Reading James Baldwin through the Lens of Black Deaf and Disability Studies

Join us for a public conversation with Dr. Rezenet Moges-Riedel on reading Baldwin through a Black Deaf and Disability Studies lens on Thursday, April 10. Dr. Moges-Riedel is an Assistant Professor and Co-Assistant Director of the ASL Linguistics and Deaf Cultures Program at California State University Long Beach. She is a linguistic anthropologist and a leading scholar of D/deaf identity and intersectionality, in particular how D/deaf culture intersects with race and gender in different societies, and has conducted research on the intersectional experiences and retention of deaf faculty of color working at postsecondary institutions. Her concept of “Black Deaf Gain” rethinks the provocative concept of “deaf gain” (rather than hearing loss) from a racialized perspective.

Dr. Moges-Riedel will be in conversation with Dr. Kelsey Henry, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in Race and Ethnicity Studies in the Society of Fellows and Lecturer in the Humanities Council and African American Studies. Dr. Henry is an interdisciplinary historian whose work integrates perspectives from Black studies, histories of science and medicine, and disability studies, and her research focuses on histories of race, antiblackness, and developmental disability within the United States. In this conversation, Dr. Moges-Riedel and Dr. Henry will reflect on their experiences researching and teaching in Black Disability Studies and Black Deaf Studies in dialogue with James Baldwin’s writings, including Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time. In this stimulating discussion, they will focus on how James Baldwin’s ideas might help us think about the building of various Black identities and the state of the civil rights movement today, including the possibly/soon-to-dismantled Section 504 and other Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies—urgent issues of our time. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Timothy Loh, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows and Lecturer in the Humanities Council and Anthropology.

This event was organized by Timothy Loh and Noah Buchholz, Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Council and the Program in Linguistics and Director of the American Sign Language Program.