Building momentum, sustaining commitment: Checking in with the Slavery, Race and Memory Project
What can we learn from the past? Wake Forest University legal scholar and Associate Provost Kami Chavis explains, “If you want to have a transformative institutional change, you have to begin examining the past and the root causes of underlying issues to know what you need to do in the future.” Chavis is also co-chair of the Steering Committee of Wake Forest’s Slavery, Race and Memory Project.
The Slavery, Race and Memory Project evolved from Wake Forest’s collaboration with the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium (USS), which it joined in 2017. The Office of the Provost formally established the Project in the spring of 2019 to provide clear structure for both understanding the past and addressing inequities in our community going forward. A website for the Slavery, Race and Memory Project was launched in the summer of 2019.
The Project’s Steering Committee is in the process of making formal recommendations, which will be published later this year, but its influence can already be felt across conversations, events and activities taking place on campus this semester. The Project has co-sponsored several events that align with its vision statement, including scholarly speakers such as Vanderbilt University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies David Ikard, and a public conversation between alumni and current students. Through campus-wide engagement grants, students are also able to design their own programs and apply for funding.
“I think it is indeed courageous for an institution like Wake Forest University to undertake this type of work,” said Corey D.B. Walker, a visiting professor of leadership studies and the humanities at the University of Richmond and a former dean at Winston-Salem State University.
The Slavery, Race and Memory Project at Wake Forest is significant, Walker said, “because of the ways in which it involves the entire University community and raises new and profound questions about deeply held beliefs about the University and its core historical narrative.”
More information is available here.
Categories: Inside WFU
A message from President Hatch
President Hatch emailed this message to students, faculty and staff on January 15:
Happy New Year! Welcome to the beginning of 2020 and a new semester.
As we begin this year, I offer all of us a single challenge: Be present. Even as you juggle the many demands on your time, permit yourself to be engaged. Honor those around you by offering them your full attention. Allow the fear of missing out to be replaced by the pleasure of your present situation. Wherever you are, whatever you find yourself doing, be all there.
Last semester, our presence together produced some good results. We celebrated members of our community through the collaborative arts in “From the Ground Up.” We saw environmental science approved as a major course of study. We celebrated the victories of our athletic teams. And we launched our Wake West program, where students will learn, study and live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Some of the work we started as a community last semester will once again require our full attention. As you know, the President’s Commission on Race, Equity and Community was charged with assessing the current realities of our community and the present condition of our institutional policies and practices to develop specific and actionable recommendations that will cultivate a more diverse, equitable and welcoming learning community. While the Commission made great progress in the last few months, the important work continues this semester. The best place to stay apprised of the current work and next steps is the Commission’s website.
Additionally, the Slavery, Race and Memory Project continues to guide the research, preservation and communication of an accurate depiction of the University’s relationship to slavery and its implications across our history. To keep updated on the progress of this group, including the many plans for this year, visit the Project’s website.
I am grateful to the many members of these groups who have made this critical work a priority. The progress is encouraging, and I look forward to hearing their recommendations to make Wake Forest a place where all feel a keen sense of belonging.
As this community focuses on topics surrounding race and inequity, we will also welcome various voices to our conversation. Among the many guests invited to campus are professor and author Ibram X. Kendi on January 20; NBA All-Star Kyle Korver on January 29; and author and public intellectual Cornel West on March 20. I hope you plan to join us in the ongoing conversation.
The commitment to focusing on the present is part of being a hospitable community. It conveys that the people and projects in front of us, asking for our time and attention, are important. May this semester be one where we find each other — wherever it may be — fully present.
Sincerely,
President Nathan O. Hatch
Categories: Inside WFU, University Announcement
