A panel of experts will discuss "What's the Real Story? Racial Profiling in America" from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, in the auditorium of O'Shaughnessy Educational Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Free and open to the public, the forum is sponsored by St. Thomas' Office of Institutional Diversity and the School of Law's Community Justice Project.
The forum is one of several fall semester lectures and programs that comprise the CommUNITY Series at St. Thomas this semester. The series, which has "Building a Socially and Intellectually Conscious Community" as its theme, is an expanded version of the CommUNITY Week programs held in recent years.
Panel members for the Oct. 20 forum come from the fields of education, law, human rights, law enforcement, the media and the community.
Panel members are:
- Judge Pamela Alexander, executive director of the Minnesota Council on Crime and Justice;
- Michael Jordan, director of the city of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights;
- Steve Smith, a civil rights attorney who practices in the Twin Cities;
- Mahmoud El-Kati, a retired member of the Macalester College History Department;
- Leola Johnson, associate professor and chair of Macalester's Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies Department;
- Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a member of the St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies faculty.
Tanya Gladney, of member of the St. Thomas Sociology and Criminal Justice faculty, will introduce the topic. Moderator for the discussion will be Artika Tyner, a fellow with the St.Thomas Community Justice Project.
The program will include a reception.
Remaining programs in the 2009 CommUNITY Series are:
- Melisa Rivière, a Latina hip-hop scholar and doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota, will discuss her research at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in Room 100 of McNeely Hall, St. Paul campus.
- A panel will discuss the challenges of veterans coming home after military service at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, in a location to be announced on the St. Paul campus.
- Mixed Blood Theater will stage "Theory of Mind," a play about a young man with Asperger's Syndrome, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the auditorium of O'Shaughnessy Educational Center, St. Paul campus.
- A celebration for Native American Heritage Month will be held from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in the auditorium of O'Shaughnessy Educational Center, St. Paul campus.
More information about programs in series can be found at the CommUNITY Web site.
