January 25, 2019

Elms College to host national scholars for dialogue about race

REGIONAL
Staff report

 

CHICOPEE – The Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the College of Our Lady of the Elms will host its second annual Black Issues Summit in celebration of Black History Month from noon to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, in the Alumnae Library.

Diversity is an integral component of the Elms College experience. Guided by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the college hosts multicultural activities and events throughout the year. Each February, the college celebrates contributions that members of the black community make to society.

This year’s Black Issues Summit will once again bring national scholars specializing in a range of subjects to Elms for important dialogue with the college’s students, faculty, and staff, as well as the general public, about issues affecting the black community. The summit’s theme will be “Equity, Empowerment, Community, and Excellence,” with a focus on striving for equity “as we move toward justice for all.”

“The purpose of the Black Issues Summit is to provide an opportunity for meaningful dialogue about pertinent issues affecting the black community,” said Alaina DiGiorgio, director of diversity and inclusion at Elms. “This summit is a one-day gathering to openly examine and candidly discuss the numerous and complex issues surrounding the black community.”

In the spirit of interdisciplinary studies, the summit is open to everyone who is interested in issues of social justice, equality, and diversity.

The event will feature the following speakers:

 

Shirley Edgerton, who serves as cultural proficiency coach for Pittsfield Public Schools. She is the founder of the Women of Color Giving Circle of the Berkshires, as well as the Rites of Passage and Empowerment program, which is a holistic mentoring program for girls that includes college tours and international service learning projects. Edgerton also serves as a board member for the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.

 

 

 

Richard Haynes, who is the associate director of admissions for diversity at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Haynes worked for CBS Publishing from 1979 to 1986. His own company, Haynes Images, was established in 1986 and operated until 2005. He previously served as an adjunct professor at McIntosh College, a faculty mentor at UNH for their McNair Graduate Opportunity Program, an art instructor at the Currier Museum, an art teacher at East Side House Settlement, a videography instructor at the South Bronx Community Action Theater, and a visual illiteracy teaching assistant at PS6/Model Cities Program in New York.

 

 

 

Djanna Hill, who is an Elms alumna and a tenured professor in the department of secondary and middle school education at William Paterson University. She holds a doctorate in urban and multicultural education, and specializes in teacher preparation for urban contexts, womanist and black feminist theoretical frameworks, and multicultural science education. Her work on multicultural teaching, STEM education, and portraiture methodology has garnered several major grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Taub Foundation, and the New Jersey Department of Education. Hill is also a widely published author and editor. She earned her master of arts in teaching (MAT) from Elms in 1993, specializing in secondary education and biology.

 

 

 

Toussaint Losier, who is an assistant professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Losier holds a doctoral degree in history from the University of Chicago, and his research focuses on grassroots responses to the postwar emergence of mass incarceration in Chicago. At UMass Amherst, he teaches courses on African-American history, Black politics, criminal justice policy, and transnational social movements. His writing has been published in Souls, Radical History Review, The Journal of Urban History, Against the Current, and Left Turn Magazine. He is co-author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement with Dan Berger, and is preparing a book manuscript titled War for the City: Black Chicago and the Rise of the Carceral State.

 

 

Registration will begin at noon, and presentations will begin at 1 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided. Following the summit, attendees are invited to participate in a debriefing session to provide feedback and thoughts on the issues discussed.

All members of the Elms and greater Chicopee community are welcome. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Visit www.elms.edu/summit to register. Email diversity@elms.edu for more information.

To watch video from last year’s summit, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-aq0WW2U6s.