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Koritha Mitchell MillerComm Lecture- Homemade Citizenship: All But Inviting Injury

Event Type
Lecture
Sponsor
University of Illinois Press; Center for Advanced Study; African American Research Center, College of Education, Department of African American Studies, Department of English, Department of Gender & Women's Studies, Department of History, Department of Theatre, Humanities Research Institute, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Date
Oct 8, 2020   7:00 pm  
Registration
Registration
Contact
Center for Advanced Study
E-Mail
cas@illinois.edu
Phone
217-333-6729
Views
91
Originating Calendar
University of Illinois Press Events Calendar

Even when they embody everything the nation claims to respect, African Americans cannot count on being treated like citizens. Simply consider the black soldiers and nurses who served in the Civil War, WWI, and WWII only to be disfranchised and denigrated … or consider the Ivy League-educated constitutional lawyer who rose to the office of president only to face demands that he “show his papers,” his birth certificate and academic transcripts. Though their success will not likely bring them the safety and respectability it should, African Americans seem to cling to all that purportedly makes one an ideal citizen, including the heteronormative nuclear family and its traditional household. What does this pattern of investing against the odds reveal about African American culture? The short answer: homemade citizenship.

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Hosted by: University of Illinois Press

In conjunction with: African American Research Center, College of Education, Department of African American Studies, Department of English, Department of Gender & Women's Studies, Department of History, Department of Theatre, Humanities Research Institute, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research

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Speaker: Koritha Mitchell | Associate Professor of English, Ohio State University

Koritha Mitchell is a literary historian, cultural critic, and associate professor of English at Ohio State University. She is author of Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, which won book awards from the American Theatre and Drama Society and from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. She is editor of the Broadview Edition of Frances Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy, and her articles include “James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the Blues for Mister Charlie,” published by American Quarterly, and “Love in Action,” which appeared in Callaloo and draws parallels between lynching and violence against LGBTQ+ communities. Her second monograph, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture, was published in August 2020 by the University of Illinois Press. Her commentary has appeared in outlets such as CNNGood Morning AmericaThe Huffington PostNBC NewsPBS Newshour, and NPR's Morning Edition. On Twitter, she’s @ProfKori.

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