Panels are free to attend, but registration is required.
Day 1: Monday, September 14
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David Faris is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Roosevelt University. Professor Faris focuses his research on American political institutions, elections and foreign policy. |
Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Esq., Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi |
Day 2: Tuesday, September 15
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Sandra Frink is an Associate Professor of History and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. She is a cultural historian of the United States who specializes in the study of gender, race, ethnicity, and urban public space. Her publications, including those in American Nineteenth Century History and The Journal of the History of Sexuality, focus on the nineteenth century United States, but her teaching and research interests also extend into the colonial period and the twentieth century. She teaches courses on women’s history, race and slavery, immigration history, oral history, and on the history and memory of the Civil War. Her current research analyzes identity, race, and culture in the urban streets of nineteenth-century New Orleans. |
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Professor Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor
and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. |
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Lisa G. Materson is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California at Davis, and a specialist in U.S. women’s political history. |
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Lynn Weiner is professor emerita of history at Roosevelt University, where she began teaching as an adjunct in 1983 and retired in 2017. In addition to teaching she served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Interim Provost, University Historian, and Assistant to the President. |
Day 3: Wednesday, September 16
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C. Riley Snorton, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago |
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Camilla Taylor, Director of Constitutional Litigation |
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Modesto Valle |
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LaSaia Wade is an open Afro-Puerto Rican Indigenous Trans Woman, the founder of Tennessee Trans Journey Project (TNTJ) and the founder and director of Brave Space Alliance. |
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Luis Alberto Urrea is the author of Roosevelt One Book, One University novel Into the Beautiful North. Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock-and-roll heart,” Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. |
Day 4: Thursday, September 17
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Lori E. Lightfoot is the 56th Mayor of Chicago.
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Judge Ann Claire Williams Retired Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge.
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Ameshia Cross is a leader in advocacy, public policy and progressive politics. Currently a liberal commentator for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, Cross writes and produces her own show, Cross Point, featuring daily commentary on hot button political issues. She has experience across many policy arenas. At the Pretrial Justice Institute Ameshia leads state policy and coalition engagement for bail reform throughout the country
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Julia Doh is a Cameroonian American second-year doctoral student of Clinical Psychology at Roosevelt University. She is from Maryland and moved to Chicago for graduate school. Julia is the co-president of the Psychology Diversity Committee and therapy intern at City Colleges of Chicago. She aims to be a culturally competent psychologist who works with underserved communities, especially Black populations, and wants to help de-stigmatize mental health care across the African diaspora. |
Troy Gaston is a senior political science major at Roosevelt University. He was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, specifically Robert Taylor. He now resides in Englewood. Gaston is a human rights activist. |
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Khaliya Jackson is a junior double major in Sociology and Political Science with a minor in Social Justice Studies at Roosevelt University. Being driven by their love of community, Khaliya became an RA (Resident Advisors) at Roosevelt University in addition to being the current sitting President of RU Proud, Roosevelt’s LGBT+ Student Organization. Khaliya is motivated in their work by the complexities of the world around them. Khaliya approaches life and their work as a community organizer with a love ethic, as we all should because love is the most revolutionary act one can commit. |