Amidst ongoing debates about policing and mass incarceration, migrant detention centers have been focal points for mobilizations against the U.S. carceral regime. Through coordinated protest, testimonial acts, and hunger strikes, incarcerated migrants have drawn attention to systemic abuses in prisons, while defending their rights to belonging, family unification, and transnational mobility. Their actions revealed the ways that ICE used the COVID-19 pandemic to further repress prisoners.

Albert Woodfox, the author of SOLITARY, will have a Zoom conversation with Irene Vázquez ‘21. Anne Fadiman, Yale’s Francis Writer-in-Residence, will introduce. Woodfox spent more than forty years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, for a crime he did not commit. SOLITARY was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Our third event in the Asian American Cultural Center (AACC) x Association of Asian American Yale Alumni (AAAYA) virtual event series will be moderated by Professor Daniel Martinez HoSang, tenured Associate Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration and American Studies. This will be a panel event featuring alumni Professor Janelle Wong (GSAS ’01), Odette Wang (YC ’20) and current student, Lakshmi Amin (YC ’21) in conversation about how varied racialized experiences and positionality impacts how Asian Americans engage with various social issues.

In the first six months of 2020, today’s children and youth have lived through so many soul-provoking experiences. With the advent of COVID-19 illness and death, quarantines, school closures, summers on hold, graphic depictions of violence, the prospect of not going back to school or going back in a socially distanced fashion, and difficult imagery and discussion around issues of race and justice, youth have a lot of questions—and some even have deep concerns and fears.

Mark your calendar for World Fellows Week: September 14-18, 2020. The 2020 World Fellow are exceptional leaders dedicated to making a positive difference in the world, and they want to share their ideas and connect with you.
We invite you to check out Fellows’ bios and introductory videos, schedule one-on-one virtual sessions with Fellows, and learn more about how you can connect with them this fall. It’s a great chance to get to know some of the most interesting people in the Yale community.