Alfred University professor Meredith Field to give Bergren Forum

ALFRED, NY – Meredith Field, assistant professor of social sciences at Alfred University, will give a presentation titled “More Dangerous Than COVID: The ‘Threat’ of Critical Race Theory” at the Sept. 9 Bergren Forum at Alfred University.

The Bergren Forum, sponsored by the Division of Human Studies, is held at 12:10 p.m. each Thursday the University is in session in Nevins Theater, Powell Campus Center.  It is open to the public and free of charge. Attendees may bring their lunches; coffee and tea are provided.

A barrage of U.S. news headlines suggests that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is more sinister than the COVID-19 pandemic. As U.S. COVID deaths surpass 650,000, many politicians and commentators prefer to focus on CRT, calling it dangerous, divisive, and anti-American. In states with some of the highest vaccine hesitancy rates, legislators are prioritizing bans on CRT. As unvaccinated children return to school, parents and school boards are fighting over CRT's inclusion in public school curricula. It seems that CRT is widely regarded as an urgent public threat, but few people actually know what it is, where it originated, or why we are talking about it. Field will answer those questions and invite everyone to consider why CRT has been framed as dangerous.

The Bergren Forum is being offered virtually via Zoom and will return to an in-person format once the university considers this sufficiently safe. The Zoom links can be obtained by e-mailing Marilyn Saxton.