Sunday, July 16, 2023
Critical Race Theory
Dr. Linda Nelson
Critical Race Theory is both a concept and a distinct political and intellectual concept and pursuit. As the former, we can find its roots and impetus in the works of legal scholar Derrick Bell, as well as those of feminist cultural critics Kimberle Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins. However, one might begin with scholars, such as W.E.B. DuBois, who wrote about the intersections of art and propaganda at the turn of the 20th century. The theoretical underpinnings of critical race theory are drawn broadly from scholarship across disciplines that focuses on the importance of our understanding the complexity of population heterogeneity and what that suggests for educational policies, political mandates and other authorizations. CRT was initially regarded as an outgrowth of the issues and initiatives associated with radical feminism and critical legal studies. As noted by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, critical race theory has its foundation in the works of philosophers and theorists that share a radical disposition toward difference in human populations.
Bio: Dr. Linda Williamson Nelson, Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Africana Studies at Stockton University of NJ, retired in 2014 after 35 years of service. She holds a BA in literature from Long Island U., a master’s degree in literature from NYU, and a PhD in linguistic anthropology from Rutgers. She was recruited to Richard Stockton’s Writing Program. Her research on African American Dialectal codeswitching in narrative discourse has contributed to a unique body of research concerned with the interaction of language form, content, and identities in long segments of talk, both oral and literary. She has shared her research at numerous conferences across the US, France, and Jamaica, West Indies. She co-authored the book, Telling our Lives, Conversations on Solidarity and Difference, with Frida Furman and Elizabeth Kelly, which resulted in many readings, across the country, including two plenaries. Her current project, based on fieldwork in Jamaica, W.I. considers narrative constructions of agency in the lives of Jamaican women.
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