Author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi to speak at Kegley Institute of Ethics Charles W. Kegley Memorial Lecture

Spring semester to include a variety of KIE programming and events, open to campus and community

By California State University, Bakersfield

February 9^th, 2021

The Kegley Institute of Ethics (KIE) at California States University, Bakersfield is proud to announce Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, historian, antiracist scholar, and author of the international bestseller “How to Be an Antiracist,” as the featured speaker for the 34th Annual Charles W. Kegley Memorial Lecture at 6 p.m. PST on April 14. The event, a collaboration with Campus Programming and the CSUB Office of the President, will be held via Zoom Webinar and is free and open to the community.

Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News Racial Justice Contributor. In 2019, Kendi was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2020, “Time” magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

“We saw this as an opportunity to bring in a pioneering historian and thought leader in the area of racial justice, as well as someone who will help us to have productive and informed conversations on race in America as a campus and community,” noted Dr. Michael Burroughs, director, Kegley Institute of Ethics.

The event will feature a conversation with Dr. Kendi, as well as significant time devoted to audience questions, moderated by Dr. Burroughs.

“While issues of racism and injustice aren’t new in our country or community, the summer 2020 protests and murder of George Floyd raised new awareness and activism. With this greater awareness, there's also greater opportunities to capitalize on that awareness and move discussion of race and justice forward alongside constructive action,” said Dr. Burroughs.

In addition to Dr. Kendi’s virtual visit to CSUB and the greater community, the Kegley Institute of Ethics will host a rich selection of online events, including several events – in collaboration with the CSUB Black Faculty and Staff Association, CSUB Athletics, CSUB Campus Programming, and the Walter W. Stiern Library – to highlight and celebrate Black History Month.

On Thursday, Feb.11, KIE will host “Ethics in Leadership” with Dr. Thomas Wallace (VP for Student Affairs at CSUB) at 6 p.m. PST. This event series focuses on the influences, formative experiences, and insights of local, impactful leaders in our community (with plenty of time for audience questions).

On Tuesday, Feb. 16, KIE will host a panel discussion as part of The Kaiser Permanente Bioethics and Medical Humanities Speaker Series titled “Race, Gender and Bias in Medicine: Experiences and Insights.” This event will feature the expertise and insight of Dr. Kateena Addae-Konadu, Dr. Keisha Ray and Dr. Sharon Okonkwo-Holmes and will be moderated by KIE Student Fellow, Brittany Johnson.

“Our panelists are African-American medical professionals and ethicists speaking with a wealth of experience about the significance of race, gender and bias in medical practice and education. They will also speak to the still present impacts of bias in medicine and, also, how they have used their talents and professional roles to respond and work against the negative impacts of explicit and implicit bias in the medical field,” said Dr. Burroughs.

Other KIE events throughout the spring will include the Humanities Beyond Bars Event Series, a California Humanities grant-sponsored initiative. This event series focuses on critical engagement with incarceration in California and highlights the voices and experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated persons.

“The Power and the Promise: Education in Prison” will take place on March 3 at 6 p.m. PST and will feature moderated discussion with educators on the impact and import of educational access in prisons. These educators will discuss their own programs offering educational resources for incarcerated students, including an ethics debate program, a creative writing program, and the Inmate Scholars Program based out of Bakersfield College.

On March 18, the Humanities Beyond Bars event series will continue with “The Long History of College-in-Prison: A Field at the Crosswords,” a lecture by Max Kenner.

Kenner is founder and director of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), one of the most well-established and influential prison education programs in the United States. BPI college is spread across six interconnected prisons in New York State, enrolls over 300 incarcerated students, and organizes a host of extracurricular activities to replicate the breadth of college life and inquiry.

Since 2001, BPI has issued roughly 50,000 credits and 550 degrees and offers more than 160 courses per academic year and engages an extraordinary breadth of college faculty. A four-part documentary series, “College Behind Bars,” on the Bard Prison Initiative and incarcerated students enrolled in the program was produced and aired on PBS.

For a complete list of events for spring 2021, visit the KIE website. Links to all public Zoom events can also be found on the KIE site as well as on KIE Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages in advance of each event.