September 2024

Greetings,

Welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing and fun-filled Summer break. We are looking forward to an exciting Fall semester. We will welcome many excellent speakers and have outstanding and informative programs planned. The Center will kick off the school year with the annual Constitution Day Lecture featuring Sherrilyn Ifill.

Some other exemplary programs that illustrate the diverse range of activities that the Center engages in will follow, so keep an eye on our website.

In this newsletter, you will find information regarding some of our upcoming events. For more information on our programs or for information regarding the Center for the Study of Democracy, please visit our newly redesigned website or send us an email.

I also encourage you to follow the Center on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Warm regards!

Antonio Ugues Jr., PhD

Director, Center for the Study of Democracy

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sept. 17

Constitution Day

with Sherrilyn Ifill

Performing Arts Center

Concert Hall

7:00-8:30 pm

Sept. 19

Asian Studies Series:

Musical Yellowface: Oriental Soundscapes and American Music

Bruce Davis Theater

Montgomery Hall

4:45-6:30 pm

Sept. 25

Voter Registration Training

Aldom Lounge, Campus Center

11:15 am-12:15 pm

Oct. 1

The Civil Rights Act

in Southern Maryland

Performing Arts Center

Concert Hall

7:00-8:30 pm

Oct. 2

Asian Studies Series:

Madeline Hsu

Blackistone Room

4:45-6:30 pm

Sherrilyn Ifill

to Deliver the Constitution Day Lecture

Sherrilyn Ifill, civil rights lawyer and scholar, to deliver the 2024 Judge William O.E. Sterling Constitution Day Lecture at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

From 2013-2022, she served as the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. She recently served as a Ford Foundation Fellow and as the Klinsky Visiting Professor for Leadership & Progress at Harvard Law School. Ifill is currently the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights at Howard Law School, where later this year she will launch the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy. Ifill holds a fellowship at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ifill’s tenure at the helm of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was widely praised for elevating the profile and influence of the organization, and for expanding its work across multiple areas of civil rights law. Ifill played a prominent role in shaping our national conversation about race and civil rights during a tumultuous period of racial reckoning. Her strategic vision and counsel remains highly sought after from leaders in government, business, law, grassroots organizations, and academia. For more information and to register, click here.

THE ASIAN

STUDIES SERIES:

Musical Yellowface: Orientalist Soundscapes and American Music

A mid-autumn festival talk and music performance event

Historian and Professor, Dr. Krystyn Moon will introduce the history of orientalist sounds in American popular music in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the ways in which Chinese Americans, as metaphorical counterpoint, subverted such practices through the vaudeville stage. In a musical dialogue, Microtone DJ will perform live, mix-making nostalgic Asian oldies and tracing its historical continuance into contemporary global soundscapes.

Light refreshments including mooncake pastry and tea will be served, in celebration of the mid-autumn festival.

Learn more here.

The Civil Rights Act in Southern Maryland: Yesterday, Today, and for Tomorrow

To commemorate the 60 year anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and to coincide with Governor Wes Moore's proclamation of 2024 as Maryland's year of civil rights, the Center for the Study of Democracy, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Historic St. Mary's City, and Historic Sotterley will host a panel discussion titled "The Civil Rights Act in Southern Maryland: Yesterday, Today, and for Tomorrow."

This program will feature distinguished members of the region from academia, law, activist and advocacy circles, and the museum studies community to explore the legacy of the Civil Rights Act in Southern Maryland. We hope to stimulate dialogue, enhance learning, forge partnerships, and promote civic engagement within the Southern Maryland community.

A pre-event reception with light refreshments will take place at 6pm in the Dodge PAC Lobby. All are invited.

For more information, click here.

"The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril

became the Model Minority"

A historical overview of the Cold War origins of the Asian Model Minority Myth

Madeline Hsu, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Global Migration Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park will give a historical overview of the Cold War origins of the Asian Model Minority Myth.

The U.S.'s history as a "nation of immigrants" places Asian Americans at the center of national discourses.

Learn more here.

Our website www.smcm.edu/democracy has a new look

The Center for the Study of Democracy has a new look online! The website overhaul has been in the works for eight months and has recently gone live.

Learn more about our mission, purpose, values and sponsors. Gather additional information about our current, upcoming and past events. Details on internships and scholarship opportunities for students are outlined with links to applications. Past newsletters can also be accessed under the "newsletters" tab.

The Center for the Study of Democracy is proud of what we do and the programs that we support. We hope that our new look reflects that!

Check it out here.