2017 Conference
Bridging Divides, Becoming Allies
November 6 - 7, 2017 • Bone Student Center
In an era of racism, sexism, discrimination, and heightened tension across the country, there is a great need to provide dedicated time and space in our own community for dialogue and action towards unity. This conference hopes to bring together diverse groups of individuals from across our campus and the greater community to further understand and explore inequities and biases against marginalized groups and commit to continued action towards dismantling the systems that perpetuate these injustices on both individual and group levels. Systems of oppression have plagued our country and community for centuries. These systems include institutions such as schools, corporations, and our criminal and judicial structures.
Keynote Speakers
Carole Boston Weatherford
Monday, November 6
10:45 to 11:45 a.m.
New York Times best-selling author Carole Boston Weatherford has dozens of books, including Freedom in Congo Square, winner of Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honors and the Charlotee Zolotow Award; Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America, winner of an NAACP Image Award; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, winner of a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor and Flora Steiglitz Straus Award for nonfiction; Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, winner of an NAACP Image Award, Caldecott Honor Medal and Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration. Becoming Billie Holiday won a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Birmingham, 1963 won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the Jefferson Cup, The Sound that Jazz Makes won the Carter G. Woodson Award from National Council for the Social Studies, and Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People and Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins both won North Carolina Juvenile Literature Awards. Winner of the North Carolina Award for Literature and the Ragan-Rubin Award from the North Carolina English Teachers Association, Carole teaches at Fayetteville State University.
Franchesca Ramsey
Monday, November 6
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Franchesca Ramsey is an actress, writer and video blogger based out of New York City. With over 200,000 subscribers on her two YouTube channels, she produces original videos which include song parodies, impersonations, and original characters along with socially conscious and topical comedy sketches. In 2012 her viral video “Sh*t White Girls Say...to Black Girls” was viewed over 5 million times in just 5 days, garnering coverage on several outlets, including MSNBC, ABC, Ebony Magazine, The Daily Mail, and Anderson Cooper's talk show. Most recently, she was a writer and contributor for the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central. Today she's the host and head writer for the award winning web series, MTV Decoded.
Schedule
NEW! A printable version of the complete schedule is now available for download as a PDF file.
Day 1 - Monday, November 6
| Time | Event |
| 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. | Breakfast and Registration |
| 9:30 - 10:00 a.m. | Remarks from President Dietz |
| 10:00 - 10:45 a.m. | Opening |
| 10:45 - 11:45 a.m. | Keynote Speaker - Dr. Carole Boston Weatherford |
| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch and Student Panel |
| 1:15 - 2:15 p.m. | Concurrent Session 1 |
| 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. | Concurrent Session 2 |
| 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. | Student Performance; Keynote - Franchesca Ramsey |
Day 2 - Tuesday, November 7
| Time | Event |
| 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. | Breakfast and Registration |
| 8:45 - 9:45 a.m. | Concurrent Session 3 |
| 10:00 - 10:45 a.m. | Concurrent Session 4 |
| 11:15 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. | Lunch and Verdict Session |
| 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. | Concurrent Session 5 |
| 2:45 - 3:45 p.m. | Concurrent Session 6 |
| 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. | Closing Session |