Friday, September 13, 2019

#RaceB4Race and how you can help create a better future for the field


If you have been following the hashtags #ASS #ISAS #medievaltwitter #Shakerace and more on social media you know the disheartening struggles that continue to unfold in the field ... as well as some of the profoundly good interventions well underway. The latter center around the foregrounding and amplification of the voices of scholars of color, especially early career. In the aftermath of the submissions from Medievalists of Color being rejected from a major medieval conference, it was obvious (to some at least) that there had to be a better way: a door that opens and sustains community, a place of welcome, a shelter for forging a better future for the past. This kind of access is wholly consonant with the ASU charter and with Ayanna Thompson as the new director of ACMRS it made sense to hold something at ASU if possible as an affirmative counter-vision. The project that came from this impetus was a convergence of MOC and #Shakerace called Race Before Race, which through (admittedly cobbled together) funding enabled ten extraordinary scholars to have the space, time and agency to found a new kind of community. Race Before Race 2 just unfolded in DC in partnership with the Folger. Ayanna Thompson as director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies is an absolute rockstar -- and the now twenty scholars who are the guiding geniuses of the collective have made it clear that there really is a better way.

We will soon be setting up a dedicated #RaceB4Race account to fund young in the field as well as independent & under-resourced scholars of color to access future symposia, enabling even more to be a part of these gatherings as they continue. In the meantime, however, starting immediately ANY donation that anyone now makes at the ACMRS website will be used to fund this participation and inclusion. Just choose the "Public Programs" option and know that any resources you provide go directly to building a more capacious field at a time when too many seem intent on policing its boundaries. Build doors not walls. And when the doors are built keep them open and place a welcome mat in front.

Follow the link below if you would like to help. And thanks. It means a lot!

4 comments:

Jonathan Hsy said...

Yay! So excited about this Jeffrey, and thanks to you and Ayanna (as ever) for really taking the field in new directions.

As a founding member of #RaceB4Race and member of its Executive Committee (along with Cord), I am eager to support this effort. Please do let us know when the designated #RaceB4Race account has been set up and I'll be happy to donate! (I just want to be certain that my donation will go directly and exclusively to Rb4R endeavors.)

Onward! - Jonathan

Jeffrey Cohen said...

Public Programs, for the time being. Here is the direct link:
https://giving.asu.edu/OrderApi__campaign?id=a1Y30000000sgEEEAY&site=a0J3000000D2jwmEAB&catalogid=a0V3000000AkS0o

Jeffrey Cohen said...

Soon we will have a dedicated RaceB4Race link, but that will take our development officer returning to town and getting it in place. In the meantime any donations to Public Programs will support the RaceB4Race travel and access fund.

Jonathan Hsy said...

OK Jeffrey, thanks for the update and I'll look out for the dedicated Rb4R link!