Bruce Western, a professor of sociology and social justice at Columbia University, led a workshop on Inequality and Social Policy on Feb. 28. Western is known for his work on incarceration in the U.S. Hopkins Professor of Political Science Vesla Weaver and Assistant Research Scientist Stuart Schrader helped facilitate the discussion.
Frederick W. Gooding, assistant professor of African American studies at Texas Christian University, spoke about his book, “American Dream Deferred: Black Federal Workers in Washington, D.C., 1941-1981” at Red Emma’s on March 2. The book chronicles the history of federal workers from 1940-1980 in reference to the modern black freedom movement.
Ju Hui Judy Han, an assistant professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, gave a lecture about the intersection of candlelight protests in South Korea and queer activism on Wed. March 6. Han’s lecture, titled “Now, Later, Never: Candlelight Protests and Queer Futurity,” was the first event in a series hosted by the program in Racism and Immigration Citizenship (RIC).
Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), discussed nuclear disarmament during the third Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) event on Wednesday.
In light of the upcoming International Women’s Day, Haley Swenson, a member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), as well as Heba Islam of #JHToo, hosted “Feminism for the 99%” to discuss the future of socialist feminism and political organization on campus. Organized by the Baltimore chapter of the ISO, the event covered a range of topics — police brutality, sexual assault, job security and Hopkins contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — through a feminist lens.
The Career Center recently announced plans to appoint additional directors to provide specialized career advice for students. There will be two new directors of career services, one for the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences and one for the Whiting School of Engineering, and each will oversee between six to eight assistant directors. These assistant directors will provide career services and opportunities to students within a specific set of departments.
University President Ronald J. Daniels announced on Tuesday evening that the school will be building a student center where the Mattin Center is currently located. At the end of the Shriver Hall reopening ceremony Daniels invited attendees to a celebration at the Beach that included food trucks, live music and seesaws. At the celebration, Daniels announced the student center project.
The Homewood Museum is displaying The Many Faces of George Washington, a special exhibit that aims to explore the story behind George Washington’s legacy and persona. The exhibit is on loan from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History with other items from regional museums and the University’s Special Collections.
March 1 marked the beginning of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration (APHC) at Hopkins — a month dedicated to recognizing and reflecting on Asian-American and Pacific Islander narratives throughout United States history.
John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C., and Ida Jones, archivist at Morgan State University, presented new research on Frederick Douglass at the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Thursday, Feb. 28. The research centered around Douglass’ experiences as a young man in Baltimore and sought to fill in narrative holes regarding his life.
As a part of the international movement against climate change, young people around the world have joined the Youth Climate Strike. According to The Guardian, students from over 50 countries will walk out of school on March 15, aiming to draw attention to the global climate crisis.
#JHToo, a coalition of student activists organizing against sexual violence at Hopkins, started a letter-writing campaign on Monday to pressure administrators to revoke Anthropology Professor Juan Obarrio’s tenure. In May 2018 Obarrio was accused of sexually assaulting a visiting graduate student.
Wendy Osefo gave a Black Heritage Celebratory Keynote Address on Wednesday in Charles Commons. Osefo is a Nigerian-American political commentator, television personality and assistant professor at the School of Education. Additionally, she founded The 1954 Equity Project, LLC which is a community-building project that serves underrepresented minority students in higher education.
Last Friday Hopkins affiliates and Baltimore residents traveled to Annapolis to testify both for and against legislation that would allow Hopkins to create a private police force.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, an associate professor of Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, discussed the intersection of climate change and inequality at Red Emma’s on Wednesday. The talk, titled “A Green New Deal, from the Left,” focused on the potential impact of climate change on housing in the U.S.
Christian J. Koot, chair of the history department at Towson University, gave a presentation on his newly released book, A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herrman’s Chesapeake on February 27. He spoke at the George Peabody Library, where August Herrman’s map is on display as part of an exhibition titled “Maryland, from the Willard Hackerman Map Collection.”
Student Government Association (SGA) members signed a letter to the Homewood Academic Council at their weekly meeting on Tuesday. The letter demanded the revocation of Anthropology Professor Juan Obarrio’s tenure following Obarrio being accused of sexually assaulting a visiting graduate student in May.
Teaching for Change’s Alison Kysia led a discussion titled “The Story of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf” on Monday. Teaching for Change is a D.C. nonprofit organization promoting social justice initiatives through educational outreach in schools. The event featured a partial screening of By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam, followed by an interactive conversation about black and Islamic representation in media. The Johns Hopkins University Muslim Association (JHUMA), the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Department of Islamic Studies co-hosted the event.
Within the last week, the University has launched a social media advertising campaign promoting its proposed private police force on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These ads have also been featured on Google.
Johns Hopkins University and Health System wields significant economic power in Baltimore. As of 2014, it holds property in the city worth almost $50 billion, employs tens of thousands of local residents and has paid about $10 million to the city in payments in lieu of taxes since 2010. Yet with 22.1 percent of Baltimore residents living in poverty, many people have scrutinized the disparity between the University’s wealth and the economic hardship experienced in the neighborhoods around many of its campuses.
