Center for the literary arts in New York State
CALLING IN: ALTERNATIVES TO CALLING-OUT CULTURE
Loretta Ross
3 p.m. Monday, September 22, 2025
Conversation / Q&A
University at Albany
Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West
1400 Washington Avenue Albany NY 12222 - See map.
Loretta Ross is the author of Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel. A MacArthur Prize-winning activist, author, scholar, and professor at Smith College, Ross has been on the frontlines of Civil Rights and Feminist movements the past 50 years.
Calling In chronicles her experiences as varied as teaching Black feminist theory and anti-rape philosophies to incarcerated sex offenders, and working with ex-Klan members on how to become anti-racist. When we think we've arrived at a cultural impasse, Ross points us to solutions that foster social change at this critical moment of social and political divisions.
Cosponsored by the UAlbany Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, UAlbany Black Indigeous Latinx and People of Color (BILPOC) Faculty Advancement Initiative, and the NYS Writers Institute.
about the author:
Loretta J. Ross is an activist, professor, and public intellectual. In her five decades in the human rights movement, she’s deprogramed white supremacists, taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism, and co-organized the second largest march on Washington (surpassed only by the 2017 Women’s March).
The founder of the National Center for Human Rights Education and a cofounder of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, her many accolades and honors include a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2024 induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Today, Ross is an associate professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the founder of LoRossta Consulting, with which she runs “Calling In” training sessions online and for organizations around the country.
reviews
“A master class in constructive confrontation—and Loretta J. Ross is the ideal teacher, with profound insights about how to get through to others and maintain your own dignity along the way.”
— Adam Grant, author of Think Again
“Calling in is far more crucial to human survival than calling out, and Loretta J. Ross has written a personal and political book that proves it! There is no one whose experience I would trust more.”
— Gloria Steinem
“What a refreshing and necessary book. Loretta J. Ross has offered us an escape hatch here—with wisdom, experience, and integrity. We would all do well to follow her lead.”
— Abigail Disney, activist and philanthropist
“A highly recommended, necessary read for anyone who finds themself grating against those with different political beliefs. Ross’s book has plenty of potential for discussions and healing relations between friends and family and maybe even strangers.”
— Library Journal
(Photo credit Pableaux Johnson)
