We invite you to join the conversation on the topic of Abortion at our semi-annual Difficult Dialogue series on March 22, 2023. 

  Register Here 

What to Expect

The Center for the Humanities and the Arts and the University Libraries continue to host Difficult Dialogues — a series of panel conversations that bring together people from on and off campus to discuss challenging issues from their own perspectives.

In 2022, we witnessed the end to fifty years of legal protections for the right to abortion care as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The court concluded that the constitution does not protect a right to abortion and returned the right of states to regulate abortion. Months after the case, several states have invoked total or near-total bans on abortion, the devastating social, political, and economic impacts of which we are only beginning to understand. Millions of citizens have lost access to abortion care and those already facing discriminatory barriers are disproportionately disadvantaged by the loss of this fundamental right.

This panel features individuals discussing how talking about abortion can be difficult, and how the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade makes conversation about this topic even more fraught. This is not a debate about being pro-life or pro-choice; this difficult dialogue is simply to discuss the difficulty of talking about abortion. Register here for zoom link: 

Ground Rules

We are committed to fostering productive dialogues in the hope that minds and hearts might expand and that mutual respect, understanding, and perhaps self-examination can be fostered by meeting with and listening to each other respectfully. These dialogues are meant to allow us to see each other as human. If you are going to participate, the goal is to develop the capacity of talking about hard issues with as much care for self and others as possible.

Giveaway: Free Books!

The first 15 people to register* (Register Here) as well as attend the event will receive a free copy of the book "" by Jennifer Holland.

  tells the story of one of the most successful political movements of the 20th century: the grassroots campaign against legalized abortion. While Americans have rapidly changed their minds about sex education, pornography, arts funding, gay teachers, and ultimately gay marriage, opposition to legalized abortion has only grown. As other socially conservative movements have lost young activists, the pro-life movement has successfully recruited more young people to its cause. Holland explores why abortion dominates conservative politics like no other cultural issue. Looking at anti-abortion movements in 4 western states since the 1960s—turning to the fetal pins passed around church services, the graphic images exchanged between friends, and the fetus dolls given to children in school—she argues that activists made fetal life feel personal to many Americans.

*You are eligible to receive a free copy of "Tiny You" if you are one of the first 15 people to register for the event. You must attend the event for the majority of the time (45 minutes+). If you are eligible for a free copy, you may pick up your book at the Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) office in Macky Auditorium Room 201 (on CU Boulder's main campus). Office hours to pick up your copy are Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9am - 4pm. If you are unable to make that time, reach out to cu-cha@colorado.edu to schedule alternative times for pickup.

ADA Accommodation

We will work with ADA Compliance to attempt to fulfill any disability requests for ASL interpreting and/or real-time captioning for these events. Requests received less than 48 hours prior to the event cannot be guaranteed. To make a request, please email the Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) at cu-cha@colorado.edu.

Panelists

• Christie Burkhart, Clinical Operations and Clinical Compliance Director, Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center
• Amanda Linsenmeyer, Director of the Office of Intercultural Engagement, Center for Inclusion and Social Change, CU Boulder
• Amanda Jean Stevenson, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, CU Boulder
• Moderator: Kate Kelly, Regional Lead Organizer, New Era Colorado

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A free film screening of the "" documentary and a conversation on "Being Black in Boulder" hosted on Thursday, October 27, 2022.

Event Information:

• Registration: 
• Date: Thursday, October 27, 2022
• Time: 6:45pm - 9:00pm MT (film screening begins at 7pm MT)
  • Film Screening: 7pm - 8:30pm MT
  • Difficult Dialogue: 8:30 - 9pm MT
• Location: in-person at Grace Commons Church Chapel: 1820 15th Street, Boulder, CO 80302
• Flyer Download: This Is [Not] Who We Are - Film Screening & Dialogue flyer
• CU Libraries �ƹ���Ƶ:
• Images from Event can be found on the CHA Facebook Page: 

Film Screening:

"" is a documentary film exploring the gap between Boulder's progressive self-image and the lived experiences of its Black citizens. The film braids the lived experiences of Black characters ranging in age from 12 to 78. Some stories are searing, while others are hopeful. The film seeks to open a space for dialogue among Boulderites and about cities like Boulder, overwhelmingly white, wealthy, and conflicted about issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Is a more economically and racially diverse future possible, both in Boulder and in cities like it across America?

Difficult Dialogues:

After the film screening, there will be a group of panelists to lead a discussion about issues of race, class, and the community. This is part of the CU Boulder Libraries and Center for Humanities & the Arts semi-annual "Difficult Dialogue" series. The viewers are encouraged to participate in the conversation.

Panelists for the event:

• Katrina Miller: Co-Director of the film, "This is [Not] Who We Are"
• : Senior Associate Pastor at Grace Commons Church
• Dr. Jennifer Ho: Professor, Director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts
• Ami Dayan: Boulder-based Playwright, Director, and Performer
• Dr. Thomas Windham: Psychologist, Educator, featured in film, "This is [Not] Who We Are"

Event Hosts:

This free film screening and dialogue is hosted by , , CU Libraries, and CU Boulder's Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA). This event is open to the public.

Directions:

This event is at Grace Commons Church at 1820 15th Street, Boulder, CO 80302. Please enter through the doors on 16th street adjacent to the chapel. There is street parking as well as a parking garage (15th & Pearl Parking Garage for $3) if you planned to drive to the event.

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The Spring 2022 installment of the Difficult Dialogues series between the Center for Humanities & the Arts and University Libraries seeked to address what it means to make a mistake and then to repair the harm (unintentional or intentional) that happens when we make mistakes with our friends, peers, co-workers, family, or on social media. We sometimes use an expression that may be anti-trans, ableist, racially insensitive, sexist—sometimes without knowing or understanding. We may do things that cause others harm, and we don’t understand what’s happening until we get called out.

So what do we do when we get called out? How do we rectify the harm and move forward?

This event featured Patricia Gonzalez, Assistant Dean for Inclusive Practices; Jessica Ladd-Webert, Director of the Office of Victim Assistance; and Elias Sacks, Director of the Program in Jewish Studies. The event will be moderated by Tyler Keyworth, Assistant Director of Restorative Justice & Conflict Resolution.

This event took place on Tuesday, January 25th at 12:30pm MT. Registration was required to attend. Due to the sensitivity of this topic, we did not record this event.

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The Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) & CU Libraries DIFFICULT DIALOGUES collaboration for Fall 2021 was on the theme of “Saying No, Slowing Down.” To that end, we are holding space for saying no to holding a formal event and practicing the theme of slowing down by simply claiming this webspace to acknowledge the difficulty of telling someone that you are too exhausted to take on additional labor and to also take time to slow down and take time for oneself.

To that end, we will use this space to share resources on saying no and slowing down, but we may be adding to it slowly. 

Sincerely,

CHA & CU Boulder Libraries

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The Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) and the CU Boulder Libraries offered the next installment in the Difficult Dialogues panel series on Wednesday, February 10th, 2021 at 12pm virtually via Zoom. 

This event was meant to examine the different ways that power impacts the lives of people at CU Boulder and the different types of power dynamics that affect us–that make it hard to advocate for various issues and that are often difficult to talk about.

This panelists for this event included Gwendalynn Roebke, undergraduate student; Sarah Fahmy, graduate student; Chantal Baca, staff, and Erika Randall, chair and professor. The moderator was Janet Ruppert, who was also a graduate student.

This event was free and open to the public. 

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How can artists and scholars help the nation contend with the peril in which we find ourselves? The 2020 US presidential race was one of the most politically and ideologically divisive and contentious races that we’ve ever seen. And as the events of January 6, 2021 have illustrated, the nation remains divided to the point where political leaders at the highest level are challenging election results without any evidence or basis in reality and a largely white group of insurrectionists tried to overthrow the US government. Our humanities centers, located in three different states that also have a history of divided state government, have brought together three artist-scholars to reflect on the cultural, social, and political fall-out from the 2020 election—a fall-out that we will undoubtedly continue to feel the ramifications of long after the January 6, 2021 inauguration—and to imagine paths forward.

On Wednesday, January 27th at 3:30 MT (4:30 CT/5:30 ET), the Center for Humanities & the Arts participated in a joint collaboration among Carolina Public Humanities (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies (University of Iowa) to feature humanities scholars discussing the state of culture, politics, and society in the aftermath of a tumultuous 2020. 

The featured speakers were Ruth Ellen Kocher from CU Boulder, Malinda Maynor Lowery from UNC Chapel Hill, and Christopher Merrill from the University of Iowa. 

This event will took place over Zoom. .

Ruth Ellen Kocher is Senior Associate Dean of Program Initiatives at CU Boulder and the author of domina Un/blued (Tupelo Press 2013), One Girl Babylon (New Issues Press 2003), When the Moon Knows You’re Wandering, winner of the Green Rose Prize in Poetry (New Issues Press 2002), and Desdemona’s Fire, winner of the Naomi Long Madget Award for African American Poets (Lotus Press 1999). Her poems have been translated into Persian in the Iranian literary magazine, �����’r,&�Բ�����;and have appeared or are forthcoming in various anthologies including, Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poets, Black Nature, From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great, An Anthology for Creative Writers: The Garden of ForkingPaths, IOU: New Writing On Money, New Bones: Contemporary Black Writing in America. She has taught poetry writing for the University of Missouri, Southern Illinois University, the New England College Low Residency MFA program, the Indiana Summer Writer’s workshop, and Washington University’s Summer Writing program.

Malinda Maynor Lowery is a Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill and Director of the Center for the Study of the American South. She is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Her second book, The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle, was published by UNC Press in September 2018. The book is a survey of Lumbee history from the eighteenth century to the present, written for a general audience. Her first book, Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation (UNC Press, 2010), won several awards, including Best First Book of 2010 in Native American and Indigenous Studies and the Labriola American Indian Center National Book Prize from Arizona State University. She has written over fifteen book chapters or articles, on topics including American Indian migration and identity, school desegregation, federal recognition, religious music, and foodways, and has published essays in the New York Times, Oxford American, The North Star, and Scalawag Magazine. She has won fellowships and grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, and others. She has produced documentary films, including the Peabody Award-winning A Chef’s Life (5 seasons on PBS), the Emmy-nominated Private Violence (broadcast on HBO in 2014), In the Light of Reverence (broadcast on PBS in 2001), and two short films, Real Indian (1996), and Sounds of Faith (1997), both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Christopher Merrill has published six collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and books of translations; and five works of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars and Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain. His latest prose book, The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War, chronicles travels in Malaysia, China and Mongolia, and the Middle East. His writings have been translated into twenty-five languages; his journalism appears widely; his honors include a Chevalier from the French government in the Order of Arts and Letters. As director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Merrill has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to over forty countries. He serves on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, and in April 2012 President Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Humanities.

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Citizenship, its definitions, and its obligations has been very much in the news lately. 

After watching the Inauguration, please join us for a panel discussion on citizenship on Wednesday, January 20th at 12pm noon MT. The panel features experts on the history, law, and ongoing meaning of citizenship in the United States.

We'll meet on Zoom at .  

Many thanks to our sponsors: CHA, the History Department, and the Law School's Immigration and Citizenship Law Program.

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What It Means to Disagree, Admit a Degree of Uncertainty, and Maintain a Robust Friendship: A Dialogue

Date: November 20, 2020
Time: 12:00pm MT
Where: Virtual
Recording: 

Patty Limerick, director of the Center of the American West, and Jennifer Ho, director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts, talked about what it means to disagree. The partisan politics and extreme divisiveness of our current society have made many of us wary about entering into provocative subjects. How do we maintain unity when we confront divided opinions? How can we respect one another while vehemently debating topics we feel passionate about? Is it possible to separate the person from the provocation? Patty and Jennifer discussed all of this throughout the dialogue (and for many years to come!), modeling civil disagreement, robust curiosity about one another’s positions, and respectful friendship. Co-sponsored by the Center for American West.

I have always felt fortunate to have Jennifer Ho as my colleague at CU, and there is no one whose company I would prefer over hers, when it comes to an energetic exploration of some of the most important issues confronting higher education today. Anyone who has been alarmed by reports and rumors that the expression of belief, principle, and opinion has become constrained in universities today will have, with this program, a chance to see that academic discussion remains invigorating, robust, good-natured, and, often enough, pretty darned funny!

- Patty Limerick

Lunch with Limerick is a one-hour virtual lunch-time series where Patty Limerick interviewed a range of guests on current issues and a variety of topics relevant to the West and beyond.

[video:https://youtu.be/wEhD1yQC8WA]

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[video:https://youtu.be/0pNQI_141CY]

First Vote Documentary Panel Discussion

On October 22, 2020 at 6pm MT, the Center for Humanities & the Arts hosted a panel discussion on FIRST VOTE, a character-driven documentary film with unparalleled access to a diverse cross section of politically engaged Chinese Americans. Director Yi Chen and the four subjects of the film were present for the panel: Lance Chen, Jennifer Ho, Sue Googe, and Kaiser Kuo. The event was moderated by Professor Elizabeth Skewes, the Chair of Journalism at CU Boulder, who asked the panelists questions about voting and civic engagement to reinforce the importance of participating in US democracy through voting.

FIRST VOTE is a character-driven documentary film with unparalleled access to a diverse cross section of politically engaged Chinese Americans: a gun-toting Tea Party-favorite candidate courting GOP votes in the South; a podcaster in Ohio who became a citizen in order to vote for Trump; a progressive journalist confronting Chinese Americans for Trump after moving to a battleground state; and a University of North Carolina professor teaching about race and racism in the US.*** A vérité look at Chinese American electoral organizing in North Carolina and Ohio, the film weaves their stories from the presidential election of 2016 to the 2018 midterms, and explores the intersection of immigration, voting rights and racial justice. Until 1952, federal law barred immigrants of Asian descent from becoming U.S. citizens and voting. Today, Asian Americans are the fastest growing population in the United States. More than 11 million Asian Americans will be able to vote in 2020. Directed by Yi Chen, a Chinese immigrant and first-time voter herself, First Vote is a must-watch and rare long-form look at the diverse Asian American electorate.

The panel-style discussion took place from 6pm-7pm MT via Zoom.

You can find the recorded event here: 

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What is “whiteness,” and how do concepts like “white privilege” and “white supremacy” contribute to anti-Black racism and systemic racism? Where do we see whiteness on campus (what does it mean to say that CU Boulder is “so white”)? How can we engage the CU Boulder community about these issues, and how can white people address and combat white privilege and white supremacy in our classrooms, our departments, and the campus at large? Our faculty panelists (who all identify as white) will each discuss how they “unpack whiteness” and what that phrase means to them in their efforts to be anti-racism educators and allies. For this Difficult Dialogues session we invite the CU Boulder community to also be in conversation about these issues. We know that there is a lot of talk: we are hoping this session about whiteness results in action items that white allies can take away to end white supremacy. Given COVID-19, we will be hosting this event through Zoom. 

The event was Wednesday September 9th, 2020 from 12:00pm - 1:15pm MT and will feature Max Boykoff from Environmental Studies, Sam Flaxman from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Bethy Leonardi from Education, and Phaedra Pezzullo from Communication.

*Please note that we actively choose not to record Difficult Dialogues events, given the sensitive nature of topics and questions that may be asked in response to the selected topics.

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