The Reverend Dana McLean Greeley Fellowship for Peace Studies and the UMass Lowell College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (FAHSS) sponsors a speaker series every year. Please read below for information on this year's speaker series. Learn about Previous Speakers Series.
Rev. Dana McLean Greeley Fellowship for Peace Studies 2024 - 2025 Speaker Series
Theme: Confronting Empire, Forging Transnational Justice
Coloniality, Genocide and Decolonization from the Caribbean to Palestine (Hybrid, Free and open to the public)
Prof. Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Professor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut
Thursday February 27, 2 – 3:30pm EST | Time Zone Converter
Venue: Coburn 255, 850 Broadway St., Lowell, MA 01854
Please attend in person or join the livestream.
(If attending in person, request visitor parking here by Feb 23.)
Speaker Bio: Nelson Maldonado-Torres is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut, and Professor Extraordinarious at the University of South Africa. A former President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association (2008-2013), he is senior associate of the BlackHouse Kollective-Soweto, and Co-Chair of the Frantz Fanon Foundation. His work focuses on ethics, social, political, and decolonial philosophy with particular attention to philosophical expressions in the Global South. Recent publications include the co-edited book Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala (2021), and book chapters such as “Combative Decoloniality and the Abolition of the Humanities: A Manifesto,” in the Routledge Companion to Postcolonial and Decolonial Literature (2025), “(De)colonization/Decolonizing Phenomenology” in The Routledge Handbook of Political Phenomenology (2024), “Liberation Philosophy and the Search for Combative Decoloniality: A Fanonian Approach” in Liberation Struggles in Abya Yala (2024), “Palestine, the War on Decolonization, and Combative Decoloniality” in the SAGE Handbook of Decolonial Theory (forthcoming), and, with Zandi Radebe, “Combative Decoloniality and the BlackHouse Paradigm of Knowledge, Creation, and Action” in Knowing-Unknowing: African Studies at the Crossroads (2024).
Puerto Rico at the Center: Challenges to Empire and Americanization through Schooling (HYBRID)
Prof. Solsiree del Moral
Professor, Amherst College
Tuesday, January 28, 11 – 12:30pm EST. COB 255
Abstract: The United States came second. Spain was there first. The US colonialism of 1898 was not new. It was just the latest version. Puerto Rico had already experienced 400 years of Spanish colonialism. The new generation of public-school teachers in the early-twentieth century was ready to face the latest attempt to carry out cultural genocide through colonial schools. They put a stop to it. In this talk, we revisit the history and legacies of US empire, race, and education in early-twentieth-century Puerto Rico.
Speaker Bio: Solsiree del Moral, author of Negotiating Empire: The Cultural Politics of School in Puerto Rico (2013), is Professor of American Studies and Black Studies at Amherst College. She is a historian of modern Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on Puerto Rico, the circum-Caribbean, and U.S. Colonialism. Dr. del Moral’s research and teaching have been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS), the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), as well as Columbia University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Wisconsin.
Settler Colonialism and Health in Palestine (VIRTUAL)
Dr. Danya Qato
Associate Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore
Monday November 18, 11 – 12:30pm EST | COB 255
Abstract: In this talk, Dr. Danya Qato will revisit her 2020 piece entitled, "Public Health and the Promise of Palestine" published in the Journal of Palestine Studies. She will (re)introduce the audience to her argument that settler colonialism is a fundamental cause disabling the realization of health and well-being for the Palestinian people, and emphasize the enduring role racism, capitalism, and imperialism, play in shaping this process.
Speaker Bio: Danya Mazen Qato is Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, with appointments in the School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr. Qato is an epidemiologist, health services researcher and pharmacist, who studies equity in access to quality healthcare and the differential and unintended impacts of federal, state, and global policies on adverse health outcomes and high-risk medication use, with particular attention paid to psychotropic agents. Her global health work also examines how settler colonialism shapes public health; and how epidemiologic methods can either elucidate or elide this relationship.
Tracing Sumud (steadfastness): Navigating the Spatial and Temporal Layers of Palestinian Refugee Camps
A Talk by Rami Rmeileh, University of Exeter, UK.
- When: Monday October 28, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST (Time zone converter)
- Where: Coburn Hall 255 and virtual via Zoom
- Cost: the Event is free and open to the public.
Please join us in person or register on Zoom for Tracing Sumud (steadfastness): Navigating the Spatial and Temporal Layers of Palestinian Refugee Camps to receive a link to the livestream.
Abstract
This talk examines Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon as enduring sites of sumud (steadfastness), shaped by a revolutionary history of resistance, destruction and reconstruction. The talk attempts to raise critical questions about what the intricate social histories of the camp and its inhabitants can teach us about liberation, offering an alternative lens on the politics of struggle.
Speaker Biography
Rami Rmeileh is a Palestinian social liberation psychologist, member and organizer at the European Centre for Palestine Studies (ECPS), and a doctoral researcher at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on critical consciousness, indigenous modes of survival and resistance, mental health politics in settler-colonial contexts, anti-colonial archives, and refugee studies. Rmeileh has worked with the European Parliament and humanitarian organizations, advocating for refugees' rights. He also writes experimental prose and op-eds, published in various journals and media outlets.
More Information
For more information, please contact Associate Professor Urmitapa Dutta by email: Urmitapa_Dutta@uml.edu.