This 2021-2022 academic year at SUNY Cortland, all faculty, staff, students, and alumni are invited to participate in a book discussion of Clint Smith’s new title How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. This book fits into this year’s theme of “Memory,” sponsored by the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee (CICC) at SUNY Cortland. Co-sponsors for this event (in addition to the CICC) are the Anti-Racism Task Force, Memorial Library, and the History Department. Led by Evan Faulkenbury (history department) and Jeremy Pekarek (archivist and instructional services librarian), the book discussion will be a space for us to share ideas and insights about what we’re learning as we consider this important history.

If you’re interested, please fill out this form. If you would like to participate, you will need to purchase or borrow the book for yourself. The book discussion will meet in person (socially distant and with a max allotment of 15 people for safety amid COVID-19), but anyone may join us live virtually. We’ll be meeting in a classroom designed for remote learning, so anyone joining us online may participate.

Our first meeting (discussing the prologue and first chapter on Monticello) will be on Friday, September 24 from 1-2 PM in Sperry 309. Our second meeting (discussing the second chapter on the Whitney plantation) will be on Friday, October 29 from 1-2 PM in Sperry 309. Our third meeting (discussing the chapter on Angola Prison) will be on Friday, November 19 from 1-2 PM in Sperry 309. For those who will join us virtually, we will email you the log-in information. We will plan out and continue our discussion during the spring semester.

If you have any questions, please email us at evan.faulkenbury@cortland.edu and jeremy.pekarek@cortland.edu.