Community - NMU Events and Announcements

Community

Join us for the Diversity Common Reader 2023 Keynote! Elsa Sjunneson is an award winning Deafblind author and editor living in Seattle, Washington. Her fiction and nonfiction writing has been praised as “eloquence and activism in lockstep” and has been published in dozens of venues around the world. In 2022 her book, Being Seen won the Washington State Book Award for biography and memoir. She has been a Hugo Award finalist nine times, and has won three Hugo awards, an Aurora Award, and  and a BFA award for her editorial work.

When she isn't writing, Sjunneson works to dismantle structural ableism and rebuild community support for disabled people everywhere. Her work includes her debut memoir Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, her Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla novel Sword of the White Horse, and her episode for Radiolab “The Helen Keller Exorcism.”

Community

Nyshell dreamed of building a creative safe space where Black women can feel seen and celebrated.

Out of that dream came Socialight Society in Lansing, Michigan. Socialight Society is a local independent bookshop, celebrating Black women and Black literature where you can find classic, contemporary, and children’s titles predominately authored by Women of Color, who often lack representation in traditional bookstores.

Join us as Nyshell shares her journey to becoming an entrepreneur and activist and how she centers her work and her life on celebrating of Black Womanhood and inspiring the next generation of community builders, leaders, and activists.

Community

Dr. Abby Knoblauch presents a lecture on Fat language, rhetorics, and power in this session hosted by the Student Equity & Engagement Center, Feminism for All, and Diversity in Disability. Dr. Knoblauch specializes in feminist rhetorical theories and feminist pedagogies, embodied rhetorics, fat rhetorics, teacher development, and writing pedagogies and teaches at Kansas State University. This session delves into the world of fat studies giving participants a base level of understanding on the topic with time for dialogue and questions. 

Community

Beyond Body Positivity and Towards Body Liberation. Join us for a lecture that introduces concepts of fat liberation and explores the history of fat liberation and body positivity movements, the intersection of fat identities with other marginalized identities, and how fatphobia works in our society. 

Community

This session, with a focus for educators, explores the use of arts-based self-study to understand identity construction in the effort to dismantle racism and other systemic barriers in education. Two key moments are presented from the author's self-study research to examine the role of memory and emotion in the development of complex, nuanced antiracist identity. 

This session is led by a white queer abolitionist educator who currently works in the School of Education at Northern Michigan University.

Community

This session, with a focus for educators, explores the use of arts-based self-study to understand identity construction in the effort to dismantle racism and other systemic barriers in education. Two key moments are presented from the author's self-study research to examine the role of memory and emotion in the development of complex, nuanced antiracist identity. 

Community

Imposter syndrome is the inability to internalize a sense of accomplishment, often leaving people feeling like a fraud, unworthy, incompetent, or undeserving which can become. The workshop will take the form of small group discussions exploring anonymous personal narratives surrounding experiencing, upholding, and disrupting imposter syndrome. We will explore the difference between internal feelings of validation and the feelings that come with being marginalized within an organization. 

Community

Imposter syndrome is the inability to internalize a sense of accomplishment, often leaving people feeling like a fraud, unworthy, incompetent, or undeserving which can become. The workshop will take the form of small group discussions exploring anonymous personal narratives surrounding experiencing, upholding, and disrupting imposter syndrome. We will explore the difference between internal feelings of validation and the feelings that come with being marginalized within an organization. 

Community

Dr. Romero is an immigrant, Latinx, non-binary scholar who has integrated LGBTQ+ and gender-non conforming identities into their language classroom. In their presentation, they will discuss some of the best and worst practices for scholars who wish to integrate these and other affirming practices in their pedagogical approach.

Community

The UNITED Conference is Northern's day of diversity education. This conference is designed to bring both the NMU community and the greater Marquette community together to learn and dialogue around diversity, equity, & inclusion.

This year’s conference theme will be Writing Our Own Stories and will celebrate the 10th anniversary of NMU’s Diversity Common Reader Program. UNITED 2023 will feature workshops and presentations focused on self-authorship, diverse perspectives, and the voices of those often silenced. Programs will run from 8 am - 9 pm on Monday, March 20th.

Topics this year include social justice in athletics, fat studies, Implicit bias in the classroom, critical race theory, language deprivation, best practices in research for marginalized populations, and more!

Keynote Presentations By

Nyshell Lawrence
Celebrator, Creator & Curator, Socialight Society

Elsa Sjunneson
Professor, Historian, Media Critic, Author & Editor

Workshops By

Dr. Abby Knoblauch • Callie Youngman • Dr. Carter Wilson • Jaime VanEnkevort • Kedzie Stark •  Kenton Mack • Dr. Lau Romero • Lee Xiong • Virginia Keeler 

Access the Program Here