Institute of American Cultures

This book develops from the position that the colonization of Palestine - like other imperial and settler colonial projects - cannot be understood outside the grammar of race. "Race and the Question of Palestine" (Stanford University Press, 2025) explores how race operates as a technology of power and colonial rule, a political and economic structure, a set of legal and discursive practices, and a classificatory system.

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Please join us for an upcoming book talk by Dr. Marion Orr, Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science, Brown University, in conversation with Dr. Sekou Franklin, Executive Director of John Lewis Center for Social Justice, Fisk University.

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Join us for a keynote presentation followed by a panel of policymakers, researchers, and advocates who will discuss what the latest data reveal about enforcement patterns, how to strengthen state protections, and what’s next for fair and sustainable approaches to immigration. Attorney General Rob Bonta will be the keynote speaker.

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In this half-day workshop, we will continue our focus on textile technologies and oral traditions as vital technologies of memory. In our comparative task, we return to the medieval period, with our guest Daisy Bonsall, who will introduce us to the “Communities of Craft: A Look at North Sea Textile Networks in the Early Medieval Period.”

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Hosted in collaboration with the Fowler Museum at UCLA, we invite you to join us for a book drive and fundraiser in support of incarcerated American Indian & Indigenous relatives. This gathering will create space to hear stories of struggle and resilience and enact tangible ways communities can care for our incarcerated relatives. The program will also include an opening prayer, music and dance, Native American vendors and resource booths, and a guided tour of the Fowler Museum's Fire Kinship exhibit.

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What does it truly mean to be a man? Join us for a special screening of When We Free the World, the powerful directorial debut of GRAMMY®-nominated poet, acclaimed author, and Tupac Shakur biographer Kevin Powell. Please join us for a reception before the film; screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Kevin Powell and moderator Dr. Marcus Hunter. Reception 5:30 PM, Screening 6:30 PM

#Arts #MovieFilm

Join us for a fireside chat hosted by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in collaboration with the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Michael Harriot and Michael Lens will be signing copies of their books, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America and Where the Hood At? Fifty Years of Change in Black Neighborhoods.

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Please join us for a celebration of Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s 2026 retirement and lifelong research on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century Mexican nun/poet/scholar who is hailed all over the world as the “first feminist of the Americas” and the Mexican “Tenth Muse.” Free and open to the public, but all attendees, including participants and audience members, must register online.

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Join us for a screening of a documentary biography on the life and career of Bob Nakamura, the legendary “Godfather of Asian American film” and longtime professor of Asian American Studies and film at UCLA. Reception 6–7 PM, Screening 7–8:30 PM, Q&A 8:30–9:15 PM

#Arts #MovieFilm

In person: Q&A with actor Denice Kumagai-Hoy; Brian Niiya, content director, Densho; Lily Tung Crystal, artistic director, East West Players; moderated by UCLA Professor Karen Umemoto, Helen and Morgan Chu director of the Asian American Studies Center. Originally staged by the East West Players, pioneering author Wakako Yamauchi’s adaptation of her award-winning play, “And the Soul Shall Dance,” for KCET’s Hollywood Television Theatre is a poetic, haunting drama that reveals the hardships Japanese Americans faced during the Great Depression.

#Arts #MovieFilm