The Oscars: Why They Matter and Who Will Win with Jan Wahl
Monday, April 12 at 10:00am
REGISTER HERE (Free and Open to the Public)
Every year, we are so fortunate to have Jan Wahl share her comments and expertise on the year’s Oscar Nominees. And she will do so for us this year via Zoom! On Monday, April 12 @ 10am, join Professor Wahl as she examines why the Academy Awards matter, some of the unforgettable moments and who might go home with the gold this year. She will also journey through some of the winners and should-have beens as well as cringe worthy or inspired acceptance speeches.
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Refugees in America: Stories of Courage, Resilience, and Hope in Their Own Words
with Lee T. Bycel
Wednesday, April 14 @ 10am
REGISTER HERE (Free and Open to the Public)
Join Lee T. Bycel talk about his book Refugees in America: Stories of Courage, Resilience, and Hope in Their Own Words on Wednesday, April 14 @ 10am. Lee will share slides, comments and insights regarding this incredible project.
It is not an easy road—but hope is the oxygen of my life. These insightful words of Meron Semedar, a refugee from Eritrea, reflect the feelings of the eleven men and women featured in this book. These refugees share their extraordinary experiences of fleeing oppression, violence and war in their home countries in search of a better life in the United States.
Each chapter of Refugees in America focuses on an individual from a different country, from a 93-yearold Polish grandmother who came to the United States after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz to a young undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who became an American college graduate, despite being born impoverished and blind. Some have found it easy to reinvent themselves in the United States, while others have struggled to adjust to America, with its new culture, language, prejudices, and norms.
Each of them speaks candidly about their experiences to author Lee T. Bycel, who provides illuminating background information on the refugee crises in their native countries. Their stories help reveal the real people at the center of political debates about US immigration.
Giving a voice to refugees from such far-flung locations as South Sudan, Guatemala, Syria, and Vietnam, this book weaves together a rich tapestry of human resilience, suffering, and determination.
Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to two organizations that are doing excellent refugee resettlement work and offer many opportunities to support refugees: HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) hias.org International Rescue Committee (IRC) rescue.org. Now in paperback and 30% OFF + free shipping, you can order the book at rutgersuniversitypress.org or 1 800 621 2736. US orders only • Code: RFLR19
LEE T. BYCEL is a humanitarian activist, Rabbi, teacher and author, who serves as the Sinton Visiting Professor of Holocaust, Ethics and Refugee Studies at the University of San Francisco. He has visited refugee camps in Darfur, Chad, South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Haiti. He has written extensively about the plight of refugees, and has secured much needed funding for medical clinics in refugee camps.
Photography by DONA KOPOL BONICK is an esteemed portraitist and artist whose photographic career spans three decades. The photography director for the inaugural BottleRock music festival, her works have appeared in many books, art museums, and private collections.
Forward by ISHMAEL BEAH whose work has been published in over 30 countries, is the New York Times Bestselling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel, and Little Family: A Novel.
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Interview with Margo Hall, Artistic Director of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre of SF
Tuesday. April 20 at 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE (Free and Open to the Public)
Margo Hall, an award-winning actor, director, playwright and educator, will be interviewed by Sandra Avery about her career and her vision for the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre as its first female Artistic Director.
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Black and Hispanic Baseball in the American Sports Pantheon with Alan Goldberg
Thursday, April 22 at 1:00pm
REGISTER HERE (Free and Open to the Public)
This subject has garnered some national attention this year with the elevation of the historic Negro Leagues to the status of Major League Baseball in terms of the Hall of Fame and the nearly lost statistics from this bygone era. Few are aware of the legacy of Latin America in the development of baseball and the marginalization that Hispanics also suffered before full integration in the 1950s. Prof. Goldberg will discuss the historic place of Black and Hispanic Baseball in the American sports pantheon.
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Fromm Institute Conversatory on Racism
Crime and Criminal Justice
with Jonathan Simon
Wednesday, April 28 @1:30pm
Jonathan Simon joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 2003 as part of the J.D., JSP, and Legal Studies programs. He teaches in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, criminology, legal studies and the sociology of law.
Simon’s scholarship concerns the role of crime and criminal justice in governing contemporary societies, risk and the law, and the history of the interdisciplinary study of law. His published works include over seventy articles and book chapters, and three single authored monographs, including: Poor Discipline: Parole and the Social Control of the Underclass (University of Chicago 1993, winner of the American Sociological Association’s sociology of law book prize, 1994), Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Oxford University Press 2007, winner of the American Society of Criminology, Hindelang Award 2010) and Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America (New Press 2014). Simon has served as the co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Punishment and Society, and the co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Punishment & Society (along with Richard Sparks). He is a member of the Law & Society Association and the American Society of Criminology. Simon’s scholarship has been recognized internationally with appointment as a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at the University of Edinburgh (2010-11), a Fellow of the Israeli Institute for Advanced Studies (2016), and a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2018). In 2016 Simon was recognized for his scholarship on the human rights of prisoners with the Docteur honoris causa de la Faculté et de l’Institut, Faculté de Droit et Criminologie, Université Catholique de Louvain.
REGISTER HERE (Free and Open to the Public)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE DISCUSSION GROUP AT (4/28/2021)