Scholar-to-Scholar Talk: “Positionality and Inequality in the Humanities”

In this Scholar-to-Scholar conversation, historian Devin Fergus, feminist cultural critic Lynn Mie Itagaki, and anthropologist Matt Sakakeeny discuss efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy. They ask, how do scholars’ backgrounds and communities inform the research questions they pursue in the humanities?

Scholar-to-Scholar events are informal exchanges in a relevant and thematic discussion, rather than formal talks behind a lectern. This discussion was held in the National Humanities Center’s Teachers’ Commons before an audience of Fellows and staff.

About the Participants

Devin Fergus (NHC Fellow, 2023–24) is the Arvarh E. Strickland Distinguished Professor of History and Black Studies at the University of Missouri, where he teaches in the departments of History and Black Studies, the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, and the Trulaske College of Business.

Lynn Mie Itagaki (Resident Associate, 2023–24) is associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri and a nationally recognized expert on interracial civility and conflict. Her research and teaching interests include interracial ethics and twentieth- and twenty-first-century US literature by writers of color.

Matt Sakakeeny (NHC Fellow, 2023–24) is associate professor of music at Tulane University and an anthropologist studying music and sound in relation to structures of inequality in the United States. His research also brings an ethnomusicological perspective to sound studies.