February 28, 2020
Petillo publishes article about 2016 Melissa Harris-Perry address
April Petillo, assistant professor of American ethnic studies and affiliated with the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, will publish "Unsettling Ourselves: Notes on Self-Reflective Listening Beyond Discomfort" in the Feminist Anthropology Journal.
Petillo's article analyzes a scholar community's response to a 2016 address by Melissa Harris-Perry after the U.S. national election. In the article, Petillo addresses this cultural moment through ethnography and makes an interdisciplinary argument for a decolonial academic practice of embodied listening that is informed by racially aware self-reflectivity.
In advertising the article on Feb. 14, the journal tweeted about it. Harris-Perry then retweeted it and gave a positive response.
"Kansas State University's American ethnic studies department and Dr. Petillo are prominently featured in this text, which is positive publicity to thousands of people globally for the race and ethnicity scholarship here," said Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez, department head of American ethnic studies at K-State. "It also demonstrates the way that the department is working to change the conversation about race, ethnicity and cultural competence academically and in the public across multiple regions."