The Beitzel Symposium was held in September 2022.
Please check back for 2023 event updates.
2022 Schedule of Events
Thursday, Sept. 22 | Student Success Center
3 - 3:30 p.m.: Dr. Gaurav Pathania
"Gandhi's India at 75"
Gaurav J. Panthania teaches sociology & peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. Gaurav is an anti-caste activist, writer, poet and a community organizer.
3:30 - 4 p.m.: Dr. Mia Brett
"From 1662 to 2022: The Long History of White Supremacy and Abortion"
Mia Brett has a Ph.D. in History from Stony Brook University and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in African American History at Washington and Lee. She specializes in American legal history and the legal construction of race and gender.
4 - 4:30 p.m.: Dr. Spencer Leonard
"The Negative Dialectic of Anti-Imperialism: Reading Fanon's Wretched of the Earth After Decolonization"
Spencer A. Leonard is the founding editor of Sublation Magazine, the manager of Platypus Publishing, and a frequent commentator on the contemporary left. Having taught for the last five years at UVA, he will begin in the Spring teaching at James Madison University. Taking his joint-Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and in History from the University of Chicago, he is the editor of three volumes of Marx and Engels's journalism on imperialist state forthcoming in 2023 from Rowman & Littlefield and the author of Marx, the India Question, and the Crisis of Cosmopolitanism forthcoming in 2024 from Palgrave USA.
4:30 - 5 p.m.: Questions
7 p.m.: Us Kids
Film Screening (Grafton-Stovall Theatre)
Friday, Sept. 23 | Student Success Center
1 - 1:20 p.m.: Brenna Matlock, CISR
"Demining in Ukraine"
Brenna Matlock is the Senior Project Manager and Program Coordinator at the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery (CISR). In this role, Matlock plans and implements CISR's grants including the Senior Managers' Course in Conventional Weapons Destuction (SMC).
1:20 - 2 p.m.: Dr. Lexi de Coning
"The Decline of the West and Black Babies: Discourses of Race in Men's Rights Watch"
Alexis de Coning holds a doctorate in Media Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on the history and discursive tactics of the men's rights movement in the US. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
2 - 2:40 p.m.: Dr. Kevan Feshami
'"We stand as One": Evaluating White Nationalism's Networked Structure'
Kevan A Feshami holds a doctorate in Media Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is an independent researcher based in Northern Appalachia.
2:40 - 3 p.m.: Questions