American political activist and author Angela Davis will serve as the 2012 James Farmer Visiting Lecturer and Black History Month Keynote speaker at the University of Mary Washington. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium.
Davis is professor of history of consciousness and professor of feminist studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she has taught for the last 15 years. The author of eight books, including most recently “Are Prisons Obsolete?” and “Abolition Democracy,” she has conducted extensive research on issues related to race, gender and imprisonment.
Prior to her teaching career, Davis spent 18 months in jail and on trail for suspected involvement in a crime in California in the early 1970s, for which the FBI placed her on the “Ten Most Wanted List.” After a jury found her not guilty, she became a leader in the Communist Party and was twice a candidate for vice president on the Communist Party USA ticket. She has taught at numerous colleges, including the University of California at Los Angeles, Vassar, the Claremont Colleges and Stanford University.
A member of the executive board of the Women of Color Resource Center, Davis received a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, a master’s degree from the University of California at San Diego and a Ph.D. from Humboldt University.
The lecture is sponsored by the James Farmer Visiting Professor Committee, the AT&T Student Leadership Colloquium and the James Farmer Multicultural Center. For more information, contact Courtney Chapman-Thomas, director of leadership and strategic initiatives, at (540) 654-1665.
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News release prepared by: Courtney Chapman-Thomas
