Twenty-four participants representing students, faculty, and staff from across campus met by Zoom to discuss the movie Just Mercy on Tuesday evening, July 7. The talk ran for over two hours with wonderful discussion about the film and how we can work to create a more inclusive and just community on campus. The event was organized by the English Department and moderated by doctoral student Karen Griscom.
The recorded discussion will be available as soon as possible. We hope the group keeps growing to produce a greater sense of unity and understanding at IUP and beyond.
Our next discussion will take place July 21, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. English doctoral student Len Lawson suggested the focus, which will be the film Dear White People, available on Netflix. We are also suggesting people look at some clips from the Whiteness Project, a series of short discussions on race from young white people. It is easily accessible just by googling the title. People can then choose whatever person to listen to when they wish. Multiple videos from the project are also available on YouTube.
For the July 21 discussion, please register by contacting English Department graduate programs secretary Peggy Kane at pkane@iup.edu to get the meeting and participant ID numbers. Also, keep in touch with the group's plans and make your own suggestions for discussion at the IUP Forum for Building Social Understanding Facebook page. You can also provide questions and ideas to Dr. Tom Slater at tslater@iup.edu.