Campus Announcements

As of April 8, the University Events Calendar has been merged with the calendar from the university's 25Live room reservation system. Now, when you reserve a space for an event on campus, it will be added to the University Events Calendar. You'll no longer have to submit the same information in two separate systems.

When reserving a space through 25Live, please write a clear event title so that anyone viewing your event on the calendar will easily understand what it is. We also ask that you add an event description, including any necessary information about cost, registration and whether it is open to students, faculty, staff or the general public. If your submission does not have a clear event title or it is lacking an event description, we may ask for more information before approving your event.

If you have any questions about how to use 25Live, please contact Deb Burgo at dburgo@rwu.edu.

The 21st Annual John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Program celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ernest J. Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman with a digital library exhibition; a keynote panel on "Talking About Race Through Storytelling and Music"; and two Bristol community events sponsored by Rogers Free Library.

Published in 1971, Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a fictional autobiography that tells a story of race in America through the eyes of one woman whose life spans the end of Slavery and into the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The publication of the book (as well as the acclaimed 1974 TV-film adaptation starring Cicely Tyson) was an important cultural moment for further understanding the human side of the African-American experience in the United States.   

The Digital Exhibition — Opening February 9, 2021

Prepared in collaboration with Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, the digital project explores Gaines and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman through an archival look at early manuscripts, images, interviews, reviews, and other related items. Beginning February 9, it can be accessed here.

Book Discussion Hosted by Rogers Free Library

Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2021, Zoom Meeting (Click here for more information on how to attend.)

Time: 7:00 pm

Instructor: Susan Tacent, PhD

A One-Evening Writing Workshop Presented by Rogers Free Library: Make it Come Alive! — Ernest Gaines, Miss Jane Pittman, and the Power of Storytelling

Date: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021, Zoom Meeting (Click here to Register for the workshop.)

Time: 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Instructor: Susan Tacent, PhD

Talking About Race Through Storytelling & Music 

Date: Monday, March 15, 2021

Time: 7:00 PM

Place: Zoom, register here: https://rwu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Lr4ehV1WRjqnNdMX-bBagQ 

Presented in conjunction with the Mary Tefft White Endowment.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of  Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a keynote panel, based on Gaines’ practice and philosophy, will focus on talking about race through storytelling and music. Panelists include: writer Danzy Senna (author of Caucasia); New Orleans jazz legend Michael White; and Cheylon Woods, archivist and Head of the Gaines Center at University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Time: 7:00 PM

Place: Zoom registration:  https://rwu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ELEL6uYxSrmD3brX55JJNg

Presented in conjunction with Scholars at Risk, and Scholars at Risk’s Student Advocacy Seminar Programs.

In 2014, Uyghur Economics Professor, IlhamTohti, was detained, arrested, and sentenced to life in prison for his work to create peaceful dialogue between Uyghur and Han Chinese. Three years later, Professor Rahile Dawut, an internationally known expert  on Uyghur Folklore and Traditions, was disappeared by the Chinese government. Tohti’s daughter, Jehwer Ilham, inadvertently ended up in the US after the 2014 detention, forced to start a new life; while Rahile Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, was a graduate student at University of Washington. Forced to seek asylum, both daughters found themselves engaged in international advocacy on behalf of their parents, and soon on behalf of their people. Jewher and Akeda will appear in a dialogue about their unique and shared experiences as daughters of prominent and missing dissidents.

Adam Haslett, Novelist and Short Story Writer

“A Reading and Conversation”

As part of the Bermont Fellowship for Fiction and Nonfiction, noted novelist Adam Haslett will offer a public reading and discussion. Haslett is the author of three works of fiction: Imagine Me Gone, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award; the short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here, also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; and the novel Union Atlantic, winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. His books have been translated into eighteen languages, and his journalism on culture and politics have appeared in The Financial Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, The Nation, and The Atlantic Monthly, among others.

Date:  Monday, March 22, 2021
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Virtual: https://rwu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EGB4bnygTdasVs8HjJ_qoA

Cosponsored with the Bermont Fellowship for Fiction and Nonfiction; The Rogers Free Library Jane Bodell Endowment; and the Anthony Quinn Foundation