2024 – 2025 “Erasure” Theme: We are living at a moment of erasure and the threat of erasure. Examples include book censorship; revisionist histories and denialism; “alternative” truths; refusal to acknowledge impending crises such as climate change; undermining of democratic and academic institutions; limitations on freedom of expression; dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; and obliterative forms of violence directed against people, populations, communities, and cultures. Erasure can invite forms of recovery and redress such as corrective histories; commemoration; archival research; art restoration; palimpsestic writing; and restorative justice. Digital humanities and AI join these traditional disciplinary approaches in providing opportunities for redress.
Convened by: Patricia Williams
University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities
Director of Law, Technology and Ethics Initiatives
Elizabeth Bucar
“The Religion Factor: How to Make Spirituality More Meaningful, Responsible, and Effective”
Professor, Religion; Dean’s Leadership Fellow
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Laura Forlano
“Automated: Disability and Technology in an Algorithmic Age“
Professor, Art + Design and Communication Studies
College of Arts, Media, and Design
Jelena Golubović
“Rumor and Retribution in Wartime”
Assistant Professor, Cultural Anthropology and International Affairs
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Risa Kitagawa
“Competing Visions of Empire: The Politics of Colonial Narrative in French Indochina”
Assistant Professor, Political Science and International Affairs
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Isabel Martinez
“Making it Visible: Fifty years of Latinx Stand-Up Comedy in New York City”
Associate Professor, Sociology and Anthropology and Cultures, Societies & Global Studies; Director of Latinx, Latin American and Caribbean Studies
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Sasha Sabherwal
“Erasure of Caste within Sikh Diasporic Communities of U.S. and Canada”
Assistant Professor, Cultural Anthropology and Global Asian Studies
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Carmel Salhi
“Categories of Exclusion: Violent Erasure of Forced Migration and its Classificatory Systems“
Associate Professor, Health Sciences
Bouvé College of Health Sciences
Philip Thai
“In the Shadows of the Bamboo Curtain: Trade, Travel, and Trafficking across Greater China during the Cold War“
Associate Professor, History and Asian Studies; Director of Global Asian Studies
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Yana Mommadova – Graduate Fellow
“Elite Networks and Democratic Deconsolidation”
Sociology PhD Candidate
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Hunter Moskowitz – Graduate Fellow
“Labor and Race in the Global Textile Industry: Concord, Monterrey and Lowell in the Early 19th Century”
World History PhD Candidate
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
