Dr. Kathleen Yang-Clayton, Advancing Justice | Chicago’s Acting Director is a collection of opposites. Her master’s degree is in natural resource and agricultural economics but her doctorate is in sociology. Yang-Clayton has worked in Chicago’s urban sprawl and sub-Saharan Africa. But held within her person, those disparate characteristics are clearly interwoven parts of the same narrative. In the same way, Yang-Clayton will connect three public narratives of multiethnic organizing through her years of research and experience.
She will present two lectures, at Depaul University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The first will be at 6 p.m. on Oct. 7 in Depaul’s Arts and Letters building. The second is at 4 p.m. in the Illini Union at the University of Illinois. Both programs are free and open to the public.
Yang-Clayton points out three distinct racial narratives being perpetuated in America today: police brutality against black men and the Black Lives Matter movement, extreme rhetoric calling for significant anti-immigrant policy reforms and anti-Muslim fervor leading to violence against South Asian men. She will discuss how the convergence of these narratives provides an opportunity for Asian Americans to craft their own public identity and provides some initial analysis.
The talks are entitled, “The Asian American Movement 2.0 and Multiethnic Organizing in Chicago and Nationally: Initial Observations and Experiences from the Field.”
DePaul University
Wednesday, October 7, 6:00 PM
Arts & Letters Room 404, Lincoln Park Campus
2315 N. Kenmore, Chicago, IL
Free & open to the public
More information here
University of Illinois
Wednesday, October 21, 4:00 PM
Illini Union rm 314A
Free & open to the public. Reception to follow.
More information here.