"Did Race and Money Matter?
Discrimination in the NC Eugenics Program"
Join us as we welcome Drs. Daniel Grano (Associate Professor), Margaret M. Quinlan (Assistant Professor) and Elliot Hamer (MA candidate), all of Communication Studies at UNC-Charlotte, who will discuss the recent discourse surrounding eugenics in North Carolina.
Recently North Carolina came close to being the first state to financially compensate victims of a sterilization program, but that effort ultimately failed. This discussion will focus on how that failure was based on the idea that the past cannot be repaired by those living in the present. We will discuss how this idea typically undermines efforts to address public, moral obligations to past injustices, and how it disproportionately affects women, people of color, the poor, and the disabled. Our hope is to open up conversation for how to understand our continuing obligations to the past and how to move forward with meeting those obligations.
Free to attend. Light breakfast and refreshments will be served.
About the Speakers
Dr. Daniel Grano
Dr. Grano teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at UNC Charlotte within his interest areas, including Rhetorical Theory, Political Communication and Cultural Studies. His research focuses on how power shapes moral judgment, especially surrounding issues of race. He has published in various journals within the communication studies discipline, including the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and The Southern Communication Journal.
Dr. Margaret Quinlan
Dr. Quinlan teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at UNC Charlotte within her interest areas, including health, gender and disability communication. Her research explores and critiques existing power structures and works towards the empowerment of groups marginalized in society. Her research relates primarily to issues of equality and to the structures that constrain and empower all who are involved in giving and receiving care within and outside the U.S. medical establishment. She has published in various journals within the communication studies discipline, including Health Communication, Text & Performance Quarterly, Disability Studies Quarterly and Sex Education.
Elliot Hamer
Elliot Hamer is a graduate student at UNC Charlotte working towards an M.A. in Communication Studies and is expected to graduate with his master's degree this spring. As an undergraduate he majored in Communication Studies at UNC Charlotte with a concentration in mass media and a minor in film studies. In his studies he focuses on the organizing power of language, and especially how it pertains to tension with new media. He also currently works in the department as a graduate assistant where he helps teach large lecture courses and assists professors with their research.
This event is sponsored by the United Church of Christ.
To reserve a seat, please register below!