Illinois State University will host a two-day conference to explore how people see race and ethnicity in the time of Donald Trump.
Social, Ethnic, and Racial Boundaries on Campus and Community in the 21st Century will be February 9-10 in the Prairie Room of the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University. The conference is free and open to the public.
“This conference examines race, ethnicity, and microagressions in light of the new political developments in the United States, both local and national,” said conference organizer and Associate Professor of Anthropology Nobuko Adachi.
Each day will carry its own theme, with Friday dedicated to “Race and Immigration Under the Trump Administration” and Saturday examining “Microaggressions in Everyday Life.” Both days will include international scholars, speakers, and local community leaders who will explore issues through panels, roundtables dialogues, and films.
Topics will include speakers on guns and policing, Middle Eastern travel bans, undocumented students and immigration policy, and the impact of microaggressions on communities and higher education.
Friday’s lunch will include a free showing of the film And Then They Came For US. The documentary highlights the registration and incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, which bears an eerie resemblance to modern-day attitudes toward Muslim-Americans, and the Muslim travel ban.
The keynote address will be by Professor of Psychology Yolanda Flores Niemann of the University of North Texas, who will present “Subjective Experiences of Microaggressions from the Lenses of Others: Being an Ally and Developing Alliances Across and Within Demographic Groups” at the Saturday lunch session.
See a schedule of Friday’s events.
See a schedule of Saturday’s events.
Sponsors for the conference include Illinois State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Multi-Ethnic Cultural and Co-Curricular Programming Advisory Committee (MECCPAC), the School of Social Work, the Department of History, the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Department of Politics and Government, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The LGBT/Queer Studies and Services Institute, Milner Library, the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), and the Harold K. Sage Fund and the Illinois State University Foundation. The event is organized by the Ethnicity and Ethnography Laboratory and Research Center (EELRC) at Illinois State University.
