Marquette University: To host discussion on creating an intentional community at Symposium on Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, April 23

MILWAUKEE — Marquette University will host its fifth annual Symposium on Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice on Tuesday, April 23, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Alumni Memorial Union, 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave. This symposium serves as an “institutional examen,” a time to look inwardly at who we are and who we are called to be.

This year’s theme is “Building Bridges: Creating an Intentional Community.” In a deeply polarized national climate, we are called to walk in “right relationship” with each other, recognizing each other’s inherent dignity and centering our responsibility to engage each other with care, kindness and compassion.

Registration for this event is required and available online. Media interested in attending open parts of the symposium should contact Kevin Conway, associate director of university communication, at kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.

Dr. Kaye Whitehead, professor of communication and African and African American studies at Loyola University Maryland, will deliver a keynote address, while participants will engage in interactive workshops designed to build capacity for dialoguing across differences, as well as hear from campus leaders about our call to “walk with the excluded” during a lunch panel and discussion.

Whitehead is the founder and executive director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace and Social Justice. She is also a three-time New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and the award-winning radio host of “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA-FM 88.9. Her scholarship examines the ways race, class and gender coalesce in American classrooms, as well as in political and social environments.

The Symposium on Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice is hosted by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, in collaboration with the University Committee on Equity and Inclusion. Participants explore discrimination at the intersections of race, gender and sexuality; discuss how we are working to address these issues; and offer a vision for the future of equity and inclusion at Marquette.