Event Calendar | Center for the Humanities | University of Miami

“If You Were Only White” explores the legacy of one of the most exceptional athletes ever—an entertainer extraordinaire, a daring showman and crowd-pleaser, a wizard with a baseball whose artistry and antics on the mound brought fans out in the thousands to ballparks across the country. Leroy “Satchel” Paige was arguably one of the world’s greatest pitchers and a premier star of Negro Leagues Baseball. But in this biography Donald Spivey reveals Paige to have been much more than just a blazing fastball pitcher.

“A fantastic and comprehensive read with accounts so contagious you will want to turn the pages.”
— Larry Lester, Chairman of the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Donald Spivey is the author of Fire From the Soul: A History of the African-American Struggle (2003); The Politics of Miseducation: The Booker Washington Institute of Liberia, 1929-1984 (1986); Schooling For the New Slavery: Black Industrial Education, 1868-1915 (1978; rpt. 2007); Sport in America: New Historical Perspectives (1985); Union and the Black Musician: The Narrative of William Everett Samuels and Chicago Local 208 (1984). Professor Spivey has been appointed Cooper Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences and is a recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award at UM. Professor Spivey has lectured throughout the country and has been a frequent commentator on radio, television, and in the print medium.

How do the lives of indigenous peoples relate to the romanticized role of "Indians" in Brazilian history, politics, and cultural production? Tracy Devine Guzmán argues that the tensions between popular renderings of "Indianness" and lived indigenous experience are critical to the unfolding of Brazilian nationalism as well as the growth of the Brazilian indigenous movement. She suggests that the "indigenous question" now posed by Brazilian indigenous peoples themselves--how to be Native and national at the same time--can help us to rethink national belonging in accordance with the protection of human rights, the promotion of social justice, and the consolidation of democratic governance for indigenous and nonindigenous citizens alike.

“With this brilliant study... Tracy Devine Guzmán establishes herself as one of the most original interpreters of Brazil in U.S. academic circles.”
— Luiz F. Valente, Professor of Portuguese & Brazilian Studies and Comparative Literature, Brown University

Tracy Devine Guzmán's research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of intellectual and cultural history, politics, social theory, philosophy, and cultural production, especially as they relate to race and ethnicity. She has worked throughout Brazil and Peru, and has conducted research in Spain, Guatemala, Bolivia, Mexico, and Argentina. Her work has been funded by the Ford Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, FLAS, FIPSE/CAPES, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities; and her articles have been awarded prizes from the Brazil and Peru Sections of the Latin American Studies Association.

For Mark Rowlands, running and philosophizing are inextricably connected. In Running with the Pack he describes the most significant runs of his life. Intertwined with his honest, passionate and witty commentary are profound meditations on mortality, midlife, and the meaning of life. Highly original and moving, it makes the philosophically inclined want to run, and those who love running become intoxicated by ideas.

“This year’s most original and instructive work of popular philosophy.”
— The Financial Times

Rowlands is the author of 15 books and more than 50 research papers translated into fifteen languages. His publications focus on three main areas: philosophy of mind and cognitive science, applied ethics, and public understanding of philosophy. His memoir, The Philosopher and the Wolf, was published by Granta in 2008 and became an international best seller. He is also the author of Can Animals Be Moral? (2012), Fame (2008), Body Language (2006), Everything I Know I Learned From TV (2005), Externalism (2003), The Philosopher at the End of the Universe (2003), Animals Like Us (2002), The Nature of Consciousness (2001), and The Environmental Crisis (2000).

David Ikard, Associate Professor of English at UM, is the author of Breaking the Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism (2007), and (with Martell Teasley) Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama's Post-Racial America(2008). His blog "Nation of Cowards" on contemporary racial topics engages a wider intellectual and activist community.

“Donald Jones is a powerful and prophetic voice in the Age of Obama. He courageously and compassionately keeps our focus on social injustice and structural racism in America.” — Cornel West

Donald Jones teaches constitutional law, criminal procedure, and employment discrimination at the UM law school. Professor Jones is the author of Race, Sex, and Suspicion: The Myth of the Black Male (2005) and articles on the civil and political rights of minorities. In 1997 he was awarded the James Thomas Prize by Yale University. Professor Jones has written editorials for the Miami Herald and the Miami Times, and has appeared on “Frontline” (PBS), “Burden of Proof” (CNN), “The O'Reilly Factor”, and Michael Putney's “The Week in Review.” In 2000 he was the official constitutional law expert for Channel 4, and in 2003 he drafted the affirmative action plan for Dade County.