Scholar Clarke to be MLK keynote speaker

Dr. Clifton Clarke

Dr. Clifton Clarke, a prominent global scholar, pastor, educator, missionary, community leader, and professor of religion and intercultural studies, will be this year’s keynote speaker for Saint Michael’s College’s 28^th Annual MLK Convocation. His Monday afternoon talk in the campus chapel on January 20 launches a week of speakers, film, poetry and panel discussions through January 24 promoting better understanding on issues of bias, prejudice and racism.

The theme for the week, based on Clarke’s keynote, is: “We Are What We Watch, Hear, and Learn: The influence and Power of Hate.”  Later in the week on Thursday, January 23, author and scholar Dr. Alicia Brunson will give a luncheon talk, “Teaching Students to Check their Bias: Strategies for a bias-free Curriculum and campus”; and then a 7 p.m. keynote titled “Prejudice in the Press as Practices of Oppression: Investigating Bias in Coverage of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Religion.”

Following are details of the week’s program:

Monday, January 20

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Clifton Clarke is a Global scholar, pastor, educator, missionary, community leader, and professor of religion and intercultural studies. He served as a professor and director of the Department of Intercultural Theology Project at the University of Nottingham, and as a visiting professor at Providence College, Trinity International University, and Dominion University. He is currently the associate dean of the William E. Pannell Center for African American Church Studies and associate professor of Black Church studies and world Christianity at the Fuller Seminary.

• Faculty/Staff Luncheon – 11:45 a.m., Dion Student Center – Dr. Clarke will speak about “Overcoming the impact of unconscious and conscious bias in classrooms and college campuses.”

• MLK Convocation – 4:30 p.m., Chapel of St Michael the Archangel – Keynote: “We Are What We See, Hear, and Learn: Reflection on the influence and power of prejudice, bias, and racism in shaping who we are.”

Tuesday, January 21

Common Text Movie & Discussion: American Son – 6 p.m., McCarthy Arts Center

Wednesday, January 22

Panel on film  American Son and the impact of stereotypes and prejudice – 7 p.m., Dion Student Center – “Can Prejudice and Stereotypes Kill?: A Conversation on the Wages of Blackness and the Blindness of the Privilege.”

• Panelists: Saint Michael’s Professors Robert Niemi (English), Patrick Standen (philosophy), Robert Brenneman (sociology/criminology), and Patricia Delaney (anthropology).

Thursday, January 23

Dr. Alicia Brunson

Sources of Bias and Strategies for freeing our minds

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Alicia Brunson, co-author of Prejudice in the Press?: Investigating Bias in Coverage of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Religion,  Dr. Alicia Brunson is faculty in the sociology and anthropology department at Georgia Southern University. Her work focuses on race and ethnicity, media literacy and representation. She has authored many articles and co-edited many books, and is widely recognized and respected in her field.

• 11:45 a.m. Faculty/Staff Luncheon – “Teaching Students to Check their Bias: Strategies for a bias-free Curriculum and campus”
• 7 p.m. Keynote – “Prejudice in the Press as Practices of Oppression: Investigating Bias in Coverage of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Religion” — Dion Family Student Center Roy Room (both events).

Reuben Jackson

Friday, January 24

Poetry Slam: Mic-Andre & Associates and Reuben Jackson.  McCarthy Recital Hall, 7 p.m.