Events & Calendars Talking about the N-word: A Social and Pedagogical History of a Word

The Center for Humanistic Inquiry welcomes Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Associate Professor of History at Smith College, for a virtual salon. Professor Pryor specializes in 19th-century U.S. history and race. Her first book, Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War, is a social history of black activists who, long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, fought against segregation on public vehicles. Her essay, “The Etymology of [the n-word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North,” won the Ralph D. Gray Prize for the best article of 2016 in the Journal of the Early Republic. Her next project, inspired by the article as well as her teaching at Smith College, is a historical and pedagogical study of the n-word framed, in part, by her experience as a biracial woman in the United States.

Amherst College faculty, staff, and students all welcome. The Zoom link will be made available the day of the event. Amherst College email address is required for login. Video and sound will be turned off for all but the guest speaker and the host facilitator, Jen Manion, Associate Professor of History, Amherst College and CHI advisory board member. Participants will be invited to submit questions via the chat function, which Prof. Manion will share with Prof. Pryor for discussion.