Panel: Striving for Restorative Justice and Repair in Academe

Source: UMass Department of History

The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series will present a lecture and discussion on Striving for Restorative Justice and Repair in Academe. The event will be held in-person at the UMass Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall on Wednesday October 9, at 6 p.m. and will be simulcast on Zoom. The event is free and open to all.

The evening will offer a lecture and conversation with educational sociologist and urban education scholar Timothy K. Eatman. Titled Striving for Restorative Justice and Repair, the event will explore the roles of publicly engaged universities and impassioned educators in the work of reparations. This year’s Feinberg Series addresses the question, What Are Universities For? Struggles for the Soul of Higher Education.

Eatman’s lecture will consider the following questions: How do the legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to constrict possibilities for Black and Indigenous college students and for their communities? What can be done to repair these harms and build a more just future? How does a shrinking imagination in academic work stifle efforts to envision the universities and communities we need?

Eatman will be preceded by reflections from western Massachusetts grassroots racial and economic justice organizers Tanisha Arena (Executive Director, Arise for Social Justice) and Rose Webster-Smith (Executive Director, Springfield No One Leaves). A public Q&A will follow, moderated by Feinberg Series co-director Sigrid Schmalzer (Professor, UMass Amherst History Department).

Closed captions will be available on Zoom and a recording will be posted to the Feinberg Series website within 48 hours of the event’s conclusion. The Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall is located at 157 Commonwealth Ave, Amherst, MA 01003. There is limited on street parking near the venue. Public parking is available at the Mullins Center and the Campus Center Garage. View Campus Map

Register for the event and learn more here.

Feinberg Lecture Series Schedule

The Presenters

Dr. Timothy K. Eatman is an educational sociologist, a publicly engaged scholar, and a member of the task force for Project H.E.R.E. (Higher Education Reparations Engagement), which brings together academics and community members to advance the cause of securing reparations for the descendants of slavery and colonialism. He serves as the inaugural dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark. 

A widely sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, and collaborator, Eatman is internationally recognized for advancing understandings about the multifaceted impact of publicly engaged scholarship in the university of the twenty-first century. He is former faculty co-director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and holds leadership positions in the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the Urban Research-Based Action Network, the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, and Bringing Theory to Practice. Pursuing a rigorous scholarly agenda, Eatman has authored and edited numerous influential publications, including his co-authored Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University and co-edited The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement. 

Tanisha Arena is a Black woman in community leadership as the executive director of ARISE for Social Justice, occupying the world’s messiest intersection, the space where race, gender, culture, identity, politics, history, and the law all collide. She is a commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, advocating for the needs of women and girls across the Commonwealth. She has a passion for social justice, authentic leadership, and speaking truth to power. She is the host of the award-winning podcast, Unapologetic, bringing the hard truths of our social issues to the forefront, connecting past to the present. She is a consultant/trainer for Growing A New Heart and the Sojourner Truth School, all focused on teaching new ways to build connections, facilitate learning, and drive social change. She is a published author, speaker, freelance writer, system disrupter, and change agent. Her best and favorite role is Gram to Penelope, Jaalan Jr, and the latest addition, Kyle Jr (KJ).

Rose Webster-Smith started with Springfield No One Leaves (SNOL) as a member in 2011 when Freddie Mac foreclosed on her home. Fired up by her own experience of eviction, Rose began training and practicing civil disobedience to keep Big Banks from actively evicting families from their homes after foreclosure. She’s sat in and peacefully blocked two evictions, has helped to organize national mobilizations against mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is spearheading a statewide campaign to pass critical legislation to protect families and regulate banks, and supports other families in using civil disobedience. In 2015, she was hired as the junior organizer at SNOL and in 2016 the members took over the organization. After fighting an eviction for six years, she won her home back in 2017. She is now the executive director overseeing all the work of SNOL.