Shirley M. Buttrick Lecture

The Jane Addams College of Social Work and the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs will host the Shirley M. Buttrick Lecture on Oct. 10. Nicole Fleetwood, PhD, will present “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration.”

Fleetwood, the inaugural James Weldon Johnson Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication in the Steinhardt School at New York University, is a celebrated writer, cultural theorist, curator and art critic. In 2021 she was named a MacArthur Fellow. Her work focuses on Black diasporic art and visual culture, photography studies, art and public practice, performance studies, gender and feminist studies, Black cultural history, creative nonfiction, prison abolition and carceral studies, and poverty studies.

Prior to Fleetwood’s lecture, a universitywide symposium, “Citizenship, Civil Liberties, and the Carceral State,” will be held beginning at 10:30 a.m. UIC faculty from the east and west sides of campus will serve as presenters, panelists, rapporteurs and moderators. The symposium will feature presentations by JACSW faculty, alumni, community leaders, individuals in custody and scholars from other institutions. Discussions will focus on research findings and insights from youth and civic activism related to the racial disproportionality of incarcerated individuals. Topics will cover the intersections of health (including substance abuse and mental health), policing, education, migrant resettlement, housing and more.