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Speakers Series

To reach a larger number of students than possible during the mid-May DWDIs and to provide ongoing opportunities for the entire WIU community to benefit from the research of scholars and the experience of a variety of people in multicultural education, the ECDP sponsors presentations and workshops by leaders in social justice and equity education who come from a variety of disciplines including anthropology (the late Dr. John Ogbu), counseling (Dr. Thomas Parham), Latino/a studies (Dr. Jeanett Castellanos), Native American studies and education (Dr. Joel Spring), psychology (Dr. Laurence Steinberg), public policy and educational policy (Dr. Antonia Darder and Dr. Gary Orfield), sociology (Dr. Troy Duster), and Ms. Janice Mandell (theatre).

Since 2005, many of these educators have not only given presentations or facilitated workshops on WIU’s Macomb or Quad Cities campus but have also agreed to have their presentations taped and made available to WIU personnel via the library and Multicultural Resource Center. In addition, ECDP funds have made it possible to develop and distribute a series of interviews with a wide range of cultural diversity scholars: Dr. Shakti Butler, director of Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible;  cultural critic Dr. Henry Giroux, author of over fifty books including Disposable Youth, Racialized Memories, and the Culture of Cruelty; Dr. Heather Hackman, consultant and educator whose focus is social justice education theory and practice; Dr. Maulana Karenga, author of works on classical African ethics and Black studies; Dr. Pedro Noguera, urban sociologist, educator, and author of The Trouble with Black Boys…and Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education; historian Ronald Takaki (now diseased), author of A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America; Dr. C. T. Vivian, Civil Rights Movement leader and proponent of nonviolent social engagement; and Mr. Tim Wise, lecturer, activist and author whose latest book is Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority. Dr. Adams has conducted the interviews.

This fall the ECDP collaborated with WIU history professor Dr. Peter Cole to bring Professor Rozell “Prexy” Nesbitt to campus to meet with students in several classes and to discuss “Footsoldiering for Peace: From Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela and Samora Machel” at a 7:00 p.m. public presentation in Morgan Hall 109 on Tuesday, October 23.  Currently teaching African history at Columbia College in Chicago and at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, Mr. Nesbitt has 40 years of experience as an activist, educator, and advocate of cultural diversity and social justice.

Plans are underway to bring Ms. Janice Mandell and several graduates of her theater program to the Quad Cities on Saturday, April 20, 2013 to conduct an all-day workshop based on Augusto Boal’s use of creative interpretations of texts, including newspaper items, book chapters, and visual images to spark interest, introduce new perspectives, and deepen understanding of equity, diversity, and social justice. Ms. Mandell and her team facilitated two workshops on the Macomb campus in 2009 and 2010, respectively, generated a significant amount of energy and enthusiasm, and left participants with a number of innovative instructional activities they could incorporate into their classrooms. Dr. Carla Paciotto, Educational and Interdisciplinary Studies, participated in both of these earlier workshops and is helping to coordinate the 2013 event.