Download a high resolution photo of Kathryn Gines
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ A more than 50-year-old debate between
philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and anti-colonialist Frantz Fanon will be
the starting point for a Vanderbilt University discussion of race
consciousness.
Kathryn T. Gines, fellow at the Center for Humanistic Inquiry at
Emory University, will speak at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, in the
conference room of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
Her lecture is titled “The Debate between Sartre and Fanon: Attaining
and Retaining ‘Authentic’ Race Consciousness.”
The event, the first in the Smoke, Lilies, and Jade Lecture Series
sponsored by the African American Studies program at Vanderbilt, is
free and open to the public.
Gines says she will use published works of Sartre and Fanon in which
they argued about the implications of race in society as “a fitting
backdrop for my examination of the ‘social construction’ of race.
“I also elucidate the notion of ‘authentic’ race consciousness while
problematizing propaganda about ‘raceless’ or ‘colorblind’ societies,”
she said.
Gines earned her
doctorate in philosophy from the University of Memphis. She views the
discipline as a tool for “identifying, confronting and dismantling
systems of oppression through critical thinking and corresponding
action.”
Gines’ lecture is the first of four planned this semester by T.
Denean Sharpley-Whiting, the new director of the African American
Studies program.
“The Smoke, Lilies, and Jade Lecture Series was named after
Harlem Renaissance writer Richard Bruce Nugent’s short story on gender,
race and sexuality,” Sharpley-Whiting said. “The Harlem Renaissance
movement, often referred to as the New Negro movement in the 1920s and
1930s, delved into issues of race, race consciousness and identity
through visual and literary arts and philosophical debates.
“Considered a ‘gay rebel’ of that era, Nugent boldly addressed the
issue of same-sex relationships ñ a highly charged issue for that day
and even ours. In that vein, the series will reflect the diversity,
intersection and complexity of subjects undertaken by scholars,
writers, artists and community activists in the discipline of African
American Studies. The series will also serve as an outreach and
collaborative mechanism to greater Nashville and Vanderbilt.”
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu