Ithaca College

Cosponsored with the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights

Friday June 5, 2020  11 AM-Noon in Eastern Daylight Time (US and Canada) UTC-4:00

Register HERE

Speakers:

Dr. Christopher House, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies

Mr. Travis Brooks, Deputy Director, Greater Ithaca Activities Center

Dr. Nicole Horsley, Assistant Professor, Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Dr. Kenneth I. Clarke, Director, Office of Human Rights Tompkins County 

Moderated by Yolanda Clarke, Center for Academic Advancement and Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education

In partnership with the Ithaca College Honors program and the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights, join City of Ithaca community leaders and Ithaca College faculty in our latest Rapid Response Salon conversation that focuses on Black bodies, racist rhetoric, and violence in the context of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and subsequent protests across the United States and the world. Hear their insights in an engaging live format meant to offer considered commentary and community dialogue.

BIOS 

Dr. Christopher A. House is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Ithaca College. He researches black pentecostal rhetoric/social action, rhetorical theology, critical media and digital studies, difference/diversity and inclusion, Black church studies, African American rhetoric, rhetorical theory/criticism. The Journal of Communication and Religion, Southern Journal of Communication, Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, Journal of Race & Public Policy, International Journal of Communication, and Memphis Theological Seminary Journal have published his essays. His book, Touch Your Neighbor and Say, “Black Lives Matter!”: Rhetoric, Race & Religion in the Age of #BLACKLIVESMATTER will be published late 2020.

Mr. Travis Brooks has served Ithaca community youth and families for the past twenty-six years. As the Deputy Director at the Great Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), he serves as The MBK Ithaca Director for The City of Ithaca. The MBK Ithaca program has flourished under his leadership with over 200 young men and women of color participating in its ongoing programs over the past two years. Over sixteen community organizations have collaborated with MBK Ithaca. He received the 2008 Tompkins County 40 Under 40 Award, the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award from Tompkins Cortland Community College, and several other leadership awards.

Dr. M. Nicole Horsley is a Black radical femme teacher and scholar of African American and African Diaspora Studies. She is Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity (CSCRE) and affiliated faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at Ithaca College. Her current project argues for a Black sexual liberation theory as a framework that works in the apertures between pleasure and political demands, between utopian longings and the everyday failures of anti-blackness. The project unapologetically advocates for a collective response to anti-Black violence and killings across the globe in order to imagine Black liberation.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth I. Clarke, Sr. is the Director of the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights in Ithaca, NY. He was Director of Cornell United Religious Work at Cornell University from 2001-2017. Previously he served as Director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs and as an Instructor in African/African American Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Clarke was also co-pastor of the Albright Bethune United Methodist Church in State College, PA. He worked at Third Baptist Church of San Francisco (1987-1990), initially as Director of Development for the church’s Ethiopian Refugee Resettlement Project, and later as Assistant Pastor.