As a body of concerned AU faculty, we are writing to let you know that we stand firmly in support of you in this time of tension and stress. We hear your voices. Your anger, your sadness, your frustration and your calls for action are justified. We are proud of your tenacity and your courage to demand change.
Like you, we are dismayed, saddened and angry, and we vigorously condemn the past month's racist acts as abhorrent and unacceptable at AU or anywhere else in our world. We recognize that the past month’s residence hall incidents are only the most recent in a series of racist events on AU’s campus. The overall climate at AU has been and still is far from affirming or inclusive for students of color.
We write this letter to make a public statement of our shared commitment to bolster your efforts and to continue to call upon AU to make substantive and structural changes to combat racism, particularly anti-blackness, on our campus. Our office doors are always open. We are here to listen to your concerns and ideas. We offer our individual and collective support and leverage to help make this campus safe, welcoming and equitable for all students.
Yet, our purpose in writing this letter isn’t simply to offer encouragement and support. We are committed to working with students on strategies for achieving many of the concrete points of action that have been enumerated at public events.
#solidaritywithoursisters
**This letter was conceived of and generated by a core group of faculty in the Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies Collaborative (CRGC) and the Humanities Lab working group, Races, Empires, & Diasporas (RED). We encourage all AU departments and schools to come up with their own specific action plans in consultation with students.
Signed,
Theresa Runstedtler
Associate Professor of History; Chair of Critical Race, Gender & Culture Studies
Collaborative; Co-Chair of Races, Empires, and Diasporas Humanities Lab Working Group
Lily Wong
Assistant Professor of Literature; Co-Chair of Races, Empires, and Diasporas Humanities
Lab Working Group
Tristan Cabello
Director of American Studies, Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies Collaborative
Stef Woods
Instructor, American Studies, Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies Collaborative
Angie Chuang
Associate Professor of Journalism, School of Communications
Keith Leonard
Associate Professor of Literature; Director of African American and African Diaspora
Studies, Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies Collaborative
Bette Dickerson
Associate Professor of Sociology
David Vine
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Susan McDonic
Assistant Professor of Sociology; Interim Director of Asian Studies, Critical Race, Gender, &
Culture Studies Collaborative
Despina Kakoudaki
Associate Professor of Literature; Director, Humanities Lab
Sarah Trembath
College Writing Instructor
Cara Okopny
Professorial Lecturer, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Critical Race, Gender, &
Culture Studies Collaborative
Martyn Oliver
Director, Arab World Studies, Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies Collaborative;
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Lauren Weis
Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Critical Race, Gender, & Culture Studies
Collaborative; Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Kate Haulman
Associate Professor of History
Eileen Findlay
Professor of History
Leena Jayaswal
Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts, School of Communication
Adrienne Pine
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Director, Health Inequity & Care Program
Malini Ranganathan
Assistant Professor, School of International Service
Omekonga Dibinga
Professorial Lecturer, SPExS, School of International Service
Rachel Louise Snyder
Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Journalism, College of Arts and Sciences and
School of Communication
Ana Serra
Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Department of World
Languages and Cultures
Jeff Middents
Associate Professor of Literature
Isaiah Wooden
Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Max Paul Friedman
Professor of History
Kendra Salois
Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Lindsey Green-Simms
Assistant Professor of Literature
Mary Ellen Curtin
Associate Professor of History
Evan Berry
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion
Kyle Dargan
Associate Professor of Literature, Director of Creative Writing
Ying-Chen Peng
Assistant Professor, Department of Art
Rachel Watkins
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Juliana Martínez
Assistant Professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Peter Kuznick
Professor of History; Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute
Sarah Snyder
Associate Professor, School of International Service
Esther Ibáñez-Holtermann
Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Gay Young
Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology
Annie Claus
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Richard C. Sha
Professor of Literature; Affiliate Professor of Philosophy and Religion; Member, Center for
Behavioral Neuroscience
Elke Stockreiter
Assistant Professor of History
Jordanna Matlon
Assistant Professor, School of International Service
Linda Voris
Assistant Professor of Literature
Naïma Hachad
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Department of World Languages
and Cultures
Celine-Marie Pascale
Associate Professor of Sociology; Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Visiting Assistant Professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing
Mary Switalski
Professorial Lecturer, College Writing Program
Hunter Hoskins
Writing Instructor, College Writing Program
Amanda Choutka
Professorial Lecturer, College Writing Program, Department of Literature
Erik Dussere
Associate Professor of Literature
Dustin Friedman
Assistant Professor of Literature
Sonya Grier
Professor of Marketing, Kogod School of Business
David Pike
Professor of Literature
Tom Ratekin
Assistant Professor of Literature
Lacey Wootton
Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature
Kim M. Blankenship
Professor of Sociology; Director, Center on Health, Risk and Society; Director, Social and
Behavioral Sciences (SBS) Core, DC CFAR
Cara Gabriel
Assistant Professor, Department of Performing Arts
Randa Serhan
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Rachel Sullivan Robinson
Associate Professor, School of International Service
Erin Collins
Assistant Professor, School of International Studies
Emily Lindsay
Executive in Residence, Kogod School of Business
Jane Palmer
Professorial Lecturer, School of Public Affairs; Director, Community-Based Research
Scholars
David Keplinger
Professor of Literature
Yinqi Zhang
Associate Professor, Kogod School of Business
Heather A. McDonald
Professorial Lecturer, College Writing Program, Department of Literature
John Hyman
Director, College Writing Program, Department of Literature
Fiona Brideoake
Assistant Professor of Literature
Amanda Berry
Assistant Professor of Literature
Sybil R. Williams
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Performing Arts
Stephanie Grant
Assistant Professor of Literature
Andrea Malkin Brenner
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Edward Helfers
Instructor of Literature
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Associate Professor of Education and Sociology; Director, International Training and
Education Program
Marnie Twigg
Instructor, College Writing, Department of Literature
Glenn Moomau
Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature
Adam Tamashasky
Senior Professorial Lecturer, College Writing, Department of Literature
Roberta Rubenstein
Professor of Literature
Richard McCann
Professor of Literature
Kate Wilson
Associate Chair of Literature
Melissa Scholes Young
College Writing Program, Department of Literature
Sarah Marsh
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature
Kelly Joyner
College Writing Program
Alison Thomas
Senior Professorial Lecturer, College Writing Program
Nina Shapiro-Perl
Filmmaker in Residence, Department of Anthropology
Stina Kasik Oakes
College Writing Program
Leah Johnson
Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature
Drew Bratcher
Adjunct Professor, Department of Literature
Gretchen Schafft
Public Anthropologist in Residence, Department of Anthropology
Lauren Wells
Professorial Lecturer, School of Education
Alida Anderson
Associate Professor, School of Education
Allison Sparks
Adjunct Professor, College Writing Program
Elizabeth Anderson Worden
Associate Professor, School of Education
Anita Gilman Sherman
Associate Professor of Literature
Mary Mintz
Associate Librarian, University Library
Luis Cerezo
Assistant Professor, Director of Spanish Language Program, Department of World
Languages and Cultures
Sarah Irvine Belson
Director, MA in Special Education: Learning Disabilities, Executive Director, Institute for
Innovation in Education, School of Education
Debbie Kleinbord
Adjunct Professor, School of Education
Molly Dondero
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Chenyang Xiao
Associate Professor of Sociology
Nicole Angotti
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Vivian Maria Vasquez
Professor, School of Education
Malgorzata J. Rymsza-Pawlowska
Associate Director, Graduate Program in Public History, Assistant Professor, Department of
History
Marilyn Goldhammer
Associate Director for Pedagogy, CTRL; Educator-in- Residence, School of Education
Dan Kerr
Associate Professsor of History, Director of Public History
Gautham Rao
Assistant Professor of History
Brendon Vayo
Adjunct Professor of Literature
Cindy Bair Van Dam
Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature; Chair, General Education
Committee, Director, Complex Problems Community
Marianne Noble
Associate Professor of Literature
Brenda Werth
Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Director of Graduate Studies,
Department of World Languages and Cultures
Ludy Grandas
Professorial Lecturer, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Alex R. Hodges
Associate Librarian, University Library; Affiliate Associate Professor, School of Education
Caron L. Martinez
Director, Kogod Center for Business Communications, Adjunct Professor, Department of
Management, Kogod School of Business
Lydia Morris Fettig
Senior Professorial Lecturer, College Writing Program, Department of Literature
Hildie Block
Adjunct Professor, College Writing Program, Department of Literature
Nathaniel Conroy
Adjunct Professor, Department of Literature
Michael Polson
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
Siobhán McGuirk
Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
Julie Wesp
Professorial Lecturer, Department of Anthropology