Josh Zaffos
March 2025

Poster with text: Distinguished Lecture Series C. Riley Snorton "Swamp Tales, Trans Ghosts, and Nonbinary Magical Realism" Thursday, March 27 4-5:30 p.m., LSC 386 Talk open to the public This talk focuses on how abolition and decolonial praxes produce alternative frameworks for reading matters of gender and the environment among Black and Indigenous queer, trans and nonbinary artists and activists. C. Riley Snorton is the Mary R. Morton professor of English, Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know. Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press), and the co-editor of Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (New Museum/MIT Press) and The Flesh of the Matter. A Critical Forum on Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University Press). JENNIFER C. NASH Jennifer C. Nash "Picturing Loss" Monday, April 21 4-5:30 p.m., LSC 386 Talk open to the public This talk studies the prominent place of the photograph in contemporary Black feminist writing and how beautiful Black feminist writing has performed its work through the creation of a black feminist grammar that is always both discursive and visual. Jennifer C. Nash is the Jean Fox O Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She is the author of four books (all published on Duke University Press): The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography; Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality; Birthing Black Mothers; and How We Write Now. Living With Black Feminist Theory.The Distinguished Lecture Series on Race, Gender and Ethnic Studies at CSU returns this spring to welcome scholars from around the country to give public talks, meet with reading groups, and connect with students, faculty and CSU community members.C. Riley Snorton, of University of Chicago, will speak on campus on Thursday, March 27, and Jennifer C. Nash, of Duke University, will visit CSU and speak on Monday, April 21.

Presented by the Department of Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies and supported by a grant from the Mellon foundation, the series launched last fall with two visiting speakers. The multi-year series aims to elevate and explore complex conversations, while providing the campus community opportunities to engage deeply with groundbreaking research by innovative, important voices in the field.

Details on Spring 2025 speaker lineup below. The Melon Distinguished Lecture Series is free and open to the public.

Spring 2025 Schedule

Thursday, March 27 || 4-5:30 p.m., LSC 386

C. Riley Snorton
“Swamp Tales, Trans Ghosts, and Nonbinary Magical Realism”

This talk focuses on how abolition and decolonial praxes produce alternative frameworks for reading matters of gender and the environment among Black and Indigenous queer, trans and nonbinary artists and activists.

C. Riley Snorton is the Mary R. Morton professor of English, Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity, and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know. Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press), and the co-editor of Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (New Museum/MIT Press) and The Flesh of the Matter. A Critical Forum on Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University Press).

Monday, April 21 || 4-5:30 p.m., LSC 386

Jennifer C. Nash
“Picturing Loss”

Monday, April 21
4-5:30 p.m., LSC 386

This talk studies the prominent place of the photograph in contemporary Black feminist writing and how beautiful Black feminist writing has performed its work through the creation of a black feminist grammar that is always both discursive and visual.

Jennifer C. Nash is the Jean Fox O Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She is the author of four books (all published on Duke University Press): The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography; Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality; Birthing Black Mothers; and How We Write Now. Living With Black Feminist Theory.

 

About the Distinguished Lecture Series

Supported by the Mellon Foundation, CSU’s Distinguished Lecture Series on Race, Gender and Ethnic Studies brings important scholars to campus for public talks, reading groups, and meetings. The multi-year series provides students, faculty and CSU community members opportunities to converse with top scholars in the field who frame the conversation on race, gender and ethnic studies. For any questions, please contact Department Chair Sushmita Chatterjee at sushch@colostate.edu.