Quinnipiac University announces Richard Edmond-Vargas
will be a Black History Month keynote speaker
Hamden, Connecticut – Jan. 9, 2019 – Richard Edmond-Vargas will be one of two Black History Month keynote speakers at Quinnipiac University.
Edmond-Vargas will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at Burt Kahn Court on the Mount Carmel Campus, 275 Mount Carmel Ave.
“Our 2019 Black History Month speakers work to bring the voices and experiences of people on the margins of society to the center of our collective consciousness,” said Don C. Sawyer III, associate vice president for academic affairs and chief diversity officer. “Whether working with public school students or incarcerated men, our speakers have dedicated their lives to the service of humanity and see education as a tool of transformation. I’m honored to have Mr. Vargas and Dr. Bettina Love on campus this year, and I’m sure we will gain a lot from what they share with our community.”
Edmond-Vargas questions concepts of patriarchy while inspiring powerful conversation about topics in cellblock feminism, mass incarceration and restorative justice.
In April 2018, he was featured in the CNN documentary, “The Feminist on Cellblock Y,” which highlighted his unlikely but impactful work as an inmate teaching feminism in an all-male prison. The inmate education and rehabilitation program he created, "Success Stories," is designed to help young men challenge patriarchy to better achieve their goals.
Edmond-Vargas is a co-founder of Initiate Justice, a non profit that was founded while he was serving 10 years in California state prison for a crime that he committed as a teenager. He encourages others, especially those directly impacted by incarceration, to get involved in grassroots legislative efforts aimed at ending punitive justice systems and investing in people, communities and restorative means of reducing harm.
He also raps and produces music under the name Richie Reseda and released the album, “Forgotten But Not Gone,” from prison in 2015. Upon release from prison last July, he launched the social impact media company Question Culture. On stage, he enlightens audiences with reflective stories of building a feminist movement behind bars and inspires us to reconsider gender stereotypes and to live a more compassionate life.
Bettina Love, an award-winning author and associate professor of educational theory and practice at the University of Georgia, will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, in the Mount Carmel Auditorium in the Center for Communications and Engineering, 275 Mount Carmel Ave.
Both events are free and open to the public.
About Quinnipiac UniversityQuinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 7,000 full-time undergraduate and 3,000 graduate and part-time students in 110 degree programs through its Schools of Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Law, Medicine, Nursing and theCollege of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” issue. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 381 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.” For more information, please visitqu.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at facebook.com/Quinnipiac news and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.
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