09/03/2025
Three university professors hailing from separate continents will reflect on the impact of America’s “new normal,” with reference to their own experiences and those around them, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at SUNY Cortland.
The panelists, all SUNY Cortland faculty members, will begin their presentation at 4:30 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 115.
The lecture, titled “‘Immigration: Confusion, Uncertainty … Fear,” launches the series of four planned lectures during the university’s 2025-26 Rozanne M. Brooks Lectures, themed on “The Culture of Turmoil.”
The discussions all take place on Wednesdays and begin at 4:30 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 115. Seating will be limited, so attendees are advised to arrive early. A reception to welcome speakers precedes each talk at 4 p.m. in the adjacent Brooks Museum. The events are free and open to the public.
“Turmoil seems to be all around us these days,” said Brooks Lecture Series organizer and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology/Anthropology Sharon Steadman. “Whether it’s your grocery bill, current news feeds, health decisions, family issues, travel plans or any other daily activity, there seems to be cause for concern. This year’s Brooks Lecture Series features speakers that address some of the most distressing of these concerns facing so many of us today.”
First Brooks lecture
In the last year, immigration has become a concept that touches almost everyone who lives in the United States.
SUNY Cortland faculty members weighing in on this topic include Tokie Laotan-Brown, adjunct lecturer in cultural studies; Patricia Martínez de la Vega Mansilla, lecturer in modern languages; and Nimisha Muttiah, associate professor of communication disorders and sciences.
Each will relate how the current political discourse has initiated chaos, not only in headlines, but in the daily lives of individuals and their families, whether they immigrated long ago or recently. Each has seen friends, colleagues, employees, students and many others around them equally affected.
In this redefinition of “the United States,” residents — whether they have long known one another or just met —find themselves asking each other the question of “Where are you really from?,” “How long have you been here?” or “How did you get here?”
This has naturally provoked intense anxiety and fear among those who entered illegally. However, legal residents and naturalized citizens have also begun to experience confusion, uncertainty and even fear.
Additional series presentations:
Nov. 12 — Divorce Court: Managing Chaos with Order — The Hon. Kevin Kuehner, a New York State Supreme Court justice, will outline how a new approach to dissolving the marital union, which integrates empathy and education, can help litigants understand and accept the process, leading to better outcomes and more constructive resolutions. This is done by having the lawyers and judges acknowledge these feelings and explain the system’s evolution.
March 25 — U.S. Politics in Turmoil: New Era or Same Old Story? — Joseph Anthony, a SUNY Cortland assistant professor of political science, will dive into the key topics and questions surrounding the recent polarization in U.S. politics, which many scholars see as rivaling the nation’s most divided periods. Anthony will touch on many questions prompted by the current political maelstrom, including whether there’s something that people can do to help shape the U.S. democracy into a more effective and representative system.
April 8 — The Love Recession — Jill Murphy, a SUNY Cortland associate professor of health, will explore how our society is experiencing a decline in various aspects of interpersonal connection and additional public health challenges, which all together can be viewed as part of a broader “Love Recession.” Murphy will strive to identify opportunities toward reversing the trend.
The Brooks Series honors the late Rozanne M. Brooks, SUNY distinguished teaching professor emerita of sociology/anthropology at SUNY Cortland, whose donated special collection of ethnographic objects to the Sociology/Anthropology Department established the Brooks Museum in 2001.
The 2025-26 Brooks Lecture Series is co-sponsored by the Cortland Auxiliary Services and the Cortland College Foundation. For more information, contact Sharon Steadman at 607-753-2308.
Image courtesy of Pixabay and johnhain