Collins Unbound

U.S. social movements face many challenges. One of their most troublesome involves the question of nonviolence. Civil disobedience and symbolic protest have characterized many struggles in the U.S. since the Civil Rights era, but conditions have changed. Corporate media has consolidated, the police have militarized, and dissent has been largely co-opted and institutionalized, but the strategic tools radicals employ haven’t necessarily kept pace. Our narratives, borrowed from movements of the past, are falling short.

Shon Meckfessel, professor of English at Highline College, will map emerging, more militant approaches that are developing to fill the gap, from Occupy to Black Lives Matter. He’ll offer new angles on a seemingly intractable debate, introducing ideas that carve out a larger middle ground between camps in order to chart an effective path forward.

Meckfessel is the author of Nonviolence Ain’t What It Used To Be: Unarmed Insurrection and the Rhetoric of Resistance, and has been active in disruptive social movements for nearly 25 years, beginning in his native Sacramento, Calif. After blocking highways to stop the first Persian Gulf War, he was never again inclined to petitionary protest. He has since researched and participated in social movements across the U.S., Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Meckfessel is also the author of Suffled How It Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans as well as numerous essays and articles. He has appeared as a social movement scholar and advocate in the New York Times and on Democracy Now, Al Jazeera, CNN, NPR, BBC Radio, and KEXP.

Sponsored by Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Department of Politics and Government, Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement, and Collins Memorial Library

Accessibility Information
Email: accessibility@pugetsound.edu
Online: pugetsound.edu/accessibility

Wednesday October 18, 2017
Archives & Special Collections Seminar Room
Collins Library
3:00-4:00
Coffee and Light Refreshments

Mark Edington, publisher of the Lever Press, will provide an overview of this new academic press launched by liberal arts colleges across the country to create an effective alternative means for scholars worldwide to publish their work.

The press is open-access, and peer-reviewed works will available both in print, for a small cost, and online, for no cost. Works from scholars and researchers across all disciplines will be considered. The new press is funded by a consortium of 80 liberal arts college libraries, and guided by a partnership of Amherst College Press and Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan.  Collins Library/University of Puget Sound is a founding member of the Press.

To learn more about Lever Press: https://youtu.be/TCsH5_r0QeM

From Mark Edington:

What is the latest news from the front lines of the “crisis in scholarly communication”? If the links between scholars, publishers, and research libraries form an essential infrastructure of ideas, what is the current state of that infrastructure—and how might a smarter use of the resources available make for better outcomes and greater impact for the ideas scholars publish?

Increasingly, libraries—the chief source of those resources—are seeing that if they took a more active role in supporting scholarly publishing, they could catalyze the emergence of new business models committed to the rigor of peer review with an open access result. These models would make possible maintaining the best of the scholarly publishing legacy we’ve inherited, while adapting the publishing process to new possibilities in digital scholarship and communication.

The University of Puget Sound has joined the Lever Press consortium—a group of institutions seeking to bring about just this change by pooling resources to support a new model for scholarly publishing. Lever Press is now accepting proposals from authors and creating an editorial list aligned with three basic commitments: to be a peer-reviewed, fully open access press (with no “book processing fees” charged to authors), that is aligned with the ethos and mission of liberal arts institutions.

Mark Edington, the publisher of Lever Press, is a scholarly publisher and social entrepreneur who serves as part of the Lever Press leadership team. A graduate of Albion College, Harvard Divinity School, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Edington is the director of Amherst College Press. Prior to coming to Amherst he served in senior administrative posts at Harvard University, where he led units in the Divinity School, the Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard’s central administration.

Have you ever wondered exactly what an archivist does all day? Join us for an open house. Tour our spaces for a behind the scenes look at the Archives & Special Collections and learn how we process archival materials and get them ready for use by our researchers. 4:00–5:00 p.m. light refreshments and an informal lecture. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room, Collins Library.

Lori Ricigliano, Reference and Learning Commons Coordinator and Associate Director for User Services, will showcase our unique collection of African American Communist Party pamphlets, as well as other new acquisitions related to African American history. 4:00–5:00 p.m. light refreshments and an informal lecture. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room, Collins Library.

Please join us!

BASSOONS!
Friday, October 6th
2:00-2:20pm
Library West Reading Room

Performances by Aric MacDavid, Kelsey Tryon, Nicholas Navin, Zachary Nelson, Rosie Rogers

For more information contact: libref@pugetsound.edu