(Posted February 10, 2019)

Courtesy: Vershawn Young

Courtesy: Vershawn Young

Huntingdon, Pa. – On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Vershawn Young will give an open, public lecture at Juniata College. Titled “Black Lives Matter in Academic Spaces: Lessons for Critical Literacy,” Young’s presentation will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall, Brumbaugh Academic Center. This event is supported by the Calvert N. Ellis Memorial Lectureship and the Edwin A. & Susan R. Malloy Lectureship, and is free to all to attend.

Young’s talk will analyze online performances from the Black Lives Matter movement to show how they use and blend standard academic literacies and African American rhetoric. He will emphasize the crucial roles that racial dignity, ethics and empathy should play in education.

Young is a trans-disciplinary scholar, teacher, performance artist and actor. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where he teaches in the fields of communication, education, English and theatre.

He has authored or co-authored several books and articles focusing on topics including sociolinguistic concept code-meshing, African American English, intercultural communication, performances of masculinity and representations of race in art, film and literature. His recent publications include a book titled, Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspectives of White Authored Narratives of Black Life and an article titled, “Straight Black Queer: Obama, Code Switching, and the Gender Anxiety of African American Men.”

 

--Written by Taylor M. Smallwood ’19--

                  

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.