Dickinson to Host Virtual Discussion on ‘Bearing Witness While Black’
Allissa Richardson. Photo by DaJuana Jones.
The Annual Morgan Lecture
Author and journalism scholar Allissa Richardson will deliver this year’s Morgan Lecture as a virtual talk from Dickinson’s Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. “Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the Fight to Preserve Our Democracy — One Video at a Time,” will take place Wednesday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. in a public YouTube livestream.
Richardson will explore how in the last five years Black smartphone witnesses launched the largest social justice movement in American history. In her new book, Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest Journalism, Richardson explains why we cannot ignore the mobile testimonies of the afflicted and what is at risk when we do.
Richardson is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Her research focuses on how African Americans use mobile and social media to produce innovative forms of journalism, especially in times of crisis. She is considered a pioneer in mobile journalism (MOJO), having launched the first smartphone-only college newsroom in 2010. She expanded the MOJO Lab curriculum throughout Africa, creating classes for allied nonprofit organizations in Morocco and South Africa. Richardson is the recipient of several honors, including The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) 2012 Journalism Educator of the Year award, induction into Apple’s Distinguished Educator program and two prestigious Harvard University fellowships.
The Morgan Lectureship was endowed by the Dickinson Board of Trustees in 1992 in grateful appreciation for the distinguished service of James Henry Morgan, class of 1878, professor of Greek, dean and president of the college. The lectureship brings to campus a scholar in residence to meet informally with individuals and groups, and to deliver the Morgan Lecture on topics in the social sciences and humanities. Past lecturers have included Francis Fukuyama, Michael Ignatieff, Samantha Power, Art Spiegelman, Sandra Steingraber, Kay Redfield Jamison, Patricia Hill Collins, Lennard Davis, Winona LaDuke, Lila Abu-Lughod, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Nikole Hannah-Jones.
The program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Morgan Lecture Fund and cosponsored by the Center for Civic Learning and Action; the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity; and the departments of English; math & computer science; women’s, gender & sexuality studies; Middle East studies; American studies; history; and sociology.
LEARN MORE
Published February 2, 2021