Professors
Vershawn
(Vay)
Young
and
Jennifer
Simpson
recently
addressed
a
few
of
the
main
ideas
in
their
recently
published
books
at
a
department
colloquium
held
on
January
23
rd,
2015.
Speaking
to
a
full
house
of
nearly
60
people
on
a
Friday
afternoon,
Vay
and
Jennifer
covered
a
range
of
issues,
including
race
and
representation,
constructions
of
Blackness
by
white
people,
higher
education
and
its
obligations
to
public
life,
and
how
undergraduate
education
might
prepare
students
to
meaningfully
contribute
to
pressing
social
questions.
Vay’s
book,
Uncle
Tom’s
Cabin
to
The
Help:
Critical
Perspectives
of
White
Authored
Narratives
of
Black
Life
(Palgrave
McMillan,
2014),
investigates
the
promise
and
perils
of
racial
ventriloquism,
that
is,
when
white
authors
appropriate
the
history
and
stories
of
black
life.
Vay
discussed
how
the
film
The
Help
(2011)
sustains
the
stereotypical
gendered
depictions
of
both
white
and
black
women
as
those
presented
in
works
such
as
Uncle
Tom’s
Cabin,
during
the
enslavement
period
in
America.
Jennifer’s
book,
Longing
for
Justice:
Higher
Education
and
Democracy’s
Agenda
(University
of
Toronto
Press,
2014),
is
an
analysis
of
how
undergraduate
education
might
best
prepare
students
to
address
the
material
conditions
of
how
people
live.
Beginning
with
a
story
in
which
a
student
called
for
“streamlined”
education,
Jennifer
addressed
how
undergraduate
education
engages
students
with
“epistemological
architectures,”
or
frameworks
for
understanding
difference
and
for
considering
what
is
unfamiliar.
Jennifer
provided
an
overview
of
her
book,
and
focused
her
comments
on
epistemological
architectures
and
epistemological
neoliberalism
,
or
ways
of
knowing
that
prioritize
individualism,
efficiency,
and
homogeneity
at
the
expense
of
our
humanity
and
the
well-being
of
the
communities
in
which
we
live.
Both
of
these
books
represent
important
contributions
to
academic
discourse
generally,
and
also
have
a
close
fit
with
the
department’s
interests
in
addressing
issues
of
meaning,
representation,
and
social
relevance.
You
can
track
these
books
down
at
the
UW
bookstore
and
Porter
Library.
