Upcoming Events
The Department of Political Science seeks to be an active unit of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the larger sociopolitical community. To this end, the Department tries to maintain a robust calendar of events that educate on current political events, political research, the structure and function of government, and your rights and privileges as citizens. The Department also embraces the values of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) and uses these values in the planning and organizing of all events.
2025 Political Science Black Sociopolitical Lecture Series (PSBSLS)
“BLACK—A Celebration of Black Research”
“BLACK” is an evening reception to celebrate Black research. This means that several SIUE scholars and their recent research products will be presented in some form, especially in the printed program. These include Dr. Tisha Brooks’ book Spirit Deep: Recovering the Sacred in Black Women’s Travel, Dr. Candace Hall’s documentary Clusterluck, and more. The anticipated high point of the evening will be a video screening of the most recent research from Dr. Timothy E. Lewis, Associate Professor of Political Science. Under IRB protocol 1757, Dr. Lewis conducted interviews with transgenerational Black Americans who have been alive since before the end of racial segregation. Their lives, as people racialized as Black, are living manuscripts of racial disparate treatment and disparate impact. As a result, these persons arguably understand race better than anyone, and their life narratives are at the center of a book that provides a “re-education” on race—borrowing terminology from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The video presentation and forthcoming book, Do You Know That You Have Black Friends? offers this re-education on race by imparting that being racialized as Black is a passive sociopolitical categorization in which common discriminatory experiences are imposed upon those in the category.
This reception and screening is open to the SIU System and community, and will take place February 19, 2025, on the campus of SIUE in the Morris University Center, Conference Center. The reception will be emceed by Dominic Dorsey, SIUE Director of Accessible Campus Community & Equitable Student Support (ACCESS), and again is primarily geared towards celebrating Black research, demonstrating why even in such sociopolitical climates, Black research retains, if not gains, importance. The evening will have remarks from:
- Dr. Daniel Mahony, SIU System President
- Dr. Emmitt Riley, III, National President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS)
- Dr. Sherice J. Nelson, author of The Congressional Black Caucus: Fifty Years of Fighting for Equality
RSVP for BLACK—A Celebration of Black Research |
About the PSBSLS
In 2018, SIUE hosted civil rights legend Attorney Fred Gray at the invitation of Dr. Timothy E. Lewis—one of Gray’s mentees—and in collaboration with Arts & Issues. Gray gave a first-hand account of the experiences of the Civil Rights Movement in his capacities as the lawyer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and others during the Civil Rights Movement. In direct response to this event, the SIUE community desired to hear more about Black sociopolitical issues. In 2019, Dr. Lewis launched the Political Science Black Sociopolitical Lecture Series (PSBSLS), which takes place every February during Black History Month. PSBSLS has become a staple of SIUE during BHM, and this year is no exception with an event that honors those who work to promote, validate, and celebrate research on Blackness.
