Black Study and Radical Collaborations between the University and the Community
The mission of the university is to disperse knowledge and support social mobility. Yet, the university, as an educational-industrial complex, also restricts access to knowledge and opportunity, especially along borders of race, gender, and class. Kris Manjapra, at Tufts University in Boston, reflects on his work as a scholar activist devoted to forging collaborations with community organizations to tear down exclusive university walls. He will share the Black Futures Matter Online Certificate Course project, a collaboration between Tufts University, two major civic organizations of the US South, and an emerging network of university teachers. This will also be an opportunity activists and community members in Birmingham to share their experiences with disrupting the educational-industrial complex in pursuit of social change.
Bio: Kris Manjapra, professor of History at Tufts University (Boston, USA) works at the intersection ofcomparative global history and the critical study of race and colonialism. He aims to break down disciplinaryboundaries and explode the walls separating the university from larger and more diverse communities. He isthe founder of a site based nonprofit , Black History in Action, dedicated to the restoration and reactivation ofa Black cultural heritage center in Cambridge, MA. Kris also co organizes a free online community certificatecourse, entitled Black Futures Matter, serving people’s assemblies across the US and the Caribbean.