Yohuru Williams, Ph.D., a noted author/educator and associate vice president for academic affairs at Fairfield University, will discuss the pursuit of social justice at the University's Fall Convocation address to be held at 5 p.m., Tuesday, September 2 on the campus' Bellarmine Lawn. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Williams, a sought-after speaker on history and the Civil Rights Movement, will mark the 25th observance of the brutal murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador and the May 2014 passing of historian and theologian Vincent Harding, a close friend and confidante of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In preparation for Convocation, first-year students were asked to read Harding's "Beyond Amnesia: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Future of America." New students also participated in summer webinars around the subject.

"Convocation is one of the most important events for first-year students at Fairfield University," Dr. Williams said. "It provides a space for us not only to welcome the incoming class but also remind them of one of the cornerstones of Jesuit education - to incorporate self reflection and service into their academic pursuits and try in every way possible to make the world a better place."

Convocation, which includes a formal academic procession, is the official start of the academic year at Fairfield and gives the University's students, staff and faculty a change to welcome the Class of 2018 to campus.

Dr. Williams is the author of "Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven" (Blackwell, 2006) and "Teaching U.S. History Beyond the Textbook" (Corwin, 2008). He is the editor of "A Constant Struggle: African-American History from 1865 to the Present, Documents and Essays" (Kendall Hunt, 2002), and the co-editor of "In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement" (Duke University, 2006), and "Liberated Territory: Toward a Local History of the Black Panther Party"(Duke University, 2009). He also served as general editor for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History's 2002 and 2003 Black History Month publications, "The Color Line Revisited" (Tapestry Press, 2002) and "The Souls of Black Folks: Centennial Reflections"(Africa World Press, 2003). Dr. Williams also served as an adviser on the popular civil rights reader "Putting the Movement Back into Teaching Civil Rights."

Dr. Williams' scholarly articles have appeared in The Black Scholar, The Journal of Black Studies, The Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, Delaware History, Pennsylvania History, and the Black History Bulletin.

A dynamic teacher and speaker, Dr. Williams recently took part in The Schomburg Summer Education Institute: Black History 360 at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research library of the New York Public Library.

Posted On: 08-14-2014 03:08 PM

Volume: 47 Number: 26