The University of Saint Joseph will host Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, a Wesleyan University professor and host of Connecticut Public Radio’s Disrupted, for a free public lecture Tuesday, Oct. 20, exploring how people can use their voices to challenge systems of power and create change.

By Mia Jaworski

The second annual Critical Concerns Visiting Writers Series lecture will begin at 7 p.m. at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. Brown-Dean’s talk, titled “Finding Your Voice Is Not Enough: Writing, Power, and the Responsibility to Disrupt,” is free and open to the public.

Drawing on her experience as a scholar, author, radio host and civic leader, Brown-Dean will examine who gets to speak, whose stories are believed and how writing can challenge the systems that shape society.

The lecture asks audiences to consider not only the importance of finding their voices but also how they can use them to serve their communities and create meaningful change.

“Khalilah Brown-Dean has used her voice to exemplify how civil public discourse can transform the conversation about the issues we care about most,” said Aidan Levy, a USJ professor of English and director of the First-Year Writing Program, who organized the event.

“We are honored to bring her voice to USJ,” Levy said.

Brown-Dean is the Rob Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Civic Engagement and inaugural executive director of Wesleyan University’s Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. Her scholarship focuses on how identity shapes access to democracy, justice and representation, with recent work examining voting rights, civic engagement and the politics of punishment.

She is the author of Identity Politics in the United States and co-author, with Ray Block Jr. of Penn State University, of Protesting Vulnerability: Race and Pandemic Politics. She also co-authored a report on the state of voting rights in the United States commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Beyond academia, Brown-Dean hosts Disrupted, an award-winning Connecticut Public Radio program that received a 2024 Gracie Award for Outstanding Talk Show from the Alliance for Women in Media.

The Critical Concerns Visiting Writers Series is an annual lecture organized through USJ’s First-Year Writing Program. The series highlights the importance of critical thinking, storytelling, writing as a form of empowerment and the role individuals can play in their communities.

The project is supported in part by the NEH Arts & Humanities Fund at the University of Saint Joseph.

The lecture will take place Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. at the University of Saint Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave. in West Hartford.

Admission is free, but attendees are encouraged to register online. Questions can be directed to Aidan Levy.

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