On October 9, Dr. Charles Sepulveda, (Tongva and Acjachemen), Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, participated in the inaugural public event of the Sawyer Seminar on Sanctuary Spaces: Reworlding Humanism presented by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy.

The conversation, titled “Abolition on Stolent Land,” contextualized within the present historical moment of resurgent white nationalism and xenophobia, undertakes comparative inquiry of imaginations and practices of sanctuary and refuge. The discussion foregrounds the ongoing and renewed uprisings for Black freedom and Indigenous sovereignty in the imperial formation that is the United States of America. It traces the histories and futures of abolition on stolen land with attention to land dispossession, organized abandonment, and racial terror.

 If you missed the panel, audio and video recording of the virtual event can be found on UCLA’s site or below.

Keynote

Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor of Geography and Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY. Co-founder, Critical Resistance.

Discussants

Nick Estes, Citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of New Mexico. Co-founder, The Red Nation.

Sarah Haley, Associate Professor of African American Studies and Gender Studies, and Director, Black Feminism Initiative, UCLA.

Charles Sepulveda (Tongva and Acjachemen), Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Utah.

Moderator

Gaye Theresa Johnson, Associate Professor of Chicana/0, and Central American Studies, UCLA.

Chair

Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography, UCLA, and Director, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy.