Book Discussion with George Lipsitz

George Lipsitz is Research Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to Ethnic Studies at the Crossroads his publications include The Danger Zone is Everywhere, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How Racism Takes Place, Dangerous Crossroads, and Time Passages. He co-edited with Kalamu ya Salaam the Students at the Center authored book Go To Jail, co-authored the book Saludarte with the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, and was a member of the editorial team that wrote the teachers’ guide to the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates’ film Becoming Ourselves.

His new book Ethic Studies at the Crossroads aims to deepen the capacity of Ethnic Studies to be a source of new knowledge and an ally of social movement mobilization. It seeks to help build a counter-culture of accompaniment that connects campus knowledge to community concerns, pedagogies, and practices.

Because Ethnic Studies offers opposition to injustice it encounters opposition from opponents. Sometimes its critical potential is muted by co-optive incorporation inside institutions. Yet it can still be an important public sphere site for the construction of infrastructures of critique, care, and contestation.

Advance copies of Chapter 2 and 5 from Ethic Studies at the Crossroads are available in preparation for the conversation. Please reach out to Julie Moon at moonj@wwu.edu to request copies.