country and on our campus,”
Downing
said.
“There’s
a
growing
need
for
more
inclusive research and teaching
pedagogies that acknowledge
intersections
of
social
identities, and there’s a growing
pipeline of multiracial students,
staff and faculty.”
The panel included Martha
Jones, a professor of history
and Afroamerican and African
Studies and co-director of the
Michigan Law Program in
Race, Law and History, as well
as Edward West, professor
emeritus in the School of Art &
Design, and Mark Kamimura-
Jimenez, Rackham director of
Graduate Student Success.
All three faculty panelists
raised
points
about
the
experiences
of
multiracial
people,
the
diversity
of
multiracial students on campus
and responded to the question,
“What does it mean to be
multiracial in a monoracial
world?” Each also focused on
an aspect specific to their own
story, research and work at the
University.
West, the first to speak, was
born to an African-American
father from Cincinnati and a
German mother from Berlin.
West, who grew up in New York
City, has been a practicing artist
since he was 17 years old and a
teacher since he was 22, both
professions are what he refers
to as “central strands” of who
he is as a person.
“Being mixed is about living
within a very particular state of
consciousness, and so is being
an artist,” West said. “Being
mixed is about seeing things,
accessing experiences in new
combinations, and so is being
an artist. Whether we like it or
not, whether we choose it or not,
being mixed is also about being a
teacher, about the conversations
that always arise as we explain
to others who we are.”
West said the interlacing
of place, person and time has
always been key to his work,
as well as thinking how these
contexts change who a person
is, how people see themselves
and how others see them.
West
has
dedicated
more than a decade to his
photography
project,
“So
Called.” Centered primarily on
mixed race, the project focuses
on geography, as West explored
many different locations to
complete his project, including
Honolulu and Havana, Cuba.
“So much of mixed-race
literature and commentary had
revolved around the pressures
to choose one race or ethnic
identity over the multiplicity of
one’s true lineage,” West said. “I
wanted (my daughter) to know
that there were places where
her cultural conditioning were
the norm, not the exception. I
wanted her to understand that
she didn’t have to subsume one
part of her heritage in favor
of another. I wanted her to be
proud of being this and that.”
According to West, to say
mixed
race
or
multiethnic
means attempting to unpack the
concept of race among broader
cultural context.
“ ‘So Called’ is a modifier
that calls out the limits of
naming,”
West
said.
“For
this project it also calls out
the limits of any attempt to
quantify, qualify and delimit
who we are as mixed people.”
Jones retold the story of how
she began researching for a book
about racial identity in the United
States, particularly mixed-race
identity. While doing research,
Jones said she discovered aspects
of her own identity that were
unknown to her.
“If the generations before
mine had kept their silence,
preferring
dissemblance
to
socially awkward disclosure,
I was different,” Jones said. “I
was prepared to put it out there
and let others make of it what
they liked.”
FACULTY
From Page 1
2 — Tuesday, October 27, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
Your
weekly
Jim
Harbaugh-ism, on the
topic of hypotheticals
from last Saturday’s game:
“If worms had machine
guns, then birds (would) be
scared of them.”
2
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
Northern Afghanistan
was hit by a 7.5
magnitude earthquake
Monday. According to The
Guardian, more than 180
people have been killed.
Abdullah Abdullah, chief
executive of Afghanistan,
said that the earthquake was
one of the strongest recently.
1
Ben Carson, former
neurosurgeon
and
a
University
alum,
increased
his
lead
in Iowa ahead of Donald
Trump.
Carson
is
now
favored
by
32
percent
versus
Trump
who
is
favored
by
18
perccent,
Bloomberg Politics reported.
3
Fast Food for
Thought
WHAT: This event
will bring together 10
interdisciplinary faculty
members to talk about food
and agriculture.
WHO: UM Sustainable
Food Systems Initiative
WHEN: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
WHERE: Dana Natural
Resources Building, 1040
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
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TUESDAY:
Campus Voices
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Photos of the Week
WEDNESDAY:
In Other Ivory Towers
MONDAY:
This Week in History
Biological
chemistry
WHAT: Andrew
Spakowitz, associate
professor of chemical
engineering, will be
giving a seminar about
biomolecular kinetics.
WHO: Bioligical
Chemistry Department
WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: Medical
Science Building
Assessing al-
Qaradawi
WHAT: Prof. Jakob
Skovgaard- Petersen from
the University of Copen-
hagen is giving a speech
on Arab revolutions.
WHO: Center for
Middle Eastern and
North African Studies
WHEN: 4 p.m.
to 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: International
Institute, 1636
The Partisan
Divide talk
WHAT: Former
Congressmen Martin
Frost and Tom Davis will
speak about their book
“The Partisan Divide:
Congress in Crisis.”
WHO: Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Library
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Gerald
Ford Library
Fellows Info
Session
WHAT: Students interested
in the Carnegie Jr. Fellows
Program are invited to this
info session.
WHO: The Career Center
WHEN: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: The Career
Center, Program Room
Please report any
error in the Daily
to corrections@
michigandaily.com.
Latin music
guest recital
WHAT: Three multi-
media acts will perform
Latin-American
electronic music as part
of a travelling audiovisual
concert series.
WHO: School of Music,
Theatre & Dance
WHEN: 8 p.m.
WHERE: Walgreen
Drama Center, Stamps
Auditorium
LAUREN BARRETT
Campus funny girl
Business
senior
Lauren
Barrett is involved in an
improv
comedy
group,
Midnight
Book
Club,
as
well as Funny or Die at the
University.
What do you do for each
organization?
Midnight Book Club is
a long-form improv team.
In an MBC show, we get a
suggestion from the audience,
then proceed to create a
30-minute montage of scenes
based on that suggestion.
Funny or Die University
of
Michigan
is
a
brand
ambassadorship for Funny or
Die. The goal is to unite and
incubate comics on campus.
I am one of the ambassadors
alongside Ryan McDonough,
and we put on shows, make
sketches, have writers’ rooms
and panels, etc.
Why business and
comedy?
My dream is to become a
marketer, improviser, and
mix the two. The fear is that
I become Michael Scott of
sorts. The dream is that I
don’t. I really like improv and
sketch, and I really want to
work with people who care
about it at its core.
How has your experience
at the University made that
possible?
Stephen M. Ross is my
comedy idol. Actually, it’s
helped me learn to self-
start. I don’t need to wait for
permission to make sketches
or start an improv team; I can
do it on my own.
What’s your favorite
thing about being a
University student?
The homework. I love that
it’s constant, I can rely on it
and no matter what I do, it’ll
never go away. It’s like a really
great boyfriend. This is cliché
and college-brochure-esque,
but I don’t think I’ll ever
surround myself with such a
diverse group again, in terms
of interests and personalities.
—MEGAN DOYLE
Research
lunch
WHAT: This lunch is
for students who are
interested in learning
about emerging climate
change adaptation and
public health research.
WHO: Graham
Sustainability Institute
WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
WHERE: School of Public
Health, Community Room
CLAIRE ABDO/Daily
Friends and family gather to support and pray with injured
Business junior Taylor Janssen on the Diag on Monday.
NIGHT OF PR AYE R
Yale prof. presents on human
ability to endure toxic materials
Speaker says
Martinique locals
link pesticides with
homosexuality
By ANNA HARITOS
Daily Staff Reporter
Homosexuality
and
environmental toxins may be
unexpected topical pairings for
a research study, but Monday,
Yale University Prof. Vanessa
Agard-Jones
explored
both
in the context of a curious
story from the French island
Martinique.
Faculty
members
and
graduate students listened as
Agard-Jones
explained
her
research on homosexuality and
gender transgression, both of
which she said are frequently
discussed topics in Martinique.
In recent years, her research
has shifted to include a story
about the island’s relationship
to
bodily
contamination
by
chlordecone, a pesticide better
known as Kepone in the United
States, that was once used on
the island’s banana plantations.
Agard-Jones said the Kepone
contamination began in 1979
when inclement weather hit
the island’s banana population,
and the farmers, struggling
to rebuild their farms, faced a
plague of insects. Plantation
owners insisted that the only
answer to the issue was a
chemical solution.
Kepone
was
sought
by
pesticide
distributing
companies on Martinique. It was
historically imported from the
United States, but after a plant
spill in 1958, the distribution
and production were halted and
made illegal in the U.S. In 1981
the companies and plantation
owners, through political and
economic pressure, acquired
permission
to
distribute
Kepone, and ultimately bought
the patent to produce it. It wasn’t
until 1990 that the French
government stepped in to stop
the production and distribution
due to the increased levels
contaminating the island.
“The body has memory,” she
said, quoting Jamaican poet
Claudia Rankine. “The physical
carriage hauls more than its
weight.”
She said the World Cancer
Research
Fund
ranks
Martinique
as
having
the
highest age-standardized rate
of prostate cancer diagnosis
per 100,000 people. In addition
to the rate of cancer diagnoses,
she said island residents believe
there may be a connection
between
the
pesticide
and
homosexuality
and
gender
transgression.
“This issue with the pesticide
is an occasion right now for
people to ask questions about
where this ‘desire’ comes from,”
Agard-Jones said.
She said when this chemical
breaks down in the environment,
it produces estrogen-mimicking
chemicals that are then ingested
by humans and animals.
“These are compounds that
can
actually
raise
estrogen
loads in the body,” she said. “So
then the question that is raised
then is what happens when
we become more estrogenic?
What does that do? Does that
change our desires? Does that
change the way that we present
ourselves in terms of our gender
presentation? There are no hard
facts
about
what
becoming
estrogenic
does
besides
actually emergent studies about
estrogenic male bodies and
their relationship to cancer.”
In
addition
to
raising
these questions, Agard-Jones
addressed her latest project:
a book titled “Body Burdens:
Toxic Endurance and Decolonial
Desire in the French Atlantic.”
“The
book
will
explore
the ways in which Caribbean
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Art & Design Prof. Edward West discusses his works examining the lives and experiences of multiracial people during
a faculty panel in Hatcher Graduate Library on Monday.
Louise Glück
reading
WHAT: Louise Glück,
author and writer-in-
residence at Yale University,
will be reading her works
and doing a book signing.
WHO: Helen Zell
Writers’ Program
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: University
Museum of Art, APSE
See FACULTY, Page 3
See TOXIC, Page 3