Past Events

Dr. Ali Michael

What do White people need to know about race? How to be a contributing member to a healthy multiracial community
November 14, 2019; February - April 2019
Learning about race and whiteness can be confusing, contentious, and frightening, particularly for White people. Ali Michael invited us to start this conversation with a vision that is worth working for: a healthy multiracial community. Working backwards from that vision, what skills and competencies do white people need in order to be part of creating that community? What do we need to know about our own history and psychology?

White people’s right to be wrong and still be right
February 6, 2019
Dr. Frances Kendall is a nationally known consultant who has focused for more than thirty-five years on organizational change, diversity, and White privilege. In this facilitated dialogue session, Dr. Kendall discussed the nature of White resistance. She highlighted the complex challenges White people face when confronted with truths about White racism. Drawing from contemporary examples, Dr. Kendall unpacked concepts such as “whiteness” and “white supremacy” in an effort to challenge participants to reflect on ways they may consciously and unconsciously resist efforts to promote racial equity on campus.

I don’t belong here: My otherness, my privilege
March 6, 2019
Dr. Paul Thomas, Professor of Education (Furman University, Greenville SC), taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal (National Council of Teachers of English), current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Brill), and author of Teaching Writing as Journey, Not Destination: Essays Exploring What ‘Teaching Writing’ Means (IAP). NCTE named Thomas the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He recently co-edited Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America (Brill, 2018). 

Negotiating Whiteness in the context of contemporary racism on campus
April 3, 2019
Dr. Amanda E. Lewis is Professor of African American Studies & Sociology, and Director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on how race shapes educational opportunities and how our ideas about race get negotiated in everyday life. She is the author of Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color-line in Classrooms and Communities. She is also the co-editor (with Maria Krysan) of The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity, and co-author (with Mark Chesler and Jim Crowfoot) of Challenging Racism in Higher Education: Promoting Justice. Her latest book (with John Diamond) is Despite the Best Intentions: Why racial inequality persists in good schools

Dr. Margaret Hagerman

Growing up with privilege
December 5, 2018
Dr. Margaret Hagerman is a qualitative sociologist who studies racial socialization, or how kids learn about race, racism, and racial inequality in the contexts of their families and communities. Dr. Hagerman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology, Faculty Affiliate in African American Studies and Gender Studies Programs at Mississippi State University. She is also author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America.

Dr. Joe Feagin

White Racial Illiteracy: Realities and Remedies
October 30, 2018
Dr. Joe Feagin, Ella C. McFadden Professor and Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, does major research on systemic racism, sexism, and classism issues. He has published 70 scholarly books and hundreds of scholarly articles in these research areas.