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Monday, March 18, 2024
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Students hold up fists at the #SolidarityWithOurSisters protest on Sept. 19. 

Letter to the Editor: An open letter to students of color at American University

Faculty members write in support of the #SolidarityWithOurSisters movement

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

edpage@theeagleonline.com


 Hosts Sara Winick and Sydney Hsu introduce themselves and talk about their favorite TV shows. This episode includes fun facts, recommendations and personal connections. 


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