{"id":60736,"date":"2013-01-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/diversity-talks-at-uri-to-spark-ideas\/"},"modified":"2013-01-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T00:00:00","slug":"diversity-talks-at-uri-to-spark-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/01\/diversity-talks-at-uri-to-spark-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity talks at URI to spark ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I., January 25, 2013 \u2013 Want to learn how zombie movies reflect race and gender stereotypes or how African-American men are portrayed in Alice Walker\u2019s novel, The Color Purple. Then come to this year\u2019s \u201cDiversity Brown Bag Discussions\u201d at the University of Rhode Island. <\/p>\n


\n \u201cThe series brings relevant and riveting issues to the table,\u201d says Mailee Kue, assistant director of URI\u2019s Multicultural Center. \u201cWe\u2019re featuring speakers who are thinkers in their field with topics sure to garner interest. Our goal is to get the campus community \u2013 students, staff, and faculty \u2013 talking about diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe talks by professors and graduate students will be held throughout the year at the Multicultural Center, Hardge Forum, Room 101. Free and open to the public, the discussions are from noon to 1 p.m. Pack a lunch and bring your ideas. Participation is encouraged.<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, Jan. 31 – Gerard J. Holder, URI\u2019s deputy Title IX coordinator and assistant director of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, will talk about \u201cHidden Bias: An Impact on Social Justice, Values, and Leadership.\u201d Hidden bias in the subconscious mind, he says, allows well-meaning people to make catastrophic mistakes that affect their lives and careers. <\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, Feb. 14 – Naomi R. Thompson, J.D., the University\u2019s chief diversity officer and associate vice president of Community, Equity and Diversity, will talk about campus efforts to promote fair treatment, diversify the campus demographic composition, broaden and deepen its curricular offerings, and cultivate a welcoming and inclusive campus culture and community where members are respected and valued. Her talk is called \u201cA Voice for the Students: Understanding Community, Equity, and Diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, Feb. 28 – Judah-Micah Lamar, a doctoral fellow in the English department, will present a reading of the antagonist in Alice Walker\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Color Purple. Set mostly in rural Georgia, the novel tells the story of a young African-American woman\u2019s struggle in a world of sexism, racism, and poverty. \u201cThis discussion will seek to open dialogue about the ways in which black men are portrayed by black women authors in literature, and how society at large misreads black men through fragmented lenses as damaged goods,\u201d says Lamar.<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, March 21 – Yvette Harps-Logan, a professor in the textiles, fashion merchandising and design department at URI, will talk about why people buy certain clothes and how their choices reflect cultural identity. \u201cPeople buy apparel depending on their cultural values, their ethnicity, their gender, and their religion,\u201d says Harps-Logan.<\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, April 11 – Nancy Caronia, a doctoral candidate in English and part-time faculty member at URI\u2019s College of Continuing Education, will discuss how our fascination with zombie apocalypse tales \u2013 an obsession cultivated by the popular TV show The Walking Dead and the film 28 Days Later \u2013 reflect race and gender in the 21st century. <\/p>\n


\n\u2022\tThursday, April 25 – Clarissa Walker, a doctoral student in writing and rhetoric in the English department at URI, will discuss how tourists in Central America on cruises, spring break, and family vacations impact the culture of the Garifuna, descendants from Arawak, Carib, and West African roots. Her talk is called \u201cWhen the Dance is Over: The Exoticization of the Garifuna of Central America.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nURI is also sponsoring events and activities in February to celebrate Black History Month. The keynote speaker is Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and longtime friend and adviser to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Ogletree\u2019s talk is at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 in URI\u2019s Memorial Union Ballroom. The lecture, \u201cPost-racial America in the Age of Obama,\u201d is free and open to the public. He will also sign a copy of his latest book, The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America. <\/p>\n


\nThis year\u2019s Black History Month theme at URI comes from the work of African-American writer W.E.B. Du Bois. In his classic, The Souls of Black Folk, he calls African-Americans the \u201cseventh son,\u201d or the disinherited and despised stepson.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cEven though we have progressed racially as a nation, even to the extent of having an African-American president, we are still seeing troubling signs of marginalization and racial oppression,\u201d says Professor Vanessa Quainoo, director of the Africana Studies Program at URI. \u201cBy raising the Black History Month theme, we are inviting reflection on the past, present and yet hopeful future for African-Americans and their progress.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nFor more information about the \u201cbrown bag\u201d discussions, please contact Kue at maileekue@uri.edu. For information about Ogletree\u2019s talk, please call Africana Studies at 401-874-2536.<\/p>\n


\nVictoria Antonelli, a senior journalism major interning at the URI Marketing and Communications Department, wrote this press release.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., January 25, 2013 \u2013 Want to learn how zombie movies reflect race and gender stereotypes or how African-American men are portrayed in Alice Walker\u2019s novel, The Color Purple. Then come to this year\u2019s \u201cDiversity Brown Bag Discussions\u201d at the University of Rhode Island. \u201cThe series brings relevant and riveting issues to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}