Public Books Releases UMD English Antiracism Publication

The series “Antiracist Praxis” is the second publication to come out of the Antiracism Series.

The digital magazine Public Books has published a three-part series on antiracism in partnership with the University of Maryland’s Center for Literary and Comparative Studies (CLCS). The series, “Antiracist Praxis,” features an introduction by Professor and CLCS Co-director Tita Chico.

“Antiracist Praxis” draws on scholarship featured during CLCS’ Antiracism Series, a series of conversations now in its second year that brings together scholars, teachers, students and writers from the U.S. and abroad. The series considers “antiracism as praxis,” referring to antiracism work within classroom practices and beyond. Topics include critical thinking of antiracist work in archives and freedom movements.

Contributors to the Public Books magazine include Aleia Brown, assistant director of the UMD African American Digital Humanities Initiative; David Sterling Brown, assistant professor at the University of Arizona; Arthur Little Jr., associate professor at UCLA; Felice Blake, associate professor at University of California, Santa Barbara; and Alison Rose Reed, associate professor at Old Dominion University.

Chico, who organized the CLCS Antiracism Series, commissioned the Public Books publication with Carolyn Dever, professor at Dartmouth College and Public Books senior editor. It’s the second essay cluster to come out of the Antiracism Series. The first appeared in the literary journal the Los Angeles Review of Books in July.

“The point of having multiple publication outlets is that this work is radically incomplete,” Chico said. “It is important to reach another audience and to accomplish work in writing that is different from a conversation. Writing offers sustained scholarly attention and scrutiny of the lived experiences of racism.”

The final essay cluster to come out of the Antiracism Series will be published by The Eighteenth Century journal in Spring 2022.

Read the Public Books “Antiracist Praxis” series here.