Sustainability
celebrating scholarship &
engagement
Imagination and Innovation
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties February 7, 2012 These events were coordinated by Professor of History Cynthia Koepp and Associate Professor of Political Science Susan Tabrizi.
A Historical Beginning Activism Symposium
The presentations that made up the first Celebrating Scholarship and Engagement day focused on civil rights and civil liberties— essentially, what are the freedoms that we have, and how and when are we using them? The morning opened with a presentation titled “The Woman Question: How Women’s Rights Emerged from the Anti-Slavery Movement,” given by Meghan Barbay of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.
Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Women and Gender
Through an in-depth talk accompanied by historic photos, the audience heard brief biographies of leaders in the women’s rights movement as well as formative moments in their lives and descriptions of major events during the fight for the rights of mistreated Americans. From the burning of Pennsylvania Hall to the World Anti-Slavery Convention to the Seneca Falls Convention, Barbay’s discussion addressed the long, complex beginning of a movement, and the audience responded with a number of insightful questions, continuing the discussion with Barbay afterward.
Displaying Opportunity Between 11:15 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the upper and lower atria of Stratton Hall were crowded and noisy with discussion. More than two dozen posters lined the walls, describing internships and thesis work—the participants each stood by to explain their work and answer questions. The internships included a wide range of practical programs and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. A few examples include the Public Leadership Education Network seminars in Washington, D.C., the Auburn Memorial Hospital and Pulmonary Associates of
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Northern New York, the Daktari Bush School and Wildlife Orphanage and the Mars Desert Research Station. All described instructive, life-changing experiences. Posters about sociology and anthropology thesis work also described interesting and relevant research. The projects focused on areas such as indigenous cultures’ portrayal in museums, social activity in assisted-living facilities, archaeology and college preparedness, demonstrating how the methods of the field can be applied to contemporary institutions and careers.
Telling Histories At 11:30 a.m., three history majors from this year’s senior class gave presentations of their research in Stratton’s E. Margie Matthews Filter Hostetter ’62 Lecture Room. Their hours of thorough research showed in the brief time that they had to showcase it; brief interviews with the presenters can be found on pages 20-21.
What Does a Banned Book Sound Like? During lunch, students and faculty joined together for a reading of books that have been recently banned from school curriculums in Arizona. “In 2010, the Arizona legislature banned the teaching of Mexican American Studies in public schools; in 2012 the Tucson Unified School District went into classrooms and removed books, sometimes from students’ hands. Wells students read aloud from some of those works to draw attention to the censorship that has not been given enough national attention,” said Lisa Hall, associate professor of women’s studies.