NEWS
from Central Connecticut State University
Honored as a "Leadership Institution" by the Association of American Colleges & Universities

Media contact: Bart Fisher, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
(860) 832-1624; Fisherb@ccsu.edu 
 

NEW BRITAIN – April 21, 2008 - Angela Davis, political activist, author and scholar will make a pair of appearances at Central Connecticut State University, April 24.  Ms. Davis is the author of eight books and has lectured throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America.  In recent years a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination.  She draws upon her own experiences in the early seventies as a person who spent eighteen months in jail and on trial, after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List.”  She has also conducted extensive research on numerous issues related to race, gender and imprisonment.  Her most recent books are Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete?  She is now completing a book on Prisons and American History.

Professor Davis’ teaching career has taken her to San Francisco State University, Mills College, and UC Berkeley.  She has also taught at UCLA, Vassar, the Claremont Colleges, and Stanford University.  She has spent the last 15 years at the University of California Santa Cruz where she is Professor of History of Consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D program, and Professor of Feminist Studies.

At her 2 p.m. lecture in the Thaddeus L. Torp Theatre in CCSU’s Lawrence J. Davidson Hall, Dr. Davis will discuss the premise of “Are Prisons Obsolete?”  She will then be joined in panel discussion by  State Representative William Dyson, of New Haven, the former Appropriations Committee Chair and longtime prisoner re-entry advocate;  Atty. Gerard Smyth – Connecticut’s former Chief Public Defender and current CCSU adjunct professor and staff member of the Gov. William A. O'Neill Endowed Chair; Maureen Price, Executive Director of Community Partners in Action and James Tillman (recently exonerated after serving 16 years on a rape and kidnapping conviction).  The panel will focus on the national and statewide implications of prison policy. 

At 5:30 p.m., Dr. Davis will speak on “Race, Class, and Gender Issues in American Society.”  The second lecture, which will also take place in Torp Theatre, will be followed by an audience question and answer period.   Both CCSU events are free and open to the public.  However tickets must be obtained for the later lecture.  They are available through Centix, (860) 832-1989, which is located at the Information Desk of the CCSU Student Center.  Tickets will not ensure seating beyond 5:25pm, as any empty seats will be available on a first come, first serve basis. 

Free parking is also available in CCSU parking garages and surface lots.

The events are being sponsored by CCSU’s Institute for the Study of Crime & Justice, Ruthe Boyea Women’s Center and Center for Public Policy and Social Research.   For more information, contact Andrew Clark at 860-832-1871 or Jacqueline Cobbina-Boivin and Monique Daley at 860-832-1655.

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