Disabilities, diversity, education and environmental racism are just a few of the many issues of concern on campus that will be discussed during the “Politics of Identity: Learning to Listen” conference, which begins today.
More than 200 concerned citizens and faculty are expected to attend the conference at the William W. Knight Law Center. The various topics will be analyzed through panel discussions, conference organizer Lorraine Brundige said.
“The main focus is to bring together diverse communities from the city of Eugene, the University and [Lane Community College], with some collaboration with [Oregon State University], in order to address the political and experimental issues surrounding identity in an ever-increasing diverse population,” Brundige said. “The main topics center on issues of race, racism and discrimination.”
Speakers from the University include Scott Pratt, an assistant philosophy professor, Mia Tuan, an assistant sociology professor, and Mark Tracy, the assistant dean of student life.
“Diversity questions on the University of Oregon campus have been an important issue over the last few years,” Pratt said. He said his discussion, “All Men are White,” will center on the issues of “whiteness.”
When asked what “whiteness” in his speech referred to, Pratt said, “That is the question.”
Phil Ferguson, a University associate professor of education and community support, said his discussion, “Disability and Education,” will focus on disabilities, which are often not grouped with diversity.
“It is important for all elements of diversity to come together and share their experiences,” he said.
Cheyney Ryan, a University philosophy professor, said diversity is directly related to the community.
“A principal focus of the conference is diversity as a project of community, hence as something which requires the capacity to listen to one another,” he said. “This seems like an easy thing, but in fact it is very difficult.”
Associate Professor of international studies Rob Proudfoot will deliver the keynote speech, “Shattering the Colonial Mind: Reclaiming and Remembering Sacred Landscape of Self, Spirit and Community.”
Lani Roberts, a philosophy professor at Oregon State, will end the conference Saturday night with a keynote address.
Roberts said her speech, “Social Construction of Race: All the Little Children of the World,” will “discuss the concept that race is not a biological but social construction.”
She said race follows a sort of social hierarchy, which is hard to dismantle.
“It is fundamentally immoral the way the human community divides itself,” she said. “It makes no sense to me why human beings are so cruel to one another.”
Roberts said most people who are high on the social ladder are unaware there is a division. She said the purpose of the conference is to reach out to those who are oblivious to this separation.
Brundige said she chose Proudfoot and Roberts to speak because they received high recommendations from students, faculty and administrators at their respective schools.
“These two individuals have gone beyond the bounds of academic and administrative duties in their effort to create a more diverse environment at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University,” she said.
Assistant philosophy Professor John Lysaker, who will be co-facilitating Pratt’s panel on “All Men are White,” said he will attend not only to educate others, but to learn more.
“Diversity has clearly been a central term in a number of discussions of what the University should be,” he said. “It would be important to discuss what diversity really means.”
Brundige said there is a need “to address the importance of changing social dynamics taking place in Oregon, and our inability to deal with these changes with the intent to foster solutions, whether in the form of less racism, curriculum needs or the much-needed addition of faculty of color to this campus.”