On October 8th and 9th, a group of Texas State students attended the fall meeting of the Texas Network for the Study of Public Issues (TNSPI) at the University of Dallas. The conference focused on topics surrounding Critical Race Theory (CRT), including its fundamental commitments, theoretical roots, and historical development, as well as the current controversy concerning its teaching. In addition to student delegations from schools across Texas, many scholars of note attended the conference, including the Department’s own Dr. Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo (who presented a talk titled ““Background and Context of the CRT Movement”), George Yancey of Baylor (who gave a keynote lecture called “The Critical Race Theory Controversy”), and Santiago Piñon of Texas Christian University (who gave a lecture called “The Residue of Colonialism: Interpreting Texan Race Relations through a CRT Lens”).
Zachary Poston, a student in the PoliSci MA program, praised the conference: “The topics discussed ranged from Southlake to Black Nationalists. And though the topics were broad, the focus was concise… It was really useful to not just understand Critical Race Theory in practice, but to find the intellectual origins and foundational texts of the movement and see how it has changed or been adapted over time.” Nick James, another student in the program, called the conference “another wonderful example of the TXST Political Science Department’s commitment to providing external educational opportunities to its faculty and students.” He also noted that “Texas State had the largest delegation of any other out-of-town University present at the conference.” James also praised the conference itself: “For such a viscerally divisive topic, the conference and its organizers managed to facilitate respectful and thoughtful conversations between the racially and ideologically diverse attendees.”
TNSPI is sponsored by the American Public Philosophy Institute. Located at the University of Dallas, APPI seeks to bring the natural law tradition in which of the American Founding was rooted to bear on the issues and challenges facing America today.
