To sign up for the dinner or to get a hijab visit the . Hijabs can be picked up at College Coffee on Feb. 14 and Numen Lumen on Feb. 16. Dinner will take place in the McBride Gathering Space at 6 p.m. on Feb. 16.

Starter questions are provided, and Human Book volunteers represent diverse walks of life and identities across race, religion, family background, sexual orientation, gender, profession, hobbies, class, disability, skill set, and additional aspects of what it means to be human!

The Human Library will take place on Jan. 5 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Belk Library.

Each session will focus on a topic and short reading that the faculty member has chosen because it has been especially insightful or even transformative for students studying concepts around human differences. The aim is for faculty and students to examine and learn from critical academic discourse on diversity-related topics and then reflect together as a campus community on the importance of this intellectual work in transforming our campus and communities. You can register for one of the sessions here.

Social Construction of Race: Moving from “Not Real” to Reality

facilitated by Assistant Professor Jessica Carew in Alamance 203

In the United States context, we speak of race as though it is a biological reality without recognizing the ways in which the nation worked to construct it. This session will examine the “Frankenstein” nature of the development, permanence, and importance of race in the U.S.

People Diversity in U.S. Foreign Policy

facilitated by Associate Professor Rod Clare in Alamance 206

When speaking about diversity, Americans tend to look solely inwards. What does it mean when we look at how diversity plays a role in American foreign affairs? What do we mean by diversity and does it have different parameters for the nation as opposed to its relations to the outside world? Does it make a difference and if so, how? These questions and others are what will be explored in Professor Rod Clare’s reading and discussion on the topic of diverse diversity in American foreign relations.

The War on Compassion

facilitated by Associate Professor Samantha DiRosa in Alamance 204

This session is based on the Carol J. Adams article of the same name, which controversially compares confined animal feeding operations to human genocide and speciesism to racism as a lens to critically discuss objectification and normalized violence.

Living and Learning in the Contact Zone

facilitated by Professor Kenn Gaither in Alamance 205

The session will use Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of a ‘contact zone’ to explore differences within and among communities. The seminar will apply Pratt’s notion of contact zones to the places we live and learn, producing moments that range from “rage, incomprehension and pain” to “revelation, mutual understanding and new wisdom” (p. 39).

Unconscious and Semi-Conscoius Bias

facilitated by Assistant Professor Raj Ghoshal in Alamance 218

We all like to think of ourselves as fair-minded, but social science research shows that even well-intentioned people are susceptible to unconscious and semi-conscious biases around race, gender, age and more. This interactive session explores how these biases affect us and begins to engage the question of how we can address them. Please bring a laptop or iPad if possible, but not required.

Disability Rights: Can Higher Education Aim Higher?

facilitated by Associate Professor Julie Lellis in Alamance 215

This session will look at disability rights within the United States, and it will focuse on a case study looking at how UNC-Chapel Hill handled the passage of the Americans with Disabilites Act of 1990.

Bodies, Power and Gender

facilitated by Associate Professor Shannon Lundeen in Alamance 202

In this session, we will explore philosophical questions surrounding embodiment, gender difference and gender inequality. Our discussion will be rooted in Iris Marion Young’s essay “Throwing Like a Girl,” which analyzes the way in which body comportment (the way that bodies move) reflects and perpetuates gender inequality. We will ask how our understandings and experiences of space and movement illuminate systematic inequality — and whether they also have the potential to undermine inequality.

We Who Believe in Freedom: Race, Mothering, and Raising Black Sons

faciliated by Assistant Professor Cherrel Miller-Dyce in Alamance 301

“Until the killing of black men, black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother’s sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.” – Ella Baker

In 2013, Norris was named host and special correspondent for NPR. While on sabbatical, Norris spent a time traveling the country and developing two successful initiatives: The Race Card Project and NPR’s Backseat Book Club. Her new role will allow her to continue this work while producing in-depth segments for all NPR programs.

Before joining NPR, she served as a correspondent for ABC News, where she reported extensively on education, inner-city issues, the national drug problem, and poverty. While at ABC, she earned an Emmy Award and Peabody Award for her contribution to the network’s coverage of 9/11.

In her 2010 book, “The Grace of Silence: A Memoir,” Norris focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of the Obama presidential election, and explores her own family’s racial legacy. Tom Brokaw says the memoir makes her personal story a universal one: “Michele Norris takes us on a riveting personal journey from north to south and back again through the tangled landscape of race in America — and teaches anew about the pain and possibilities of our past and future.” It was named one of the year’s best books by The Christian Science Monitor.

Tickets for the Martin Luther King event will be available in late November.

Willy Wilkinson is an award-winning, mixed-heritage, Asian American, transgender writer, public health consultant, cultural competency trainer and spoken-word performer. He is author of the Lambda Literary-award winning book “Born on the Edge of Race and Gender: A Voice for Cultural Competency,” which explores the ambiguities and complexities of mixed, trans and disability experience within a cultural competency framework.

Reading excerpts from his writing, Wilkinson will use these passages as a jumping off point for an engaging discussion about culturally competent approaches to social interactions, community membership, classification systems and services.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Gender and LGBTQIA Center