UMN Hosting Prof to Lecture on ‘The Violence of Whiteness’

The University of Minnesota has invited a professor dedicated to “dismantling whiteness” to speak next week on how whiteness is an “existential threat” to the United States.

“The Elephant in the Room: A ‘Grown Up’ Conversation about Whiteness” will be presented by Lisa Anderson-Levy, an Anthropology professor at Beloit College whose teaching philosophy is predicated on the belief that “teaching is a political act.”

“She argues that whiteness poses an existential threat to social, political, and economic life in the U.S.”

During her lecture, Anderson-Levy is slated to speak on a number of issues, including “the violence of whiteness” and how colleges and universities in the United States may be complicit in perpetuating this violence.

{snip}

“She argues that whiteness poses an existential threat to social, political, and economic life in the U.S. and proposes that decentering whiteness is one of the most urgent social dilemmas of our time and demands our immediate attention,” the abstract adds.

Anderson-Levy will also speak on how college administrators can “decenter whiteness” at their institutions, “including in our budgets, our curricula, our disciplinary genealogies, our interactions with students, and our relationships with each other as colleagues.”

{snip}

She is also the co-leader on a $600,000 project to foster “diversity, inclusivity, and equity” at Beloit College, which was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Lisa Anderson-Levy