Multicultural Issues Committee
Guiding the library since 1990 in its
commitment
to
promote issues of diversity
Current Events
Through partnerships with other University committees, groups, or organizations, the Multicultural Issues Committee develops programs and activities that recognize, celebrate, and foster awareness of diversity, inclusiveness, and multiculturalism. The Multicultural Issues Committee promotes the use and understanding of specialized Library collections in support of those programs and activities. If you have ideas or suggestions for an event or program, please email Matt Ball.
Staff Education and Development also sponsors a monthly Issues in Cultural Diversity Brown-Bag Lunch. Suzanne Bombard facilitates books discussions as well as other topics of interest to the participants. Register for these brown bag lunches on the Library Training Calendar. To suggest topics for lunchtime discussion, email Suzanne.
November 12, 2007
Native American Heritage Month
Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi, and Powhatan Red Cloud-Owen (Mohawk-Chickahominy), Councilor of the Chickahominy Nation, will discuss contemporary issues affecting Virginia Indians. This event will be held in the Kaleidoscope Room in Newcomb Hall from 7:00-8:00. A reception will follow.
November 6, 2007
Opening Reception, The Dresser Trunk Project
The next exhibition in the U.Va. Art Museum's year-long series Forming American Identity: Our Southern Legacy will be The Dresser Trunk Project, featuring display trunks designed by architects from around the country, containing stories, photographs, maps, hotel registers, and computer generated models. Each trunk tells the story of a place of refuge in an era of segregation, from a hotel to a train station to a Negro League baseball park. The Dresser Trunk Project seeks to link these places together to bring into the present their location in architectural, musical, and cultural history.
Join U.Va. Art Museum curator Andrea Douglas and architecture professor William Williams as they introduce and preview this fascinating exhibition, Tuesday, Nov. 6th, 4:00-5:00, Clemons Library, Room 407.
November 5, 2007
Native American Heritage Month
On Monday, Nov. 5, Karenne Wood, Director of the Virginia Indian Heritage Program, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and Jeffrey Hantman, Associate Professor of Anthropology at U.Va., will speak on the history of Native Americans in Virginia, especially the Monacan Nation, the original inhabitants of the Charlottesville and Albemarle County area. This event will be held in the Kaleidoscope Room in Newcomb Hall from 7:00-8:00. A reception will follow. Sponsored by The American Indian Student Union at the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia Library Multicultural Issues Committee, and the University of Virginia Office of the Dean of Students.
October 29, 2007
"Birth of a Nation" film
The University of Virginia Library Multicultural Issues Committee, in conjunction with the U.Va. Art Museum, will screen D.W. Griffith's controversial film, "The Birth of a Nation," Monday, October 29th, 5:30 pm in Clemons Library room 407. See this highly-charged and controversial film within the context of the U.Va. Art Museum’s year-long series, "Forming American Identity: Our Southern Legacy," which investigates those things that make us particularly American – and Southern American.
Museum curator Andrea Douglas and art professor Carmenita Higginbotham will provide an introduction and follow-up discussion for the film, with a lead-in to the Museum's colloquium the following evening, "Cinematic Representations: Birth of a Nation & Within Our Gates". "Within Our Gates," directed by Oscar Micheaux, is the African-American response to "The Birth of a Nation" and will be screening at the Museum.
October 8, 2007
"Forming American Identity: Our Southern Legacy" reception
During this series, the Museum investigates those things that make us particularly American – and Southern American – using as catalysts three exhibitions:
- William Christenberry: Site/Possession
- The Dresser Trunk Project
- The Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art
Organized by Andrea Douglas, the Museum’s Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, the series also includes six colloquia touching on or drawn from various aspects of the exhibitions.
During this kick-off reception, Ms. Douglas will preview the series through images, offering background and contextual information, with a special emphasis during this event on the Christenberry exhibition.
The Multicultural Issues Committee will sponsor several more events throughout the year related to this ambitious program, including additional receptions that will focus on the The Dresser Trunk Project and The Landscape of Slavery exhibitions, and film screenings associated with two of the colloquia.
October 2, 2007
"Testimony" film
In our first event of the 2007/2008 school year, the University Library Multicultural Issues Committee is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the documentary film, "Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story", Tuesday, October 2nd at 6:00pm in the Newcomb Hall Theater. The screening will be followed by a question and answer period with Maria Guardado, the subject of the film, and filmmaker Randy Vasquez. A reception will be held before the screening.
This award winning documentary recounts the story of Maria Guardado, an activist and poet who received political asylum in the United States in 1983 after being tortured and left for dead during the 1980 El Salvadorian civil war. In the film, Ms. Guardado reveals how she recovered from her personal horror and how she continues her life as a political activist and poet in Los Angeles. During the question and answer period, Ms. Guardado and Mr. Vasquez will bring these experiences into the present and discuss these issues as they reflect on current international affairs.
Other co-sponsors include the Bolivar Network, the Office of Diversity and Equity, the Office of Student Affairs, and the Office of Student Life.
March 14, 2007
Yale Russian Chorus
The Yale
Russian Chorus will perform at the University of Virginia's chapel on March 14, 2006, from 4:30 to 7:30. This wonderful musical event is sponsored in conjunction with the exhibit "The Firebird and the Factory: Modern Russian Children's Books" In the Harrison Institute main gallery of the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library
Open Monday, November 6 through Monday, April 9, 2007.
April 26, 2007
Susan Brison and "The Art of Survival"
Susan J. Brison, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth University and author of Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self (https://www.dartmouth.edu/~brison/ ). In her book, she describes her brutal rape and near murder and how the experience itself and the process of recovery radically altered her identity and her perspective on the academic discipline of philosophy. Her book is widely read by people interested in the impact of rape and violence on individuals, on the testimony of survivors, and by people interested in new visions of philosophy framed within the context of real lives and real trauma.
She will give a talk at the UVa Bookstore on April 26th and will participate in a number of activities related to a community project called The Art of Surviving, sponsored by Virginia Sexual and Domestic Action Alliance ( http://www.vadv.org/ ). The Art of Surviving is a project involving the display of the art of survivors of sexual violence.
A summary of events held during past academic years can be viewed at:
fax: 434.924.1431