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CANCELLED-"The Black family and its representation, identity, and diversity"

CANCELLED-"The Black family and its representation, identity, and diversity"

Join us for presentations and a panel discussion on this year's Black History Month theme: the Black family and its representations, identity, and diversity.  Together, Drs. Michael Dickinson, Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, and Grace Gipson will explore aspects of the Black family unit and its representation, both historically and in more contemporary media.  A Q&A session will follow the discussion.

Dr. Michael Dickinson (PhD, University of Delaware) is an Assistant Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University.  He previously served as the 2019-2020 Barra Sabbatical Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's McNeil Center for Early American Studies.  His research examines early American enslaved communities, and his book Almost Dead: Slavery and Social Rebirth in the Black Urban Atlantic, 1680-1807 will be published in 2021.

Dr. Kimberly Wallace-Sanders (PhD, Boston University) is an Associate Professor of American and African American Studies at Emory University.  She specializes in African American women's literature, stereotypes and gender in visual culture, and representations of race and the female body.  Her works include Skin Deep, Spirit Strong: The Female Black Body in American Culture and Mammy: A Century of Race, Gender, and Southern Memory.

Dr. Grace Gipson (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Dr. Gipson's work focuses on Black popular culture, Afrofuturism, and representations of race and gender in comic books.  Her current book project will explore Black female identity in comics and fandom culture.

Date:
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Time:
6:00pm - 7:30pm
Categories:
Virtual  
Registration has closed.

Event Organizer

Profile photo of Meldon Jenkins-Jones
Meldon Jenkins-Jones

Meldon Jenkins-Jones is the Richmond Public Library / Community Services Manager at Hull Street Branch Library. 

Meldon also chairs the Get Lit Advisory Committee which supports the Richmond Public Library Get Lit Reading Initiatives including the Black Male Emergent Readers (BMER) program and the Lit Chicks Read book clubs.

Meldon is a graduate of the Leadership Metro Richmond Class of 2022. She was the first recipient of the Virginia Library Association (VLA) Librarians of Color Forum Award in 2021 and is an active member of VLA. She presented “Libraries Bringing Community Together” at the 2023 VLA Annual Conference.

In 2011, Meldon received her Master of Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers University School of Law—Newark and practiced law in New Jersey until her retirement in 2003. Meldon received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she studied African American Studies and Russian Civilization.

A Metro Richmond resident, Meldon is the mother of two adult children and enjoys spending time with her grandchildren.

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