A Day of Learning and Speaking Out: Social Justice and Race

March 18, 2015

The national conversation on racial prejudice and policing moves onto Duquesne’s campus for A Day of Learning and Speaking Out on Wednesday, March 25, with discussions designed to involve faculty, students and community members.

The event, organized by faculty members and administrators, is designed to catalyze conversations already occurring across campus within the context of Duquesne’s commitment to social justice, according to the committee. The intent is to discuss causes and potential remedies for alarming national trends, and to reflect on the intersection of racial prejudice and social justice in teaching.

Activities, which will be held at the Silverman Center in Gumberg Library (unless otherwise noted), include:

11 a.m. to noon, Duquesne faculty panel discussion: Racism, Policing and the Exuberance of Power. Dr. Daniel Burston, psychology, will read from his paper on The Exuberance of Power. Faculty responding will be panel chair Dr. Susan Goldberg, psychology; Dr. Marie Baird, theology; Dr. Kathy Glass, English; Dr. Matt Schneirov, sociology; and Dr. Elaine Parsons, history.
1:30 to 3 p.m., Dr. Joy James, the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century Professor of the Humanities and a political science professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., keynote address, Police Violence and the Talented Tenth: Fractionating Civil Rights Leadership. She is the author of Seeking the Beloved Community: A Feminist Race Reader, Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Race and Gender in U.S. Culture and Transcending the Talented Tenth.
3:15 to 6:15 p.m., Rice on the Road Faculty Workshop (Brittany Board Room, Des Places Hall) featuring a reading by author John Edgar Wideman and facilitation by national Inside Out project staff. This session already has filled.
6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Civil Rights, Civil Responsibilities: The Community and the Evolving Role of the Police. The moderator will be Lenny McAllister, producer of the public affairs show NightTalk: Get to the Point, on PCNC-TV. Panelists will include Law Professors Wesley Oliver and Tracey McCants Lewis, Wilkinsburg Mayor John Thompson and Margaret McGannon, Duquesne law student and graduate assistant in the Honor’s College.

For a full schedule, visit the website.

A Day of Learning and Speaking Out is co-sponsored by the Center for Community-Engaged Teaching and Research, the Center for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, the Center for African Studies, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the sociology department.