Kent State University welcomed participants from Miami University and Ohio University to its Kent Campus on Oct. 18-19 for a collaborative meeting of the minds. Reimagining the Academy: Building Community for Access and Transformative Change engaged attendees in workshops, panel discussions, presentations, roundtable discussions and networking sessions related to diversity equity and inclusion.
A workshop at the conference examined how dance can be used as a form of protest and activism with exerpts from Chilean American Choreographer Michael Uthoff's ballet Murmors of A Stream
An Inaugural Meeting
Prior to this conference, each of these universities held an annual conference on topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. This new alliance offers opportunities for greater sharing of knowledge and expertise and inclusion of a larger number of voices in the discussion.
Workshop sessions included a variety of topics
This discussion included themes and objectives from each institution’s original conference: Centering Anti-Racism in Institutional Excellence, Educators and Students as Activists and Diversity Leaders, and Building Community and Mutual Dialogue.
Amoaba Gooden, vice president of Kent State's Division of People, Culture and Belonging, speaks about the significance of this inaugural, collaborative conference.
Outstanding Leadership
The steering committee for the event included Amoaba Gooden, Ph.D., vice president for Kent State's Division of People, Culture and Belonging (formerly the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and M. Christina Alcalde, Ph.D., vice president for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion for Miami University.
Conference co-chairs were Morgan Woodin, MBA, coordinator, operations and special projects at Kent State, Hiram Ramirez, Ph.D., senior director, strategic initiatives in the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence at Miami University and Micah McCarey, Ph.D., director, LGBT Center and interim director, Office of Multicultural Success and Retention at Ohio University.
Keynote Speaker, Carol Anderson
The keynote address was delivered by Carol Anderson, Ph.D., an acclaimed author who has received numerous awards and accolades for her work as a historian of African American history and oppression and as an influential voice of civil and voting rights.
M. Christina Alcalde, vice president for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion for Miami University
In introducing Anderson as the keynote speaker, Miami University’s M.Christina Alcalde, quoted Kent State President Todd Diacon in saying that part of the purpose of this conference was to “Reimagine education not just for the fortunate few, but the meritorious many.”
Anderson greeted the people assembled in the Kent Student Center Ballroom with “It feels good to be back on Ohio. I was raised here. I was educated here. I was schooled here.”
She said that higher education was in “trying times” and that a convergence of trends, myths and “lies” have made this point in history “doubly difficult for higher ed.”
She identified these trends. “One is to think of education only as valuable when it leads to a specific vocation,” Anderson said. She spoke about the value of history majors, philosophy majors and English majors as examples. “How can anyone look at Ukraine and Russia and not see the power of history and knowing that history and being able to decode what it is we are seeing? Can anyone look at Gaza in Israel and not see how essential religious studies, history, geography and political science are? But what about the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection and not grasp the significance of communication, philosophy, religion, African American history, political science and sociology?”
The second trend Anderson identified was “anti-intellectualism masquerading as anti-elitism.” She spoke about politicians with “multiple Ivy League degrees” who “don their working-class clothes and then talk and belittle a college education and what’s happening in our universities.”
The third trend she spoke about was the idea that “you can only have diversity or excellence.” Anderson said “You do damage when you’re either diversity or excellence. No, it is both.” When you have either diversity or excellence, she said, “We do damage to an increasingly diversified society. We do damage to the kinds of knowledge that we need to understand how we navigate in these spaces. How do we achieve excellence? How do we assure that everyone can fly?”
‘Doing the Work’
Anderson thanked the participants for “inviting me for doing this work.” She said “This is the work of transformation. This is the work of community. This is the work of seeing that ‘beloved community,’ the one that Martin Luther King talked about.”