Join us for a lively post-election roundtable discussion and reception with an impressive group of SOULS contributors, editors, and supporters in the beautiful and historic Chicago Cultural Center.

This public event will mark the occasion of the inaugural issue of SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society to be published here in Chicago.

SOULS is a well-known and historically significant publication, founded by Dr. Manning Marable at Columbia University. Barbara Ransby, a professor University of Illinois at Chicago and co-founder of the IHC’s program, The Public Square, has assumed editorship of the SOULS journal.

The round table will focus on the recently completed 2012 elections.

This event is free and open to the public. However, reservations are required and can be made at souls@uic.edu.

The prestigious group of round table discussants will include:

Cathy Cohen, professor of political science and former director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics.

Michael C. Dawson, professor of political science and the director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Not In Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics.

Bill Fletcher Jr., senior scholar for the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and co-author of Solidarity Divided, The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice.

Cheryl Harris, a Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Professor of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, UCLA School of Law. Harris previously taught at Chicago Kent College of Law and received a fellowship from the Mellon Foundation to host a conference called Redress in Social Thought, Law and Literature at the University of California Humanities Research Institute.

Fredrick C. Harris, professor of political science and director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University. He is author of the recent The New York Times essay, The Price of a Black President.

Cedric Johnson, associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is editor of a collection of essays titled The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalist Culture and the Remaking of New Orleans.

Beth E. Richie, professor of criminal justice and gender and women’s studies at UIC. Richie is former head of the African American Studies Department at UIC and author of Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Black Battered Women.

Robert T. Starks, political editor at N’Digo magazine and director of the Harold Washington Institute for Research and Policy Studies at Northeastern Illinois University.

The discussion will be moderated by Barbara Ransby, professor of African American studies, history, and gender and women’s studies at UIC.