Springfield College Office of Multicultural Affairs to Host Award-winning Author Today

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield College Office of Multicultural Affairs will host award-winning author, speaker, mentor, and teacher Manoucheka Celeste as part of the Cultural Connections Speaker Series today, March 4, starting at 6 p.m. Her virtual presentation will focus on race, gender, and representation. The Zoom ID for the presentation is 948-6026-5613.

Celeste is an associate professor in the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research at the University of Florida. She is in the African American Studies Program and conducts research on media representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality, and on identity formation in the U.S. and the Caribbean, specifically in Haiti.

Her most recent work focuses on citizenship narratives surrounding blackness, black womanhood, and trans-national mobility. Her book Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the African Diaspora: Travelling Blackness received both the National Communication Assoc. Diamond Anniversary Book Award and its Outstanding Book Award, presented by the African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus.

She is committed to critical scholarship on representations of blackness, which appear in academic journals as well in public venues, including the Seattle Times, the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, and Spark: Elevating Scholarship on Social Issues.

Celeste’s presentation is sponsored by Springfield College’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Multicultural Fund. The overarching goal of the Multicultural Fund is to support and encourage campus-based collaborations that promote social justice, antiracism, inclusion, and acceptance within the Springfield College community. Faculty, staff, students, and student clubs and organizations may apply for a grant through the fund in order to support these goals. More information can be found at springfield.edu/inclusion-and-community-engagement/multicultural-fund.