SRU hosting gender studies scholar for Diversity Management Series event

Slippery Rock University will host a Diversity Management Speaker Series event, March 3, about intersectionality, which refers to the discrimination and disadvantages that affect people from overlapping social categories, including gender and race.

Feb. 16, 2021

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Slippery Rock University will continue its Diversity Management Speaker Series, 4 p.m., March 3, with a virtual presentation titled "Intersectionality at the Crossroads of Gender and Race: Material Support Across Difference." Members of the SRU community can register for the event by completing an online form, after which they will receive a Zoom link via email to access the event.

The Diversity Management Speaker Series is designed prepare faculty and staff for the University's upcoming diversity and inclusion strategic planning process, initiated by the Office of the President in collaboration with Terrence Mitchell, SRU's special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion.

"The event is intended to help the SRU community understand current trends and research that will help us explore the different ways we can approach our work as is relates to diversity," Mitchell said. "This is important as we formulate our diversity plan, the outcomes we desire and overall what we want that to look like at SRU."

   BRENNAN

SRU has invited Melinda Brennan, assistant chair of the women's and gender studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to present on the topic of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a term that refers to the discrimination and disadvantages that affect people from overlapping social categories, such as race, class or gender, as well as people with disabilities or the LGBTQ+ community.

"Dr. Brennan will finesse the topic and focus on intersectionality by delivering a presentation that is cultural and philosophical, but also practical and strategic," said Cindy LaCom, SRU professor of nonprofit management, empowerment and diversity studies. "As a University, we have to ask ourselves questions related to diversity, equity and inclusion that will make us a more robust institution, how that will contribute to student learning outcomes, prepare them for better citizenry and create people who are more empowered and capable of recognizing and challenging discrimination."

LaCom, who is a member of SRU's Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Planning Committee, will serve as moderator of the March 3 event.

Brennan, who has a doctoral degree in gender studies from Indiana University, has research and teaching interests in women of color feminisms, critical race feminisms, queer of color critique, feminist pedagogies and theory, transnational feminisms and sexualities, Latinx and Muslim diasporic communities, immigration and citizenship policy and hate crimes.

For more information about the Diversity Management Speaker Series, contact Mitchell at  terrence.mitchell@sru.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Zackal | 724.738.4854  | justin.zackal@sru.edu