The Humanities Council SC Awards Grant for Black Lives Matter Speaker Series at USC Upstate

SPARTANBURG, SC – An $8,000 grant from The Humanities Council SC is assisting The Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate to host a speaker series on 21^st century race relations entitled, Black Lives Matter, this fall. This series is a collaborative effort among USC Upstate faculty members Dr. Lisa Johnson, Dr. Carmen Harris, Dr. Cassandra Jones and Dr. Laura Jennings.

The Black Lives Matter Speaker Series is well-timed as recent news headlines and social media have been flooded with stories of unarmed African Americans most of whom were young men killed by white police officers.

Presenting a series of three speakers will permit the organizers to shape the conversation responsibly by featuring the ideas of scholars who have devoted their careers to understanding the history of ideas about racial differences that sometimes divide our population. The professors believe that the pain and division in U.S. culture over this deepening racial divide must be met with new ideas and persistent efforts toward community-based cross-racial communication, mutual understanding, and meaningful multi-racial alliances in the service of a more just United States—and a more just South Carolina.

For more information, contact Lisa Johnson, director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, at (864) 503-5724 or [email protected].