Tenth Residency Conference (Jan 2011)

TENTH RESIDENCY CONFERENCE C INCINNATI , OHIO JANUARY 6, 2011

Union Institute & University

Cohort Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies Program

iden▪ti ▪ty


iden▪ti ▪ty The 10th Residency Conference Day of the Cohort Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies

Cincinnati, Ohio January 6, 2011

Initiator Larry Preston, Dean

Conference Committee Kim Byas, Cohort 6 Chuck Carrig, Cohort 6 Bobby England, Cohort 6 Jonathan Eskridge, Cohort 6 Valerie Lawrence, Cohort 6 Karsten Piep, Faculty Timothy Toyen, Cohort 6 Tiffany Traylor, Cohort 6 Alfred Williams, Cohort 6

Special thanks to Tara Scherner de la Fuente, Assistant Dean Caitlin Behle, Administrative Assistant

Cover Image “Fingerprint” (2009) by Wilfredo Rodríguez


Table of Contents

Keynote Speaker and Scholar-in-Residence 1

Distinguished Alumna Presenter 3

Panel 1: Postcolonial Identities 5

Panel 2: Culture, Media, and Identity 6

Panel 3: Memoir and Identity 7

Panel 4: Identity Blogs and Experiential Stories 8

Panel 5: Experience, Discourse, and Identify 9

Panel 6: Capturing the Self in Memoirs and Genes 10

Panel 7: History, Leadership, and Identity 11

Panel 8: Politics, Experience, Identity 12

Panel 9: Entering Identity 13

Panel 10: Researching Identity 14

Panel 11: Emerging Identities and Identity Loss 15

Panel 12: Creative Reading and Discussion 16

Presidential Note 17

Sound of Conversation 18

Social Justice Roundtable 19

Keynote Speaker and Scholar-in-Residence:

Patricia Hill Collins


Professor Collins is a social theorist whose research and

scholarship have examined issues of race, gender, social

class, sexuality and/or nation. Her first book, Black Feminist

Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Em-

powerment, published in 1990, with a revised tenth year

anniversary edition published in 2000, won the Jessie Ber-

nard Award of the American Sociological Association (ASA)

for significant scholarship in gender, and the C. Wright Mills

Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Her

second book, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, 6th

ed. (2007), edited with Margaret Andersen, is widely used in

undergraduate classrooms in over 200 colleges and univer-

sities. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and

the New Racism (Routledge, 2004) received ASA’s 2007

Distinguished Publication Award. Her other books include

Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice

(University of Minnesota Press, 1998); and From Black

Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism

(Temple University Press in press for 2005). She has pub-

lished many articles in professional journals such as Ethnic

and Racial Studies, Signs, Sociological Theory, Social Prob-

lems, and Black Scholar, as well as in edited volumes.

Union Institute & University Page 2

Keynote Address:

Date: January 6, 2011

Time: 7:00-8:30 PM Location: Ballroom

"Answering the Call to Community Service: Race, Class and American

Youth."

Patricia Hill Collins

Distinguished University Professor , Department of Sociology University of Maryland

I will be drawing upon ideas outlined in my 2009 ASA presidential

address [and deliver] a greatly expanded version of the brief discussion

of community service in that article.

From ―The New Politics of Community‖ (American Sociological Review

75.1 [2010]: 7-30):

Ideas about community are especially prominent in late-twentieth-

century U.S. society. The term community resonates throughout social policy, scholarship, popular culture, and everyday social interactions. It

holds significance for different populations with competing political

agendas (e.g., political groups of the right and the left invoke ideas of

community yet have very different ideas in mind). No longer seen as

naturally occurring, apolitical spaces to which one retreats to escape the

pressures of modern life, communities of all sorts now constitute sites of

political engagement and contestation. The new politics of community

reveals how the idea of community constitutes an elastic political

construct that holds a variety of contradictory meanings and around

which diverse social practices occur. (7)

Distinguished Alumna Presenter:

Marlaina Easton


Marlaina Easton earned her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Stud-

ies from Union Institute and University's Cohort Ph.D. Pro-

gram in May 2010. She holds a B.A. and a M.A. in English

from Eastern Illinois State University. Her dissertation,

"Resisting Multiple Oppressions: An African American Les-

bian's Counter-Narrative," draws upon analytical and crea-

tive modes of inquiry to probe the subtle mechanism by

which African American Lesbians fall prey to multiple forms

of oppression.

Dr. Easton currently works as an English instructor at the

College of Lake County in Grayslake, IL, where she teaches

developmental English, college-level English, and creative

writing. She has helped organize creative writing workshops

and poetry readings throughout Chicago, bringing to light

issues of “otherness,” and also serves as a featured reader

at Insight Arts’ “Queering of the Night” and “Women Out

Loud.”

Dr. Easton is at present completing her Ed.D. at DePaul Uni-

versity in Chicago.

Alumna Presentation:

Date: January 7, 2011

Time: 7:30 PM, followed by reception Location: Ballroom

―Resisting Multiple Oppressions‖

Marlaina Easton

“The root word ‗oppression‘ is the element to ‗press,‘‖ notes Marylyn Frye in The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983):

―Something pressed is something caught between or among forces and

barriers which are so related to each other that jointly they restrain, re-

strict or prevent the thing‘s motion or mobility. Mold. Immobilize. Re-

duce‖ (2). As members of a minority within a minority, African Ameri-

can Lesbians experience being molded, immobilized, and reduced on a

daily basis. The theoretical and empirical works of cultural critics, essay-

ists, and historians, as well as the literature of African American women,

speak clearly to the African American Lesbian‘s everyday experience of

suffering multiple oppressions. They reveal that the African American

Lesbian experience is shaped by a combination of factors, which include a heightened proneness to discrimination, marginalization, reductive

identification, isolation, and a marked susceptibility to violence. Studying

works that speak to this experience reveals alternative strategies of pro-

test and resistance.

Drawing upon scholarly articles, such as Adam Fingerhut‘s (2005) ―A

Dual Identity Framework for Understanding Lesbian Experience,‖ and

theoretical concepts, such as bell hooks‘s ―homeplace,‖ I creatively ex-

plore the experiences of African American Lesbians through a personal

narrative, which seeks to offer novel insights into how African American

Lesbians experience multiple oppressions; how they identify, describe,

and analyze strategies to combat mechanisms of oppression; and how they may eventually deploy strategies of resistance and self-

empowerment. I will share a piece of this personal narrative to demon-

strate how it becomes a work of resistance that challenges hegemonic

relations.


Panel 1: Postcolonial Identities

Time: 9:00-9:50 AM Location:

Discussant: Marcel Kitissou

―Sexual Orientation and Postcolonial Human Rights: On the Ground in

Jamaica‖

Paul Henry Hawkins The bulk of post-World War II human rights literature focuses on two questions. The first is epistemological: What are human rights? The second is ontological:

How well are human rights observed? A third question, relatively unexplored, is existential: What political and cultural processes shape on-the-ground human rights dispositions? This third question is vastly important to furthering global respect for human rights. It is one thing to imagine a human rights framework, another to point out its triumphs and failings. But without understanding the hum of human activity that militates for or against a right, our ability to effect pro-rights strategies is limited. In this session we will go on the ground in Jamaica—a state that has formally espoused respect for human rights principles but empirical

research shows to be among the most homophobic in the western hemisphere. We will explore root reasons for the mismatch, tracing developments from the colonial through post-colonial periods, including the interplay of domestic and international factors.

―Purifying the Jibaro: Constructing Puerto Rico‘s Postcolonial Identity‖

Enid Sepulveda Rodriguez After 1898, Puerto Rico‘s elite groups started the nationalist movement by con-structing a myth of national identity around a homogeneous idea of la gran fa-milia puertorriqueña that erased racial and ethnic differences and served to unify the population across socioeconomic classes. They set out to find a national sym-bol that could embody and represent that new identity. The Jibaro, the once suspect, despised, disempowered and disenfranchised colonial peasant was pulled from the margins of society to represent that postcolonial identity, because he could be, once ―purified,‖ a symbol of the nature of the land and the landscape

and represent the authentic and pristine values of a people with a long history and proud culture. The elite, who led the project for cultural recovery for a unified and shared Puerto Rican identity that was in opposition to Spanish and United States identity, articulated an ideological discourse of the Jibaro that was some-times complementary and sometimes conflicting., inaccurate and inauthentic.


Panel 2: Culture, Media, and Identity


Discussant: Karsten Piep

"New Media and Identity: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Episteme

between New Media and Who We Are"

Tony Kashani

New media is ushering in a new paradigm, which is rapidly going through transformation(s). The information overload, different brands of truth (i.e.,

relativism on speed), and technological advances generate a form of ambigu-ity that often fluctuates from one realm to another. This presentation provides

a theoretical treatment of the ways in which new media is shaping, altering, constructing, and transforming people‘s identities. My work will be predi-

cated on theories of Erich Fromm (to be or to have), Jaques Derrida (differance), Michel Foucault (power/knowledge), Mikhail Bakhtin

(intertextuality), Baudrillard (hyperreality), and Zygmunt Bauman (liquid identity). My presentation will illustrate how the blogsphere, social media,

Web 2.0 and other internet based phenomena are creating and recreating new realities and how individuals are negotiating new meanings and by extension

new identities in these liquid times.

"Hair: Biology/Language/Identity/Culture/Place (The local-made-global

in the art of Wenda Gu)"

Jjenna Hupp Andrews

The relational conception of inter-subjectivity involving identity, place, cul-ture and the global community is embodied in the aesthetic practices and

artwork of Wenda, specifically the United Nations project. We live in a lo-calized-global community on this planet, where we are globally intercon-

nected but at the same time, locally unique. The cultural is intimately en-twined with the ecological in how we view and understand who we are in

relation to our sense of place; this is where our subjectivity becomes our inter-subjectivity. Through the examination of Gu‘s aesthetic approach, I intend

to open up the definition of ecoaesthetics (through the application of rela-tional aesthetics) beyond the narrow focus of the ecological environment to

include culture and language as a major force in how we understand our sense of place and our identity.


Panel 3: Memoir and Identity


Discussant: Norma Jenckes

"The Greyhound Chronicles‖

Sharon Wallace

"The Greyhound Chronicles" is based on my experiences as a passenger

on the Greyhound bus. The journey gives me the chance to know myself

better as I reflect on my story. Michael Steinberg argues that, it is essen-

tial that the memoirist find their story when writing the memoir the

―inner story; that is, the story of their thinking.‖ Therefore, writing this

piece allows me to examine my psychology, growth and transformation while situated in the space of the Greyhound bus. Moreover, the inner

story reveals my identity in that space, as Sidonie Smith and Julia Wat-

son states that, ―we know ourselves through what Michel Foucault ana-

lyzed as discursive regimes. Furthermore, the more domains we enter

gives us more chances to know ourselves and experience our truth. The

creative process is about discovery and revisiting memories from the past

which provides us with new knowledge about those experiences and self.

―Just As It Sprouted, Faith Now Grows Green‖

Lorrie Jayne

In memoir, or self-narration, we are able to take the myriads of images,

sensations of pain and pleasure, and tales and lies that swirl around us

and make meaning. Yet, just as a swinging lamp on a boat adjusts to the

back and forth of crossing a swell, the form of identity adjusts to move-

ment large and small to keep lit our beacon of faith and understanding. In

the Southwest where I grew up, two symbolic influences perpetually sur-

rounded me: the vast and rolling desert, and the image of the gentle

mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the creative piece I am presenting,

"Just As It Sprouted, Faith Now Grows Green," these influences arise

from three very different memories and merge to foster an unexpected

new balance, strength and faith in the present.


Panel 4: Identity Blogs and Experiential Stories


Discussant: Mary Ann Steger

"The Power of Authentic Identities‖

Renee Levitt

We are born with the potential to do good for ourselves and others. To

realize our potential, we need to develop our authentic identities by iden-

tifying with and developing our authentic selves. Secure in our authentic

identities we are able to develop and maintain the skills needed to func-

tion well, become and stay informed, think critically and make right deci-

sions. I will present an Identity Blog with an introductory essay explain-ing these concepts with supporting citations. Our blog conversations will

inform us so that we can understand how today‘s forces of power, influ-

ence and manipulation are impacting us. This will create an informed

community whose members think critically, make good decisions and act

to affect the future.

"Untold Stories About the Voiceless―

James A. Schneck

It is time for the disability community to experience their own civil rights

movement. It is not difficult to find accounts of discrimination and op-pression of many minority populations. However, the stories of the

―voiceless‖ are almost unknown to the general population and there is an

immense gap in the literature. I used to work in a large state institution

for the mentally retarded (the politically correct term now is

―developmentally disabled‖). I have changed adult diapers, been bitten

and spit upon, slapped, kicked, and even knocked unconscious. I have

seen cruel atrocities as well as amazing kindness. I have been a teacher,

advocate, administrator of a group home, and director of a social services

agency for the Deaf. This presentation will tell the stories of many of

these people that have been forgotten by society.


Panel 5: Experience, Discourse, and Identity


Discussant: Karsten Piep

―An Identity Born of Struggle‖

Ray Jordan

Who am I? This seems like a simple inquiry. However, if given a closer

look, it may not be as elementary as it appears. We live in a culture that

greatly underestimates the inner life and grossly overemphasizes external

measures of success. Therefore, who we ―really‖ are is often lost to the

overwhelming pressure to be who ―they‖ want us to be? African-

Americans are often forced to neglect the richness of their own social,

religious and familial cultures and histories in order to adapt a de-

africanized and de-colorized American experience. So, I ask, ―What is

the balance between being black and being professional? What is the cost

of promotion and success?‖ This presentation will employ the crossroads of theory and practice as the social construction of African-American

identity is examined and an alternative theory of African-American Au-

thenticity is offered.

"The Hopeful Turn Toward Nothing True or Deep: Identity as a Product

of Dialogical Emergence"

David Holzmer

One of the most important functions of the social bond is to help us an-

swer two critical questions—Who Am I? and How Do I Know That To

Be? The purpose of this presentation is to discover a clearer understand-

ing how identity, once considered a fixed construct, is actually a creative

process that is constantly in motion; a product of complex adaptive forces

often realized through the experience of dialogue. To gain a deeper

awareness of what is at play we will look briefly at how the traditional

social models sought to impose identity through broad, rigid ideologies--

or metanarratives. Using an interdisciplinary lens, I show how the ―me‖

each of us comes know is, as Rorty reminds us, not the result of ―getting

a clearer vision of something true and deep‖ but is found through our daily exploration of ―the particular little things.‖


Panel 6: Capturing the Self in Memoirs and Genes


Discussant: Diane Allerdyce

―The Practice of Wonder‖

Cheryl Chaffin

Patricia Hampl begins Blue Arabesque with the odd yearning for the ―mind floating unimpeded over experience.‖ She asks a cloistered nun what is the

core of contemplative life, who answers without hesitation, ―Leisure.‖ A democracy of contemplation evolves of looking that is not prohibited anyone

as long as they have the philosopher‘s wonder, thaumadzein, and desire to make receptivity and feeling primary in relation with the world. Such wonder

resides in the condition of our temporality. Those who create teach us that we are awakening when we feel we have possessed nothing but have been per-

mitted glimpses among the presence of many things, many loves. We will

explore making a practice of the glimpse as a mode of living—our willing-ness to be stopped and amazed—as we discover a slow, sensual clarity of

being in a dynamic, rapidly changing world that is ours for a short time to experience.

―Genetic Genealogy at the Borders of Italian American Identity‖

John Giordano

The genetic genealogy movement has captured the imaginations of people

who are searching for roots in an increasingly transnational and post-nationalistic world. For some who place value in knowing where their ances-

tors once lived, contemporary national identities are being blended with new DNA-based tribal affiliations that provide them with connections to geo-

graphical sites of origin that either confirm ethnic/national origins or offer the discovery of an ancestry that runs counter to official personal histories. I

argue that this process augments self-knowledge in a manner similar to that of fictional stories; genetic genealogy is being utilized to shape the develop-

ment of self and communal identity through imagined connections with oth-ers. Its popularity is indicative of a postmodern fascination with the past, one

that collapses the boundaries between truth and the imagination. This hap-pens in such a way that the suspicion raised in regard to its value as an au-

thentic interrogation of history reopens the past to a critical inquiry that per-haps draws its power from the acknowledgement that it resides in a dislo-

cated space between fact and fiction.


Panel 7: History, Leadership, and Identity


Discussant: Christopher Voparil

―The Role of African History in Identity Politics‖ Alfred Williams

In the last half of the 20th century, African History as a whole has seen a

dramatic reconstruction. With the Civil Rights movement, the monu-

mental concerns of denial, deformation, and destruction academically

came to the for front of academicians. In 1974, Cheikh Anta Diop revo-

lutionized African history with the publication of African Origin of Civi-

lization: Myth or Reality. Diop redefined historiography. The connec-

tion he established between Egypt to the rest of African civilization has

spawned a new highway of scholarship. In doing this, Psychologist

Na‘im Akbar maintains that Diop reshaped the way African people per-ceive themselves. Considering the newness of the reconstruction of the

African historical landscape, the construct of self-identity goes on.

―Leadership Identity of King as Reflected in the ―Letter from Birming-

ham Jail‘‖

Kim Byas, Sr.

Dr. King‘s ―Letter from a Birmingham Jail‖ is an example of a leadership

narrative and identity where Dr. King is speaking on behalf of a group of

people—in this case, ―African-Americans and the poor‖. Throughout this

letter, his narrative voice shifts from ―I‖ to ―we‖; and within the frame-work of ―we‖, the group for whom Dr. King speaks as its narrator also

shifts. Dr. King makes it clear that he is moved to exercise his authority

to speak on behalf of and to represent those who are being denied justice

because he and others like him—including ―…the prophets of the eighth

century B.C. [and] Apostle Paul…of Tarsus…‖—are motivated by a

sense of ―…interrelatedness of all communities and states....Injustice

anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.‖ In identifying himself with

and expressing values on behalf of his beloved community, Dr. King

transforms his authority into leadership.


Panel 8: Politics, Experience, Identity


―Politics, Experience, Identity: A Conversation‖

Nancy Boxill Larry Preston

This roundtable discussion will examine the possible presence/role of

experience in our efforts to apprehend and understand and, then, to assess

or extend or refashion extant ethical-political principles and practices.

This conversation is motivated by what we see as two powerful and, al-

though profoundly different in their presentation, quite troubling philoso-

phical-political strategies. One of these strategies holds steadfastly to

the notion that there just is an underlying and knowable and, to those

who‘ve gone about it right, known social/political reality as well as a

knowable and largely known set of ethical principles, presented to us by those who‘ve done their philosophy right, for guiding our personal and

political lives. In the considerable and growing ethical-political tsunami

that‘s come at us since the linguistic/perspectival turn, an alternative

strategy suggests that, at best, social-political reality as well as the princi-

ples by which political life is ordered, reflect either the result of essen-

tially arbitrary and power-laden/driven dynamics or, alternatively, so-

cially constructed meanings and practices that are said to tell us who we

are and what we should, and, so far as we can tell, do a serviceable job.

We initiate this conversation because we have a hunch that both of the

strategies outlined above are deeply flawed. On that first concern, the flaw we can‘t help but seeing is from the vantage point of riders strapped

into a back seat who are carried along at the intellectual/political whim of

too-proud, history-burdened drivers occupying the front seat. And on the

second concern, our trying-to-escape a perhaps central limitation of per-

spectivalism is that experience and our understanding of experience tell

us that, whether understood as emerging from hegemonic dynamics (or,

more modestly, the mediations of social construction) or the meanings of

language games and/or final vocabularies, potentially there is more and

can be more to an apprehension of social reality, and more to the design

of political principles and practices, than, well, perspectives.


Panel 9: Entering Identity


Session Limited to Twelve Participants

―Entering Identity Through the Door of Dialogue‖ Tiffany Traylor

This experiential session invites a limited group of participants to criti-

cally engage the theme of identity through a dialogical exploration of the

identity of self and other. This session will implement a modified version

of a Freirean Culture Circle to engage up to 12 individuals in critical dia-

logue and reflection about identity. The Culture Circle concept is a dia-

logical system borrowed from Paulo Freire in which students and coordi-

nator collectively in open dialogue; critically examine various generative

themes that have grounding in the real lives of the participants. The aim

of the session is to engage critical consciousness around the concept of identity through a process of ―problematizing‖ or breaking down partici-

pating individuals lived experiences as they relate to identity into exam-

inable pieces in open critical dialogue facilitated by a coordinator. This

session is relevant as it relates to identity which is the theme of the con-

ference. However, it also holds relevance as it relates to the Social Justice

component at Union Institute and University. As Freire (1974) empha-

sizes critical consciousness developed through dialogue can be a means

of altering power relationships and resisting oppression.


Panel 10: Researching Identity

Time: 1:00-1:50 PM Location:

"Researching Identity Through an Exercise in Music"

Linda Klonsky

“...an increasing number of scholars are moving toward performance as

a mode of research/representation...the communicative medium itself has a formative effect on what we take to be the object of re-

search...” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003, p. 582).

How does a creative process in real time help us understand identity? In

a highly interactive music exercise, we will explore individual identity

shifts in the moment of action. We will explore the blurring of identity

between performer and audience. When does individual identity merge

into group identity? What is the intersection of power and identity?

This music exercise, introduced by Ron Heifetz at the Kennedy School to

explore risk-taking, courage, interdependency, and exercising leadership,

allows participants and the audience to observe themselves in the mo-ment of action and to explore emerging multiple identities.

Volunteers follow my instruction with time set aside for personal and

audience debriefs between sets. At the end, time is needed to explore

more deeply what occurred and what can be learned about identity.

This music exercise is done with great care and support for those who

choose to volunteer.


Panel 11: Emergent Identities and Identity Loss


Discussant: Marcel Kitissou

―The ‗New Masculinity‘ and Its Ramifications for Policy in the Public

and Private Sectors.‖

Jon Ross

A ―new masculinity‖ is emerging – driven in part by economic strain, in

part by recognition that traditional gender roles place arbitrary, sexist

limitations on men and women that are unsustainable and impractical.

This new masculinity requires policy – both at the governmental and

private-sector level – to accommodate changing gender roles rapidly moving away from the traditional models that established certain duties

as ―men‘s work‖ or ―women‘s work‖ – not to mention men‘s changing

roles and identities as spouses, fathers, and workers. These changes are

reflected in parental leave, flexible working arrangements, and other

practices/policies. The presentation will provide an overview of changing

economic, social, cultural, and political forces affecting and contributing

to the New Masculinity, and how public- and private-sector policies will

be affected by and need to adjust to these variables, with an eye toward

the impact on families, the economy, schools, and other sectors.

―Human Trafficking in the United States: Identity Loss and Invisible Faces‖

Linda McNelly

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery which is internationally every-

where, including the United States. There are similarities of historical

slavery with that of today‘s trafficked victims; yet, there are differences.

One difference is that slavery is no longer legal; thus, modern-day slav-

ery is an underground, organized crime wherein trafficked victims are

tightly monitored and often hidden from sight by their traffickers. It is

estimated that hundreds of thousands of trafficked victims are in the

United States. The purpose of this paper is to bring awareness of the loss of identity of these victims through the creative domains of the word and

art.


Panel 12: Creative Reading and Discussion


Responder: Andrea Scarpino

Natalie Jones Jonathan Eskridge

Sharon Reed

Enid Sepulveda Rodriguez

Angela Walker

―Writing eases my suffering. When you use words, you're able to keep

your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.''

Gao Xingjian, first Chinese-language writer to win a Nobel Prize in Lit-

erature

Creative Writers write for a variety of reasons: because they must, be-

cause they feel a responsibility to the voices in their head demanding

attention, because they feel a responsibility to their subject matter and to

the lives they‘re recording, because they‘re trying to make sense of the world and their place in it, because their own identity is shaped by the

writing process. In this panel presentation and reading, five Union learn-

ers will discuss how their own identity is shaped through their writing

process, how identity construction shapes the development of their char-

acters, and the role writing plays in identity construction. They will also

read from their own creative works.

Some questions that will be explored in this panel discussion and reading

are: what role does the creative writer play in larger questions of identity

creation? How is the writer‘s identity shaped through the writing proc-

ess? How does the writing process inform and affirm identity construc-tion?


Presidential Note


―Leadership and Global Change‖

Roger Sublett

President of Union Institute & University

Distinguished Professor and Scholar in Leadership

Dr. Sublett is currently a senior fellow in the James MacGregor Burns

Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, and is a former senior

scholar at the Center for Ethical Leadership, Seattle, WA. In the past, he

has served as executive vice president for the Association for Continuing

Higher Education (ACHE) and as president of the Coalition for Adult Education Organizations (CAEO). Dr. Sublett is also a frequent speaker,

convener, and advocate in areas of adult and continuing education and

leadership.


Sound of Conversation


Facilitator: John Giordano

Based on the "Pecha Kucha" presentation format that originated in Japan,

the "Sound of Conversation" is a series of 10, three-minute presentations

by learners, faculty and staff highlighting emerging research interests.

These brief but informative presentations provide the opportunity for members of the Union community to become better acquainted with each

other's research, while provoking group and individual discussion

following the presentations. For participation, please sign up with John

Giordano, Cohort 5. Powerpoints are welcome--please bring your

presentation on a flashdrive and e-mail it to Jonathan Eskridge at

[email protected] by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, January 5,

2011.


Social Justice Roundtable


Facilitator: Karsten Piep

―Whither Social Justice?: A Roundtable Discussion‖

Diane Allerdyce

Norma Jenckes

Tony Kashani

Marcel Kitissou

Beverly Rubik

Christopher Voparil

In recent years, educational institutions across the United States have

started to replace references to "social justice" with the phrase "social

relevance." In part, this growing reluctance to use the phrase "social jus-

tice" in mission statements and school curricular appears to be a reaction

to conservative education reformers such as David Horowitz, who in

Indoctrination U: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom (2007)

asserts that "'social justice' education" is "a left-wing shorthand for oppo-

sition to American traditions of individual justice and free-market eco-

nomics" (107). As Horowitz sees it, schools and universities that make social justice "the central focus of their educational programs" are

"propagandizing" the view that "American society is an inherently

'oppressive' society that is 'systemically' racist, 'sexist,' and 'classist' and

thus discriminates institutionally against women, nonwhites, working

Americans, and the poor" (107). This argument seems to be of a piece

with Glenn Beck's recent advice to leave churches that advocate "social

justice" or "economic justice" on their websites. "Social justice and eco-

nomic justice," Beck told his audience last March, "are code words" for a

liberal, leftist agenda.

That the idea of social justice has apparently fallen into ill-repute in con-temporary political discourse offers both an opportunity and urgent need

for UI&U to redeploy the term by grounding it theoretically, historically,

politically in the rich traditions of social justice that exist.


800.486.3116

513.861.6400

www.myunion.edu/academics/cohort/

Cohort Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies

440 E. McMillian Street

Cincinnati, Ohio 45206-1925


Tenth Residency Conference (Jan 2011)

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