UVic hosts diversity forum

The University of Victoria will be hosting the seventh annual Provost’s Diversity Research Forum from January 29 to 30, 2014. Titled “Critical Conversations: Arts, Allies and Activism,” the forum will feature keynote speakers Denise Chong (The Concubine’s Children) and researcher/biographer Yvonne Shorter Brown (Dead Woman Pickney: A Memoir of Childhood in Jamaica), as well as sessions on a variety of topics of interest to UVic researchers and the community at large.
“This is an important opportunity for networking and learning more about the diversity and research happening on our campus,” says conference chair Grace Wong Sneddon. “Community engagement is a commitment and priority for UVic.” The sessions will include:

• “From the Heart”, how arts and activism converged in one local theatre production
• “First OUT,” how UVic is addressing issues of homophobia and transphobia
• “Racial, Religious and Other Forms of Otherness,” examining research into discrimination
• “A Conversation with Indigenous Artists,” including T’sartlip master carver Charles Elliott, Victoria Poet Laureate Janet Rogers and Iroquois/Mohawk visual artist Lindsay Delaronde

After seven years, Wong Sneddon feels the audience for the diversity forum has only grown. “Other groups in the community are looking at this as a professional development opportunity,” she says. “We have police officers from Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay and the West Shore coming and learning; we have people attending from Camosun College, the Justice Institute of BC and the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria. They see this as a chance to have those critical conversations with us, and take the findings back to their own units and organizations.”

The diversity forum opens with a reception and performance in First Peoples House, as well as Denise Chong’s keynote address and the presentation of the annual Diversity Writing and Spoken Word Awards.

The diversity forum is free to attend, and everyone is welcome to register. It is accessible to people of all abilities, as all presentation rooms are wheelchair-accessible and sign language interpretation will be provided at some sessions. For a complete list of sessions and times, please visit www.uvic.ca/diversityforum.
 

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