Faculty Invite Students to a ‘Teach-In on Trump Nation’

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Post-election talks focus on issues of gender, class, race, sexuality, and disability.

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students hugging during a protest on the Green.
Students gather at an encampment on the Green to express their opposition to the election of Donald Trump before a “walk for love and justice” across campus and through Hanover. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
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Half a dozen Dartmouth faculty members plan to offer their perspectives on the presidential election and answer students’ questions at an impromptu “teach-in on Trump Nation” scheduled for Monday evening in Carpenter Hall.

Professors in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and the humanities will “reflect on the election of Donald Trump and its ramifications on issues of women, gender, class, race, sexuality, and disability,” says Eng-Beng Lim, an associate professor in the women’s, gender, and sexuality studies program.

Lim, who helped pull together the roundtable session in the days after Trump’s unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8, says the inspiration for the event came from his students.

“Many of them want to have a venue to talk about the implications of the election,” Lim says. “From where I stand, students have been experiencing a lot of anxiety and pain, and even fear, because a lot of my students are students of color, students who are queer identified, immigrants, and women, and they’re reading a lot of reports about attacks across the nation.”

In addition to Lim, speakers will include Amy Lawrence, the Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor in the Humanities; Graziella Parati, the Paul D. Paganucci Professor of Italian Language and Literature; William Cheng, assistant professor of music; Andrew McCann, chair of the English department; and Gerd Gemünden, the Sherman Fairchild Professor of the Humanities. Lim is awaiting word from several others who may also take part.

Each faculty member will offer some quick thoughts, followed by a question-and-answer discussion with all the participants, Lim says. The teach-in will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday in Carpenter 13.

Since the election, many students and community members have been gathering to discuss or demonstrate against a Trump presidency. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, before election results were final, students began a sit-in on the Green that lasted through Wednesday and ended with a “walk for love and justice.” That protest drew a crowd of more than 300 people, including students, faculty, and community members, holding an array of signs such as “We Will Resist,” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Gatherings are continuing across campus, including an English department-sponsored poetry reading in Sanborn Library on Friday to “reaffirm our values as an intellectual community based on principles of inclusivity,” a lunchtime conversation sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus in Parkhurst Hall, and a drop-in session to support students of color at the Cutter Shabazz House.

Bill Platt