TU to host refugee-focused literary speaker series

By Rebecca Kirkman on February 26, 2020

Three internationally known, award-winning authors will visit Towson University this spring for a literary series focused on immigration and refugees.

During their visits, the authors will meet with students and give workshops and public talks. The guest writer series is a joint production between the Martha A. Mitten Program and the Towson Literary Reading Series, with additional support from the global humanities graduate program, the College of Liberal Arts, and an emerging investment from BTU—Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore.

“We are excited to have such outstanding and well-known writers visiting the campus,” says English Professor Jennifer Ballengee, who spearheaded the series as part of her work as the current Martha A. Mitten Professor.

On year two of the three-year endowed Mitten Professorship, Ballengee is bringing the authors to campus as part of her project “Home and the Human.” Through it, she brings together students, faculty, and external partners to look at the topic of immigration and to document and tell the stories of home and homelessness for immigrants and refugees in the Baltimore area.

“It’s super interdisciplinary and collaborative,” Ballengee says of the project. The idea stemmed from a conversation she had with students in an upper-level English theory course about how they could use their unique skills to make a difference. “Their skills in literary analysis and storytelling are ones to help people think through identity and present issues like identity, refugee stories, and more to the rest of the world.”

The speaker series is free and open to the public, no RSVP necessary.

Luis Alberto Urrea

Wednesday, March 4, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Liberal Arts Building, room 4310

Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and an American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.” His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Book Award. He lives and teaches in Illinois.

 

Clemantine Wamariya

Wednesday, April 1, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
West Village Ballroom C

Clemantine Wamariya is a human rights advocate and the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Girl Who Smiled Beads. Born in Kigali, Rwanda, and displaced by conflict, Wamariya migrated throughout seven African countries as a child. At age 12, she was granted refugee status in the United States and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Yale University. She lives in California.

 

Dunya Mikhail

Wednesday, April 29, 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Liberal Arts Building, room 4310

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Dunya Mikhail worked as a translator and journalist for the Baghdad Observer before being placed on Saddam Hussein’s enemies list. She came to the United States in the mid-1990s. She is the author of four critically acclaimed poetry collections in English. In 2018, she released her debut book of nonfiction, The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq, the story of a beekeeper who risks his life to rescue enslaved women from Daesh (ISIS). Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. She lives and teaches in Michigan.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: Diverse and Inclusive Campus.