Throughout the month of January, Elon is hosting a wide variety of events and "mini-seminars" surrounding the theme of celebrating human diversity.
Winter Term at Elon University is underway, with students and faculty starting intensive coursework on campus and at locations around the country and abroad.
Each year, Elon offers a lineup of events throughout the month-long term that fall under a central theme, and this year the focus is on “The Difference Difference Makes.” The events are linked by a focus on diversity, and include a range of lectures, workshops and opportunities to build campus community.
Among the events this month are the wInterfaith Lunch Series that includes the opportunity for members of a faith community to share what they believe, “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman,” which is a one-woman performance about the Underground Railroad leader’s life by Diane Faison of Gibsonville, and events surrounding the celebration of the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Additionally, the university on Thursday, Jan. 12, will host a variety of “mini-seminars” with students, faculty and staff signing up to read a piece of scholarly work and then attending a 45-minute critical reflection session led by an Elon faculty member. The focus is on creating academic discourse on diversity related topics that allow members of the Elon community to reflect together.
The eight mini-seminars, which require advance registration, include discussions on the social construction of race, diversity in U.S. foreign policy, unconscious and semi-conscious bias and disability rights. The hour-long discussions begin at 5:30 p.m. in various locations in Alamance Building, and will be followed by a reception.
The full list of events and mini-seminars can be found here and is also included below. Those events with limited capacity include a link to register.
Winter Term Diversity Events and Mini-Seminars
Wednesday, Jan. 4
wInterfaith Lunch Series: Hinduism
11:30 a.m.
Community Life Center, Elon Community Church
Register Here
Mondays & Thursdays during Winter Term, starting Thursday, Jan. 5
Race Card Project Installation
9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Isabella Cannon Center
Thursday, Jan. 5
Human Library
11 a.m.- 2 p.m.
Belk Library, 2nd floor
Register Here
Thursday, Jan. 5
Willy Wilkinson, “Creating a Trans Affirming Campus”
10-11:15 a.m. and 3-4:30 p.m., Moseley 215
6-7 p.m., Public lecture, LaRose Theatre
Thursday, Jan. 5
Nasty Women and Jewish Values: The Wage Gap
4:45-5:45 p.m.
Sklut Hillel Center
Friday, Jan. 6
The Race Card Project Open Mic
7:-9 p.m.
Irazu
Wednesday, Jan. 11
wInterfaith Lunch Series: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
11:30 a.m.
Community Life Center, Elon Community Church
Wednesday, Jan. 11
Poverty Simulations
4-6 p.m.
McKinnon Hall
Thursday, Jan. 12
Diversity is our Destiny: The Future of the Modern Workpace
1:30-3:30 p.m.
Moseley 215
Register Here
Thursday, Jan. 12
Nasty Women and Jewish Values: Modesty
4:45-5:45 p.m
Sklut Hillel Center
Thursday, Jan. 12
Community Reflection: Mini-Seminars
5:30-6:30 p.m., reception to immediately follow
Alamance
A university-wide series of mini-seminars where students sign up to read a piece of scholarly writing and then attend a 45-minute critical reflection session led by a faculty member. Each session will focus on a topic and short reading that the faculty member has chosen because it has been especially insightful or even transformative for students studying concepts around human differences. The aim is for faculty and students to examine and learn from critical academic discourse on diversity-related topics and then reflect together as a campus community on the importance of this intellectual work in transforming our campus and communities. Sponsored by Office of the Provost
- Social Construction of Race: Moving from “Not Real” to Reality, facilitated by Jessica Carew in Alamance 203: In the United States context, we speak of race as though it is a biological reality without recognizing the ways in which the nation worked to construct it. This session will examine the “Frankenstein” nature of the development, permanence, and importance of race in the U.S. Register here
- People Diversity in U.S. Foreign Policy, facilitated by Rod Clare in Alamance 206: When speaking about diversity, Americans tend to look solely inwards. What does it mean when we look at how diversity plays a role in American foreign affairs? What do we mean by diversity and does it have different parameters for the nation as opposed to its relations to the outside world? Does it make a difference and if so, how? These questions and others are what will be explored in DClare’s reading and discussion on the topic of diverse diversity in American foreign relations. Register here
- The War on Compassion, facilitated by Samantha DiRosa in Alamance 204: This session is based on the Carol J. Adams article of the same name, which controversially compares confined animal feeding operations to human genocide and speciesism to racism as a lens to critically discuss objectification and normalized violence. Register here
- Living and Learning in the Contact Zone, facilitated by Kenn Gaither in Alamance 205: The session will use Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of a ‘contact zone’ to explore differences within and among communities. The seminar will apply Pratt’s notion of contact zones to the places we live and learn, producing moments that range from “rage, incomprehension and pain” to “revelation, mutual understanding and new wisdom” (p. 39). Register here
- Unconscious and Semi-Conscious Bias, facilitated by Raj Ghoshal in Alamance 218: We all like to think of ourselves as fair-minded, but social science research shows that even well-intentioned people are susceptible to unconscious and semi-conscious biases around race, gender, age, and more. This interactive session explores how these biases affect us and begins to engage the question of how we can address them. Please bring a laptop or iPad if possible, but not required. Register here
- Disability Rights: Can Higher Education Aim Higher?, facilitated by Julie Lellis in Alamance 215: This session will look at disability rights within the United States, and it will focus on case study by looking at how UNC-Chapel Hill handled the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Register here
- Bodies, Power, and Gender, facilitated by Shannon Lundeen in Alamance 202: In this session, we will explore philosophical questions surrounding embodiment, gender difference, and gender inequality. Our discussion will be rooted in Iris Marion Young’s essay “Throwing Like a Girl,” which analyzes the way in which body comportment (the way that bodies move) reflects and perpetuates gender inequality. We will ask how our understandings and experiences of space and movement illuminate systematic inequality — and whether they also have the potential to undermine inequality. Register here
- We Who Believe in Freedom: Race, Mothering, and Raising Black Sons, facilitated by Cherrel Miller-Dyce in Alamance 301: “Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.” – Ella Baker Register here