Fall 2020
September 23 – October 21, 2020

Presenters and Topics:

Sept. 23         Regina Clark (CA), “Black Activism at Ramapo”

Sept. 30         Indya Jackson (HGS), “New Jersey’s Unsung Black Radical Tradition”

Oct. 7             Tammi Redd (ASB), “Minority Entrepreneurship and the Digital Divide”

Oct. 14           John Peffer (CA), “Racial Profiling and Photographic Imaging”

Oct. 21           Karl Johnson (HGS), “Slavery by Another Name,” film and discussion

To view PowerPoint full screen click here

Organized by:  Dean Peter A. Campbell (Contemporary Arts), Prof. Regina Clark (Writing) and Prof. John Peffer (Art History)

Fall 2021

Wednesdays Sept. 15, Sept. 22, Sept. 29, Oct. 13, Oct. 27, Nov. 3,  Nov. 10
6:05-7:45 p.m. EST
Location: Webex
Open to all Ramapo students, staff, and faculty

To attend, please sign up on the BLM Colloquium Google form.

For interested students, you may register for the pass/fail 1 credit course: CNTP 190 - TOPICS:

What do we mean when we use the phrase “Black Lives Matter”? We will unpack that and other issues related to the Black experience in this colloquium, a series of lively, scholarly, and organic discussions that will allow faculty, staff, and students to share in important conversations around race, justice, representation, and the current state of race relations on our campus.

Our goal is to facilitate a conversation in the Liberal Arts tradition around current political events and the historic roots of racial inequities in America. In Fall 2021 we will talk about policing, incarceration, the justice system and their impact on the Ramapo community. The format will be a film screening one week, followed by an audience-interactive discussion led by Ramapo faculty and guests the following week. The discussions are meant to work around the issues raised by the film contents and the film aesthetics.

Films listed should be viewed before the talk on the dates listed and will be used as a basis for discussion.

The Ramapo College Library has created a guide to further resources for CNTP 190: Black Lives Matter at Ramapo and the colloquium. It may be found here https://libguides.ramapo.edu/c.php?g=1182353

Sept 15
“Fade to Blue: An Officer’s Perspective on Race & Policing”
Regina Clark, Associate Professor of Journalism, CA, with Clayton Staton, retired NJ State Police detective and President of The Cadet Corps (more info here)
Film to view in advance: “Black & Blue” from HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7QdIIAMXLM

Sep 22 – Screening of The Hate U Give
Sponsored by the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Compliance.
Time: 5:00-7:30pm
Location: Alumni Lounges, SC 156-157

Sept 29
“Stereotypes, code switching, being authentic to one’s self, and the interactions of young black men with the police”
Nicole Morgan Agard, Chief Diversity Officer
Film to view in advance: The Hate U Give (2018)
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MM8OkVT0hw

Oct 13
“The Criminalization of black children in educational settings and its mediated representation”
Nakia Matthias, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts
Film to view in advance: Pushout: Criminalization of Black Girls in School (2019)
Via Ramapo Library website:  https://opac.ramapo.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=465645

Oct 27 
“Policing the Police: An examination of racially-skewed policing practices, efforts to address those practices, and obstacles to reform”
Paul Reck, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SSHS
Film to view in advance: Policing the Police – Jelani Cobb, Frontline
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/policing-the-police/

Nov 3
Book launch celebration and discussion: Diversity Matters, published by Lexington Books in July 2021 and featuring chapters by Ramapo Professors Sandra Virginia Gonsalves-Domond and Karl Johnson and Dean of Contemporary Arts Peter A. Campbell

Nov 10
“Incarceration without representation: A reflection of racism within the criminal justice system”
Timmesha Butler, Assistant Professor of Social Work, SSHS, with Aisha Sanders, Esq.
Film to view in advance: Just Mercy (2019)

If you have any questions, please contact Regina Clark, John Peffer, or Peter Campbell.

Bios

Regina Clark teaches courses in Writing and Journalism as an associate professor of Journalism at Ramapo College. She has worked on the editorial staff of ESSENCE magazine, and as a senior copywriter in the publishing industry. Her passion is to help students to find their greatest potential as writers. Clark continues to work as a freelance writer and editor, and she holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

Clayton Staton is the President of The Cadet Corps. He has 33 years of combined military and civilian law enforcement experience. A United States Naval Veteran, he is also a retired 23-year veteran and Detective of the New Jersey State Police. He served at several road duty stations and units including Newark Station (NJ Turnpike), Community Policing, High Crimes Patrol, Emergency Management, Recruiting, Background Investigations, Victim Services, Executive Protection, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Internal Affairs. Clayton trained thousands of sworn and non-sworn New Jersey State Police employees as the EEO Training Officer, and he supervised Detective Sergeants in Internal Affairs. His last assignment was the Assistant Unit Head of the Staff Inspection Unit which is responsible for conducting all Best Police Practices Inspections within the New Jersey State Police. Clayton is presently a Security Officer Registration Act (SORA) instructor for the State of New Jersey. Additionally, Clayton was a Regimental Officer at SUNY Maritime College where he managed the Headquarters Battalion and mentored cadets who are trained to be Merchant Mariners or US Military Officers. Presently, he manages partnerships for The Cadet Corps Corporation in several states with Each One Teach One (EOTO) youth organization. He has received several awards for The Cadet Corps Programs which includes the City of Paterson City Council Award, State of New Jersey Governors Volunteerism Award, American Legion Passaic County and New Jersey Trooper of The Year Award. Clayton completed leadership schools in the United States Navy and the New Jersey State Police. He also has an Associates Degree in Criminal Justice from Passaic County Community College, a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Saint Peter’s University, and a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University.

Nicole Morgan Agard, Esq., is the Chief Equity & Diversity Officer at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She serves on the President’s Cabinet and her responsibilities include oversight of the Office of Equity & Diversity Programs; the Office of Affirmative Action & Workplace Compliance; and the Office of Title IX.  Prior to coming to Ramapo, Ms. Morgan Agard worked in the New Jersey Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and prior to that, she served as Associate Counsel for the Elizabeth Board of Education.  Ms. Morgan Agard started her career at a mid-sized law firm in northern New Jersey and she subsequently served as a Deputy Attorney General for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.  She is admitted to the New Jersey Bar and is involved in a number of organizations, but most notably the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Ms. Morgan Agard received her B.A. in Political Science and African/African-American studies from Binghamton University and her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law.

Dr. Nakia Matthias is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communication at Ramapo College. Dr. Matthias teaches Media Literacy and will be teaching a course titled, ‘The Black Experience in Media’ in Fall 2021. Her personal interests in the historical legacy and trajectory of minority groups’ representation in media frame her desire to prioritize classroom exploration of how such groups endeavor to control their mediated presentations and identities in popular media culture.

Dr. Paul Reck is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ramapo College who oversees the Criminology Concentration of the Sociology major, and served as Convener of the Criminology/Crime and Justice Studies minor between 2011 and 2021.  He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and his J.D. from City University of New York Law School.  His research interests focus on the social construction of race, class, and gender, and how such constructions contribute to structural inequality, particularly within the context of the criminal justice system.  He has written several articles that focus on communal variation in the policing of members of different racial categories.

Dr. Timmesha Butler is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), and Assistant Professor in the School of Social Science and Human Services at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She received her Masters in Social Work at Howard University and her Doctorate of Philosophy from the National Catholic School of Social Service. She has a special research interest in educational practices and policies and promoting social justice for students of color and students with disabilities.