americas.

Marisa Parham is also the author of Haunting and Displacement in African-American Literature and Culture (2008), The African-American Student’s Guide to College (1998), and is co-editor of Theorizing Glissant: Sites and Citations (2015). She is also the author of numerous digital curation and essay projects, including Black Haunts in the Anthropocene, Precipitation, Finding Estella: an Octavia Butler Research Pocket, and IFTTT: African American Lifeworlds and the Internet of Things.

BULAONG RAMIZ-HALL

Bulaong Ramiz-Hall joined Amherst in August 2016 with a vision towards creating a more expansive conversation about racial identity, equity, justice, and more. She believes in connection and accountability as the key to true community building and encourages students, faculty, staff, and community members to bring their full selves to the MRC. She has a B.A. in American Studies: Race and Ethnic Studies and an M.S. in Counseling. Her hometown is Hartford, CT and her hobbies include Shondaland, listening to podcasts, and playing with her pups Charli and Capone.

ANNETTE SANDERSON '82

Annette Sanderson has served as the Executive Director of The Housing Authority of the City of Hartford since, February 2012. Prior to that date, she served as the General Counsel of the Authority from 2008 until January 2012. Prior to the establishment of her own law firm, Ms. Sanderson served as the Executive Director of the Capital City Economic Development Authority (“CCEDA”) from 2005-2007. She has also been previously employed by Cigna Investment Management as a Vice President/Asset Manager and by the Office of the State Treasurer as an Assistant Investment Officer.

Ms. Sanderson currently serves as the President of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Association of Redevelopment Officials (Conn NAHRO). She has the following certifications in area of public housing: Public Housing Management (PHM), Housing Choice Voucher Executive Management, and Capital Improvement Fund Specialist.

Ms. Sanderson was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. She graduated from Amherst College in 1982 and the University Of Connecticut School Of Law in 1985.

SAVANNAH WEST '15

Savannah West is a second-year student at the University of Chicago Law School. She grew up on the South side of Chicago, attended Saint Ignatius College Prep, and graduated from Amherst College with a degree in Political Science and Art History. In her time between college and law school, Savannah worked at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP in Chicago, Hogan Lovells in Washington D.C., and also completed a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa. Savannah spent her past summers at Skadden Arps in Chicago and plans to return next summer. In her free time, Savannah enjoys listening to podcasts by African-American journalists, cooking vegan dinners for her sisters, and biking along Lake Michigan.

OFFICE OF DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Learn more about the Office of Diversity & Inclusion here .

Amherst College: Speaker Biographies