For Immediate Release

Contact: Barbara K. Laskin or Doug Stone
January 27, 2005
(651) 696-6203

Sixth Annual African American Studies Conference at Macalester
"Incarcerated Intelligence: African Americans and the Prison Industrial Complex"
February 11-12, 2005

St. Paul, Minn. - "Incarcerated Intelligence: African Americans and the Prison Industrial Complex," is the title of the Sixth Annual African American Studies Conference at Macalester College, Friday, February 11 and Saturday, February 12, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minn., various campus locations.

Joy Ann James, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, author and founder of The Harriet Tubman Literary Circle, will give the keynote address "Incarcerated Intelligence: African Americans and the Prison Industrial Complex," 7 p.m., Friday, February 11, 2005, in the Alexander G. Hill Ballroom, Kagin Commons, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minn.

Three panel discussions about incarceration will take place on Saturday, February 12, in the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis Lecture Hall. Panel one at
9 a.m. is titled "Prison Industrial Complex: Past, Present & Future," panel two at
1:30 p.m. is titled "Critical Perspectives on Incarceration" and panel three at 3:30 p.m. is titled "Prison Writings: Incarcerated Voices."

The luncheon speaker, Judge Pamela Alexander, Minnesota 4th Judicial District (Hennepin County), will give a talk entitled "Is Race a Factor in the Criminal Justice System: Inequality in Sentencing," at 11:30 a.m. in the Weyerhaeuser Hall Board Room.

Saturday evening, beginning at 7 p.m. in Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel, Evette Hornsby-Minor, visiting assistant professor, Department of Women's Studies, University of Minnesota, will present "Embodied Scholarship: If I could Hear my mother pray again: A performance ethnography of black Motherhood." Reggie Harris will present works created by the Stillwater (Inmate) Poetry Group.

Macalester is a private, national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,845 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity and civic engagement.

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