Professor Sami Schalk to Deliver the 2018–2019 Conseula Francis Emerging Scholar Lecture

The late Conseula Francis (1973–2016), the former director of the African American Studies Program, was deeply committed to mentoring and supporting junior faculty, and one of the many ways in which she championed the work of junior scholars in the field of African American Studies was to establish the Emerging Scholar Lecture Series. We still feel the loss of Conseula every day, and to commemorate her unflagging commitment to our program and to the work of junior scholars, we have named this lecture series in her memory.

This year, Sami Schalk, an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver a Conseula Francis Emerging Scholar Lecture on September 10, 2018. She published her book, Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction with Duke University Press in 2018, and her lecture will draw upon the main arguments put forth in that project. Her research traces how black women’s speculative fiction complicates the understanding of bodyminds—the intertwinement of the mental and the physical—in the context of race, gender, and (dis)ability. Bridging black feminist theory with disability studies, Professor Schalk demonstrates that this genre’s political potential lies in the authors’ creation of bodyminds that transcend reality’s limitations. Outlining (dis)ability’s centrality to speculative fiction, Schalk shows how these works open new social possibilities while changing conceptualization of identity and oppression through non-realist contexts. Her other publications include articles in Disability Studies, African American Review, Palimpsest, the Journal of Modern Literature, and the Journal of Popular Culture, among others. Professor Schalk’s lecture is titled “Black Women’s Speculative Fiction and the Deconstruction of Able-Mindedness” and will be held at 6:00 pm in Addlestone Library Room 227.

 

#CougarWelcome

Help welcome the newest members of Cougar Nation family. We ask all College of Charleston alumni, parents, faculty, staff, friends, and students to give a big #CougarWelcome by making a gift of any size!

Join the College of Charleston for the fourth annual #CougarWelcome! This is your chance to hop on the welcome wagon and show the incoming Class of 2022 what it means to be a Cougar. Give back now, and you’ll help secure our participation goal of 222 donors – one donor for every day a CofC student may be in class this academic year.

How can you #PassThePineapple this year?

  1. Find something to WEAR. Break out your favorite CofC gear.
  2. Show you CARE by donating to the College by August 21. Click here to make your #CougarWelcome gift today.
  3. Remember to SHARE your advice, favorite memory or what inspires you to give back. Print this pineapple, write your message and share a pic using #CougarWelcome.

Whether you wear, care or share, thank you for giving a big #CougarWelcome to the newest Cougars in the CofC family!