November 2025

The ARPC is excited to announce our partnership with the university’s Critical Information Literacy (CIL) Committee. As a field of study, CIL helps information-seekers evaluate and use credible sources and do so with the power dynamics of knowledge production in mind. The CILC—made up of university librarians and antiracist Writing Studies professors—encourages the AU community to think about knowledge in terms of who creates it, how it becomes valid as knowledge, who has access to it, and how aspects of identity, including race, class, gender, and sexuality, affect it all. This year, we will collaborate with the CILC in the creation and promotion of their Critical AI toolkit and the revision of their open-access Antiracist Praxis subject guide. For more on the committee and the field of CIL, please read the CILC Mission Statement. 

Announcing the 2025–2026 fellows: The ARPC has awarded fellowships to three outstanding professionals whose antiracist work promises to make an impact on our campus community and in the fellows’ respective fields. We are thrilled to welcome Shané Weaver, PhD, as our postdoctoral Fellow in Research Translation and Writing; David Trachtenberg, MS, as our Doctoral Research Fellow; and Esperonto Bean, MA, as our Communications Lead. Please see our Fellows page for more information about them. 

Announcing a special collaboration: This year, the ARPC is honored to have Mr. Matthew Hart on our team as an external social justice fundraising advisor to the ARPC’s Interim Year Advisory Board. Hart is currently Executive Director of the Global Philanthropy Project who spearheaded the extraordinary Fund Our Futures Campaign. He is also president of the Board of Directors of the Calamus Foundation and a board member of Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Formerly, he served as Senior Strategist for Europe for Funders Concerned about AIDS and National Director for Public Engagement at Solutions for Progress. Hart is a native of Philadelphia who currently resides in Paris, France. We welcome him with gratitude for his support of our vision!

Call for interns: The ARPC currently has two Spring-semester work–study positions open for undergraduate students interested in antiracist work. Our Communications Intern will work with the Interim Executive Director, Communications Lead, and Postdoctoral Fellow in Translated Research and Writing to create and adapt center messaging for student populations. They will also interview Antiracist Center affiliates and prospective affiliates for a number of purposes and assist in ongoing projects as needed. If this describes your interests, please navigate to AU Careers and look for FWS Communications Assistant (R3382). Our Research Intern will work with the Interim Executive Director and the Doctoral Research Fellow in a focus group project on somatic awareness in fruitful cross-cultural communications. If this describes your interests, please navigate to AU Careers and look for FWS Research Assistant (R3411).

Call for student volunteers: Are you interested in volunteering at the ARPC for college credit? Please email the center at arpc@american.edu. Write “Attn: Nalani Love-Harris, for volunteer work” in the subject heading. Write one 3–5 sentence paragraph stating your major; your experience with antiracism as a field of study or an activist practice; and an idea of what skills you would be interested in sharing or cultivating in yourself. 

Call for independent-study students: Do you have room in your Spring Schedule for a 1–3 credit course in which you are the sole student, who gets to design and implement an antiracist project? Are you interested in studying antiracist research with the Interim Director of the ARPC for college credit? If so, please email the center at arpc@american.edu. Write “Attn: Dr. Trembath, for independent study” in the subject heading. Write one 3–5 sentence paragraph stating your major; your experience with antiracism as a field of study or an activist practice; and an idea of what you might like to study. 

September 2025

To the ARPC community, Hello!

I am delighted to reach out as this year’s interim executive director and welcome you to the 2025–2026 academic year. 

I would also like to welcome you to the next stage in the life of the Center and invite you to be a part of this year of transition! There will be many opportunities for you to participate in what we feel are exciting and impactful initiatives.

As students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community partners dedicated to the study, analysis, and up-ending of racism and its intersectionally interrelated dynamics, you should know that I am with you on your concerns about the current sociopolitical moment. I am also energized by the possibilities in what the times require of us. I remind myself daily that the scholar-activists I’ve long admired all did their best work—in the community and through the academy—under serious societal pressures: Anzaldúa, Ngũgĩ, Lorde, DeLoria, Chomsky, Said, Emma Gee, Walter Rodney, Jack Forbes, and so many others moved the needle on social justice in tumultuous times. And so, as I settle into my work space at the ARPC, I am placing framed images of such people on my shelves. This act serves as a reminder of what is possible with solidarity, communication, criticality, and unwavering focus. 

Any acknowledgment of important scholar-activists should also include my three predecessors here at the Center. It’s an honor to inhabit a space previously held by such brilliant academics and dedicated social justice workers. What I have of their initiatives will be preserved here and will remain for the foreseeable future. 

The ARPC’s 2025–2026 program will fully roll out by the beginning of October. As the site evolves over the next month, it will likely be a bit of a melange of the incoming and outgoing teams. Please hang in there and check back! There will soon be an updated and future-focused site to explore. Among other research and policy-based initiatives, student participation and engagement will be a focus throughout the year.

In peace, 

Sarah Trembath, EdD  

2025-2026 Interim Director
Senior Professorial Lecturer, Department of Literature, Writing Studies Program