Professor Watchlist

Jasmine Syedullah is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Vassar College. Her research interests include religious studies, feminist studies, and philosophy. In 2021, she gave a series of lectures on theories of racism and white supremacy in America, including a talk at Naropa University.

Naropa University is private Buddhist University that offers degrees in subjects such as Yoga Studies, Religious Studies, and Art Therapy — Syedullah was introduced as a “black feminist, political theorist of abolition.” The event title was “Surviving White Supremacy: Towards a Radical Dharma of Staying Fugitive.”

Sharing thoughts from her book “Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation,” she said:

“I studied some history [of Buddhist studies] but was mostly taken by the dharma itself, the philosophy [and] how directly did Buddhist philosophies…directly addressed the implicit paradox of the western colonial project. This paradox being on one had, we have a freedom rooted in personal sovereignty, autonomy, and will…”

She continued:

“I’ll add, this is a freedom in theory for most and [a] practice for a precious gender class and race pillaging, not privileging, few. And on the other, we have a freedom rooted in interdependence, decentered egoism, and impermanence.”

In June 2021, Syedullah signed a “Letter to the Editor: Vassar Community Members’ Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” that was published by The Miscellany News. The statement says,

“As members of the Vassar Community and people of conscience, we denounce the ongoing attacks on Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces…We affirm that the Palestinian struggled in an indigenous resistance movement confronting settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”