Days-Massolo Center

Amit Taneja, director of the Days-Massolo Center, was one of four national experts invited to review the LGBT Services Office at Wellesley College.

“My name is Helen Sperling. I am a Jew. I am a survivor.” With these simple words, Helen Sperling began to recount her experience of the Holocaust before a crowd of Hamilton students and community members packed into the Chapel. During the course of the two-hour-long lecture, which was sponsored by the Days-Massolo Center and Hillel, Sperling recounted the darkest moments of her life with a vigor and compassion that belied her 92 years. Throughout her time in Polish ghettos and prison camps, Sperling’s indomitable spirit sustained her in the face of incredible hardship and heart-wrenching sorrow.

Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland & Ellis Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, will present a lecture on Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture, “Fatal Invention: Re-creating Race in the 21st Century,” is based on her 2011 book of the same name and is free and open to the public.

Utican Helen Sperling, a Holocaust survivor and renowned lecturer, will speak at Hamilton College on Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture is sponsored by Hillel (Jewish Students Organization) and the Days-Massolo Center and is free and open to the public.

France Winddance Twine, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a lecture on Tuesday, April 10, at 4:15 p.m., in Dwight Lounge. Twine will discuss "The Future of Anti-Racism & Racial Literacy After the Trayvon Martin Murder." The lecture is free and open to the public.

In an effort to raise awareness of racial profiling and bring attention to the Trayvon Martin case, the Black Latino Student Union (BLSU) sponsored an “I am Not Suspicious” walk across campus on March 30. Martin was the Florida teen who was shot and killed on Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, who perceived Martin as a threat.  Members of the Hamilton community were urged to wear hoodies and join in the march from the Taylor Science Center to the Kirner-Johnson Building.

One of the biggest and most dangerous misconceptions of the modern day is the notion that we live in a post-racial America, that institutionalized racism is effectively over and everyone can afford to live “colorblind.” But how does post-racism differ from post-blackness? Touré, pundit and author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?, constructed his own analysis around a television show that most college students know: (Comedy Central’s) Chappelle’s Show.

Touré, contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine and host of Fuse TV’s The Hip-Hop Shop and On The Record, will present a lecture on Wednesday, March 28, at 6 p.m., in the Hamilton College Chapel. The lecture, “What We Can Learn About Life from Hip-Hop,” is sponsored by the Voices of Color Lecture Series and is free and open to the public.

Amit Taneja, director of the Days-Massolo Center, was invited to speak at Davidson College (N.C.) on March 12. He was a guest in Davidson’s Careers in Education Week and spoke on “Diverse leaders and voices in higher education.”