The Dively Committee and The Davis Center invite you to join us for the 2024 Michael A. Dively lecture by Cameron Awkward-Rich. Awkward-Rich is a poet and Associate Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. This event is free and open to the public.
The event will take place on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 5 PM in Bronfman Auditorium (in the basement of Wachenheim Science Center).
Title: Looking For Pauli, Pauli Murray’s Trans Poetics
Pauli Murray was a twentieth-century black writer, priest, and legal thinker who has been, for the last two decades or so, the subject of a recovery project. As a result, Murray is now regarded as a crucial player in the history of civil rights litigation; in U.S. feminist organizing and theology; and in black feminist critique in relation to the above. Further, the recovery of Murray’s contributions has coincided with the narration of Murray as someone who was (or might have been, in another time) trans. Following the lead of Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston (1989) this hybrid talk—part analytical, part poetry—considers Pauli Murray as an enduring figure in and for black trans life.
About Cameron Awkward-Rich
Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of two collections of poetry: Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and Dispatch (Persea Books, 2019). His creative work has been supported by fellowships from Cave Canem, The Watering Hole, and the Lannan Foundation.
Also a scholar of trans theory and expressive culture in the U.S., Cameron earned his PhD from Stanford University’s program in Modern Thought & Literature. His more critical writing can be found in Signs, Trans Studies Quarterly, American Quarterly and elsewhere, and has been supported by fellowships from Duke University’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the ACLS. His book The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment was published by Duke University Press in Fall 2022. Presently, he is an associate professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Accessibility Information
Bronfman Auditorium is ADA accessible, and it is in the basement of Wachenheim Science Center which is served by an elevator. There are all-gender restrooms in Wachenheim.