The Bowdoin Orient

February 2, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 14

Common Hour presents Angela Davis

by JULIE THOMPSON - STAFF WRITER

You will sometimes hear Bowdoin students comment on-or complain about-the apparent lack of interesting things to see and do here in coastal Maine. Whether this want for stimulating activity is real or imaginary, it always seems to intensify in the winter months.
Something about the biting cold and iron-gray skies of early February sets a semi-permanent grimace on the faces of about half the student population, making conversation difficult and finding something to do almost impossible.
Fortunately for those still searching, there is Common Hour. While the logic in taking yet another hour of the week to simply sit and listen to someone speak may not be clear, what is perfectly understandable is the desire of many students to hear engaging and provocative ideas from some of the country's most influential figures. It may also be difficult to believe that such important people would travel to coastal Maine to speak to a crowd of liberal-arts-college students, yet still they come.
In what is sure to be one of the most well-attended and fascinating events of the semester, this week's Common Hour will be a talk given by Angela Y. Davis. Davis is currently a professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and has been recently appointed the Presidential Chair in African-American and Feminist Studies there.
As well as a full tenured professorship at UC Santa Cruz, Davis is the author of many articles and several books, including Women, Culture and Politics, Women, Race and Class, and Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday: Black Women's Music and the Shaping of Social Consciousness.
However, Davis is first and foremost an activist for social change. She was a member of the Black Panther party in the 1970's, and has continued to agitate for political and social reform ever since.
She is the co-founder of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and has campaigned ceaselessly for reform in the criminal justice system as well as for the rights of prisoners. She has lectured in such places as Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the former Soviet Union.
Since joining the faculty at UCSC, Davis has become involved with the Women of Color Research Cluster, through which she has organized research projects, a lecture series, and produced a film about women of color. She has attended Brandeis University, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and UC San Diego, and has taught at Stanford and the Claremont colleges. Her talk this Friday (12:30 p.m. in Pickard, tickets at Smith Union) is entitled "Black Disenfranchisement and the Prison Industrial Complex."
From another perspective in the political world comes a second high-profile speaker for Common Hour on February 16th. George F. Will, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in journalism and erudite news analyst, will give a talk in Morrell Lounge entitled "Public Affairs, Public Policy and American Society." As the author of the popular book Men at Work, Will has been providing cogent political analysis for years through articles and television as well.
This semester, Common Hour was launched with a wonderfully presented and even multi-media talk by Professor Nancy Jennings of the education department. Her discussion of how engaging academic environments are fostered elicited many insightful comments from students and faculty. As an added bonus, Professor Jennings showed footage of elementary school classrooms in action, which served the dual purpose of augmenting her message and lending a surprisingly humorous tone to the talk. So while the weather and workload might appear to dampen intellectual curiosity during these dark winter months, there are still plenty of opportunities to get out and learn.