June 3, 2020

As a community, we stand with those demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and an end to the police brutality, systemic racism, and anti-black violence that led to their deaths and the deaths of so many others. We as a department refuse to be silent about hatred, racism, and violence against communities of color, already disproportionately suffering from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we stand ready to fight actively all forms of white supremacy. We believe that the highest calling of English as a discipline is to serve as an engine of understanding, empathy, social justice, and change, and the department adds our voices to those of so many others at UConn and around the country and world, in calling for our country’s police forces to acknowledge and commit to dismantling a long legacy of racist abuse.

Here follow links to the study of anti-Black racism and also what we as a community can do about it.

· Ibram X. Kendi’s “An Anti Racist Reading List”:
· The Innocence Project

Bob Hasenfratz (Head, English Department),

English Department Executive Committee Members, 2019-20 and 2020-21

Pam Bedore,
Brenda Brueggemann,
Lisa Blansett,
Kathy Knapp,
Melanie Hepburn,
Clare King’oo,
Kathy Knapp,
Ellen Litman,
Greg Pierrot,
Shawn Salvant,
Victoria Smith,
Kathleen Tonry,
Lyn Tribble,
Chris Vials