Student Diversity Conference Set for October 15 and 16: Campus to Engage in Dialogue across Differences

diversity/bwA keynote address by Farai Chideya, a journalist and the author of Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misunderstandings about African Americans, will kick off the student diversity conference Friday, October 15, at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium.

From Friday evening, October 15, through October 16, members of the Mount Holyoke community will engage in a dialogue across differences through a student diversity conference. Titled "Awakenings: Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone, Engaging in Dialogue Across Differences," the conference is primarily intended for students and will feature a variety of forums concerning race, disability, and class. Students Sara Rummel '02, Sara Scott '02, Tiffany McClain '01, and Ouida Chichester '02 helped coordinate this dialogue.

A keynote address by Farai Chideya, a journalist and the author of Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misunderstandings about African Americans, will kick off the conference Friday, October 15, at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium. On Saturday, October 16, the dialogue will resume when students view the film The Way Home, a powerful documentation of women dealing with issues of race and racism. An interactive workshop led by Rosie Castaneda, director of training with the diversity consulting firm Romney Associates, will follow the film. That afternoon, three workshops will be offered for students. Each one will be facilitated, and the subjects to be covered are sexuality and gender-based oppression, disability awareness and the social construction of normalcy and, classism.

Students will have the option to choose two of the three workshops, which will each be offered twice--from 1 to 2:15 pm and from 2:30 to 3:45 pm. A closing will be held in Gamble Auditorium at 4 pm. The sexuality workshop will be offered in Gamble Auditorium; the disability-awareness workshop will be held in the faculty club room in the Willits-Hallowell Center; and the classism workshop will be held in the private dining room in Willits.

Addressing issues surrounding sexual and gender identity, the sexuality workshop will include activities and discussions that center around how to fight and end sexuality and gender oppression. This event will be facilitated by Warren J. Blumenfeld, editor of the Journal of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identity and of the anthology Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price. Participants in the disability-awareness workshop will have an opportunity to reflect on their personal experiences with ableism and to construct an alternative, nonoppressive paradigm. Susan Pliner, assistant director of student life and coordinator of disability support services at Brown University, will be the facilitator. The classism workshop will focus on social and economic class in America and how class affects all of us. Facilitators will be Dana Gillette, who cochairs an alliance of young people who challenge institutions to provide creative, responsible, and strategic uses of financial and other resources, and Mary Sutherland, a former teen parent, battered woman, and welfare recipient, who has worked on issues of poverty for more than fourteen years.

 

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