Ethnic Studies Leader to Address 19th Dialogue on Race

The Campus & Community Dialogue on Race, now in its 19th year, invites students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community members to present and attend programs that relate to racial justice and its intersections with all forms of oppression and resistance.

The objective is to create spaces and structures for reflection, analysis, dialogue, and positive strategies for change. The program is free and open to the public.

This year’s Campus & Community Dialogue on Race will be held across campus and in the community during the week of Oct. 30-Nov. 3. It will feature a keynote address by Melina Abdullah, womanist scholar-activist and Professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies at CSU Los Angeles. Abdullah was part of the historic victory that made ethnic studies a requirement in the Los Angeles Unified School District and was also among the original group of organizers that convened to form Black Lives Matter.

Her keynote address, “Beautiful Struggle: Toppling White Supremacy, Building Black Power,” will take place Monday, Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. in the Kate Buchanan Room.

Glenn Harris, president of the Center for Social Inclusion, will give a talk titled “Beyond the Status Quo: Community Benefits of Pursuing Racial Equity.” A prolific speaker and trainer, Harris has helped hundreds of organizations across the country center racial equity in their work. Sponsored by Equity Alliance of the North Coast, the talk will take place on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Humboldt County Office of Education, Sequoia Conference Center, 901 Myrtle Avenue, Eureka.

Javier Zamora will also give a poetry reading. Zamora has been invited by the Department of English as the Fall Visiting Writer and will give his reading on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. in the Library Fishbowl.

He was born in the small El Salvadoran coastal fishing town of La Herradura and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 9, joining his parents in California. He is a 2016-2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His much-anticipated new book “Unaccompanied” explores how immigration and the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War have impacted his family. In his poems, Zamora often engages history, borders, and memory.

The Campus & Community Dialogue on Race features more than 30 workshops and film screenings/discussions. The complete schedule is available here.

About the Campus & Community Dialogue on Race

HSU Campus & Community Dialogue on Race started in 1998, spurred by President Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race. Over the years, HSU has been committed to creating safe spaces for this dialogue. The dialogue provides an opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and the community to experience workshops, keynote speakers, poster sessions, panel discussions, and dialogues exploring the impact of racism.