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 events.
2025 Series: The Russian Invasion and Ukrainian Resistance
The Political Science Department, in conjunction with the John Martinson Honors Program and Lovejoy Library is sponsoring a series of events at SIUE related to the war in Ukraine. On October 15, Dr. Sophia Wilson, Associate Professor of Political Science at SIUE and President of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies, gave a public lecture "Why Did Russia Invade Ukraine?" On October 23, Dr. Eli Kaul, Visiting Assistant Professor at SIUE, gave a public lecture "Ingenuity of the Ukrainian Popular Resistance." The Oscar-nominated documentary “Porcelain War” screening and Q&A will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29 in Lovejoy Library’s Abbott Auditorium. On the Library’s first floor is the current exhibit “Unissued Diplomas,” an international exhibition that commemorates 40 Ukrainian students whose academic journeys were cut short by the Russian invasion. The exhibit runs through November 8.
2025 Political Science Black Sociopolitical Lecture Series (PSBSLS)
“BLACK—A Celebration of Black Research”
“BLACK” is an evening reception to celebrate Black research at SIUE. Several SIUE scholars and their recent research products were highlighted in the printed program including Dr. Tisha Brooks’ book Spirit Deep: Recovering the Sacred in Black Women’s Travel and Dr. Candace Hall’s documentary Clusterluck. The event also featured 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. 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 was open to the SIU System and community, and took place February 19, 2025, on the campus of SIUE in the Morris University Center, Conference Center. The evening also featured 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
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.
