CCSRE Changes Leadership, Continues Dialogue

On November 4, 2008, members of the American democratic process took one giant step towards racial equality by electing the first black President of the United States, Barack Obama. Just one day earlier, on November 3, members of the Middlebury community checked their emails and found plans for a new Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity in Carr Hall.

The decision to provide a venue to the college community to encourage discussion about race and ethnicity at such a pivotal point in American history was no coincidence. Founder of the Center and now Dean of Students Shirley Collado cited the 2008 election and the accompanying discourse as an impetus for the Center’s founding.

In an interview with the Campus given at the time of the organization’s announcement, Collado said that students and faculty participating in the Center’s programs would not only “do an intellectual analysis of what’s taking place with race and politics in America, but how that is affecting us as a community.”

Five years later, Obama remains in the White House, but the leadership in the CCSRE is changing. Professor of American Studies and the Center’s incipient director Susan Burch is stepping down after five years of fostering the organization from a collective dream into a full-fledged institution that is woven into the fabric of the College.

This past Friday, the CCSRE held an open house to celebrate Burch’s work and to introduce fellow Professor of American Studies Roberto Lint Sagarena to the pre-existing community and potential incoming members as the new leadership for next year.

The Center, whose mission is to foster “interdisciplinary and comparative approaches for understanding formations of race and ethnicity and their effects on human relations,” employs the help of faculty, staff and students alike to convey its message.

There are two different types of official associations with the Center: participating faculty members and affiliated members. The former fulfill their commitment to the organization and its mission by teaching classes in which the examination of race and ethnicity play a central role (there were 11 offered this semester). The latter are persons who simply have a vested interest in the work of the Center, demonstrating their dedicaiton by taking classes offered by participating faculty members and attending activities sponsored by the Center.

Next year, Sagarena will step into Burch’s place as director. When asked about his plans for the organization, Sagarena mentioned the idea of adding an Ethnic Studies minor as well as growing the organization by increasing funds, sponsoring more events and adding more members.

“But, really, I’m just going to do my best to fit into the shoes of Susan,” Sagarena added. “She has done so much for this place—my most important goal for the years to come is to pick up where she left off.”

“When I first got here, the Center didn’t have a director or any real, effective leadership,” said Gabby Arca ’13, an affiliated member of the CCSRE, who attended  the torch-passing ceremony on Friday. “Now, because of Susan, we have this incredible space for events, for meetings, for even just casual conversation, which might be the most impressive part about [the Center], because that’s what it’s all about: getting people to talk about these issues.”

Through Burch’s leadership, the Center has come to constitute a consortium of 38 faculty associates and nearly 100 affiliated members. Previous events have included a lecture from Peabody Award winner Majora Carter, brown bag lunch discussions with professors from other colleges and an entire symposium concerning race and ethnic constructs and their relationship to citizenship and immigration.

Not all of the events are brought in from the outside — many associates of the Center lead discussions, give presentations and hold forums displaying their own work.

“Of all the incredible presentations and talks and events I’ve seen since I first got involved with the Center, the most memorable would probably be Susan explaining her own work,” said Carllee James ’13, an affiliated member of the Center.

In addition to her managerial duties, Burch has authored and co-authored a number of books on the role of deaf individuals in the context of American society over the past decade. Her latest work, Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson, interprets the life of the book’s namesake, a deaf black man who spent 76 years of his life in a North Carolina state mental hospital during the Jim Crow epoch and examines the complicated intersections of race and disability.

Burch’s works are available in the College Bookstore as well as on Amazon.com. To get involved with the organization, send an email to CCSRE@middlebury.edu with a few sentences that describe your professional and research interests, and how they might intersect with the goals of the organization. To learn more, stop by Carr Hall for details.