SSFJS Representing Change: A Symposium on the Arts & Social Justice Movements

This event is co-sponsored by the Commitee for Black Performing Arts, the Institute for Diversity in Arts, and the Asian American Activities Center.

Rushay Booysen - hip hop activist from Port Elizabeth, South Africa and writer for www.africasgateway.com

Mr. Booysen works with young artists who express their opposition to ongoing oppression through hip hop culture. Much of his activism and writing focus on issues facing the "coloured" community in South Africa. His photo essay on youth culture in Port Elizabeth will appear in the next issue of Stanford's Black Arts Quarterly. Recently, Mr. Booysen has begun working with the local city council in Port Elizabeth to broaden opportunities for young performers. His interviews with local South African artists, such as J-Bux, and international artists, such as DJ Krush, have appeared in international internet journals.

Chizuco Naito - writer, cultural critic, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tokyo, Japan

Her work addresses minority cultures, imperialism, and sexuality in modern and contemporary Japanese literature. Ms. Naito has published extensively on topics such as reader response activism, imperialism in modern Japanese literary studies, sexual politics, and romantic love as a topic of resistance. She has written on authors as diverse as Nakagami Kenji, Hoshino Tomoyuki, Matsuura Rieko, and Natume Soseki. While most of her courses focus on modern and contemporary Japanese fiction, she recently taught a course on Star Trek and US Imperialism.

Dylan Rodriguez - Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside

Dr. Rodriguez teaches Filipino American Studies and Ethnic Studies. He received his Ph.D. and his M.A. degrees in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been involved in Critical Resistance and has written extensively on the prison industrial complex as it is expressed both in the United States and internationally. His essay "The Challenge of Prison Abolition: A Conversation with Angela Davis" appeared in the March, 2001 issue of Social Justice.

Setsu Shigematsu - Lecturer in Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside

Whether addressing representations of sexuality in Japan or the development of Asian American social movements, Dr. Shigematsu routinely engages questions of identity and liberation. She has written and presented research on women and violence in Japanese comics, as well as on war's impact on women (specifically "comfort women" and karayuki-san in the Pacific War). Originally from Quebec, Dr. Shigematsu earned her Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Cornell University. She has also studied the development of transnational activism in Asian women's movements.

Carla Williams - Photohistorian, writer, and artist

Ms. Williams, who resides in Oakland, is the co-author of The Black Female Body and other books. Her work as a photographer is featured in the Smithsonian's current "Reflections in Black" exhibit. She has been a frequent guest speaker at events at Stanford, as well as a Humanities Center Fellow, and is currently completing two major book projects, one of which focuses on an African American artist's model in the 1930's, Maudelle Bass. Ms. Williams, who is originally from Los Angeles, also maintains the website www.carlagirl.net.

With a musical performance by JenRO, the female rapper, and spoken word by Stanford student Kiyomi Burchill.