From email: The Center for Critical Race Studies at the University of Houston-Downtown is an interdisciplinary academic unit committed to teaching, research and community engagement. UHD’s Center for Critical Race Studies produces knowledge to transform lives and work towards social justice. The Center serves students, the institution, and the community through teaching, research, the facilitation of public discourse, and the cultivation of social empowerment. It focuses on the interdisciplinary, academic study of how different forms of racism contribute to, develop, and maintain cultural, social, institutional, legal, and governmental power structures and the ways in which marginalization affects members of various and often intersecting populations. Our ultimate mission is to produce scholars/citizens who are equipped to critically, actively and effectively engage the issues confronting a technologically changing, postcolonial world. University of Houston-Downtown’s Center for Critical Race Studies (CCRS) is hosting its first Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Brittney Cooper. This week-long event marks the inauguration of the Center for Critical Race Studies. Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Women’s Studies at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on Black women's intellectual history, Black feminist thought, and race and gender politics in hip hop and popular culture. Additionally, she is a public intellectual, social commentator, and co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective blog. On Thursday evening, January 30th 6:00 – 7:15 pm in the Robertson Auditorium, Dr. Cooper will give a public talk titled “When Blackness Was in Vogue: Intersectionality and Post-Racial Politics.” This event is expected to draw an audience from the Greater Houston area and increase recognition of UHD as an institution committed to social justice and progress. Following her talk, refreshments will be served in the Coffee House. Please come to enjoy this internationally recognized scholar on critical race studies intersectional political engagements in digital and popular media.