STCC to Host Author, Social-justice Advocate Dorothy Roberts

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) is celebrating Women’s History Month with speaker Dorothy Roberts, an author, law professor, and social-justice advocate who will present on race-based medicine.

Roberts will speak on Thursday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to noon in the Scibelli Hall Theater in Building 2. The event is free and open to the public. STCC has been highlighting Women’s History Month with speakers and other events on campus during March.

An in-demand speaker, Roberts’ TED talk on race-based medicine drew more than 1.5 million views. Her new book, Torn Apart, examines racism and the child welfare system in the U.S. She will discuss issues raised in her 1997 book Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.

The STEM Center at STCC, which offers services and academic support for all students taking STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) classes, is presenting the event.

“We are excited to host Dorothy Roberts at STCC. Hearing the incredibly powerful words of Dorothy Roberts in person is an opportunity you won’t want to miss,” said Marlene Johnson, Title V STEM grant project director and STEM Center director.

Roberts is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She has joint appointments in Penn’s departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School, where she is the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights. She is also the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society.