Academics | Persson Hall, 027, Auditorium
PCON invites you to an event to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.Marie-Eve Desrosiers will give a lecture titled, "Authoritarian Strategies and Prospects: Lessons from Pre-Genocide Rwanda." Rwanda is associated with one of the worst episodes of mass state violence in the last century: the genocide that swept it in 1994. It is also associated with images of extensive state control and citizen compliance before and during the genocide. As a result, and especially because of the rare scale of violence it experienced, Rwanda is often portrayed as an exceptional case, and so are the authoritarian governments at its helm prior to 1994. Yet, the authoritarian strategies they developed and employed are part of a known authoritarian playbook. In this presentation based on her new book, Marie-Eve Desrosiers explores the political trends of the First and Second Rwandan Republics to show how, contrary to assumptions about control and compliance, pre-genocide Rwandan authorities never achieved authoritarian control. It is, however, their imperfect strategies to achieve it that led them to harsher authoritarianism, and ultimately towards the extreme state violence that the country experienced. What a focus on pre-genocide Rwanda shows is that, over the course of their time in power, authoritarian governments often end up creating more challenges than they succeed in managing, which can lead them to adapt, but also to decay.Marie-Eve Desrosiers holds the Research Chair in International Francophonie on political aspirations and movements in Francophone Africa. She is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She specialises in security and governance issues. More specifically, she studies political crises and conflicts, authoritarianism, political mobilization, and the relationship between state and society in the Great Lakes and Francophone Africa. She is also interested in foreign policy and international aid. She is the author of Trajectories of Authoritarianism in Rwanda: Elusive Control before the Genocide (Cambridge University Press). Her research has also been published in journals such as African Affairs, Comparative Politics, Ethnopolitics, and the Journal of International Relations and Development Studies.Cosponsored by Africana & Latin American Studies program, Core Communities, International Relations program, and the University Studies Division.

Academics | Ho Science Center
In 2017, Kristen T. Woodward was able to witness a total solar eclipse in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was moved by the dramatic planetary display. She is looking forward to viewing another eclipse in her hometown of Webster, New York in April, as we will be in that exquisite path of totality. Woodward marvels at how science has allowed us to countdown the minutes while other events in our lives appear random and chaotic. The experience leaves one to ponder what is pre-ordained. By including images inspired by solar eclipse, her encaustic paintings intend to capture this conflict and visual tension between chaos and natural order.Woodward received her BFA in Printmaking from Syracuse University, and her MFA in Studio Art from Clemson University. Her zoomorphic paintings combine encaustic and print processes, and often utilize found collage materials. Woodward is a professor in the department of art and art history at Albright College, teaching drawing, painting, printmaking, and gender and the visual arts. Currently, she is collaborating with an environmental biologist to explore tropical ecosystems in Costa Rica. Woodward serves as is Resident Curator for the online site Artists2Artists.

Academics | Alumni Hall, 2nd Floor
This exhibition, co-curated by Longyear Curatorial Assistant Summer Frazier and Curatorial Intern Raquel Marquez-Guerrero ‘24, explores the different ways that art leverages the creative process to metabolize conflict or aggression. This healing manifests in various forms, ranging from redefining narratives to empathizing with personal or communal losses. These artists, working in media from 2D to 3D to street and graffiti art, intentionally confront discontent, fostering creative growth and finding solutions. In this context, their art becomes a means to process pain and to construct bridges amidst conflict. In addition to art, this exhibition also explores various ways that plants can be used in healing processes.

Academics | Dana Arts Center, Second Floor
The Collections: What is the role of an art museum on a liberal arts college campus? Since 2013, the collections at Picker Art Gallery have been shifting. Moving away from traditional models of collecting, the museum today holds a larger proportion of artworks by women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ artists and others whose creativity and stories have historically been left out of museum collections.The Core: The revision of Colgate’s Core Curriculum represents the essence of the university’s liberal arts commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Introduced in 2022, the revised Core curriculum has a stronger focus on exposing students to diverse forms of knowledge. Most notably, a new course called Core Conversations was created. Based on five globally significant “texts,” it lays out the common ground for intellectual discussions within the Colgate community. Core Conversations focus on productive discourse and communal learning among students, encouraging them to engage in perspectives and dialogues beyond the limits of personal experience.Core Collections: This is not a typical museum experience. The gallery has been transformed into a space for open-ended dialogue. Visitors will not find a lot of text interpreting the artworks; rather, we pose a series of questions, designed to elicit individual reflection and initiate discussions across communities, identities, and materials.. The exhibition is organized into four broad areas of inquiry: Appearances, Epistemologies, Urbanism and Labor, and People and Land. We encourage you to engage with the questions provided while viewing the works, and to contribute your insights or your own questions to our interactive space.What will you add to the conversation?Core/Collections is curated by Emma Barrison ’24, Cindy Chen ’24, and Wendy Wu ’25

Academics | Clifford Gallery, Clifford Gallery (101 Little Hall)
2023/2024 Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Artist-in-Residence jackie sumell and Studio CAJAIR present “The Locker Room.”Artist jackie sumell works at the intersection of social sculpture, abolition and healing. With the principle of abolition always in mind, sumell inhabits the physical materials and architectures of oppression and transforms these physical structures into lived spaces of radical hope.For The Locker Room, a work created especially for Colgate University, sumell worked with a team of students who go by Studio CAJAIR (an anagrammatic nod to the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Artist-In-Residence program, which underwrites this work). Together, sumell and Studio CAJAIR spent the academic year considering the relationship between athletics and activism, ultimately recreating the architecture of a locker room to envisage how sports and locker rooms can be horizons of liberation. They ask, “What happens if the locker room becomes public, seeded with the best of its potential? Can we make the lockers themselves altars to the future[s] we wish to see?”sumell and Studio CAJAIR, along with students they invited from Art & Activism (ARTS 132A), transformed 12 lockers into altars to future worlds. They imagine everything from ecological justice, racial equity, and classless societies to happiness after retirement, as wins.The Locker Room is presented by the Art Department and the Christian A. Johnson Foundation. The Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation Artist-in-Residence was established in 1986 as a challenge grant in support of the arts at Colgate. The residency program permits one or more artists to become part of the Colgate community every academic year.Opening reception and gallery talk with jackie sumell and Studio CAJAIR will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27.Please note that weekend gallery hours are dependent on the availability of student monitors. If driving a distance, please contact the department at 315-228-7633 during regular working hours to ensure the gallery will be open.Learn more at https://www.cliffordgallery.org/

Academics | Center for Women's Studies, East Hall WMST Lobby
Join us for the 2024 WGSS Senior Captstone Projects - Beloved Community: Belonging, Grief, Accessibility and Safety.Come support our graduating seniors:Camryn Yeager: Senior Reflections: Community,Belonging, and Loneliness at ColgateIsrael Zarate: Feminist Book Club: Reading as CommunityShenice Mobley: Equity and Equality in the ClassroomTaylor Cigna: Death Library: A Personal andPolitical Grief ProjectJason Qian:(Counter-)Mapping Safety on Colgate’s CampusLunch will be provided.