The Academic Minute from 11.23 – 11.27
Monday, November 23rd
Gretchen Sorin – Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta
Driving While Black
There are many studies that address the significant role that the automobile played in American life. But, that research is confined to the way the automobile affected white Americans. African American newspapers, market studies, and black travel guides reveal an experience that was totally different for black Americans. The automobile ―the ultimate symbol of independence―profoundly changed the lives of black Americans by freeing them from humiliating and often dangerous travel on pubic conveyances and the racial epithets they regularly endured.
From the time that they arrived in North America freedom of mobility became an important aspect of liberty for black Americans because it was denied. Enslaved individuals needed permission to be away from their masters and had to carry paper passes or wear metal tags to prove they had permission to leave their owners’ property.
Tuesday, November 24th
Edna Chun – Columbia University
Systemic Racism
Dr. Edna B. Chun is an award-winning author and educational thought leader with more than two decades of strategic human resource and diversity leadership experience in public higher education. Dr. Chun has co-authored eleven books and numerous journal articles in the areas of talent management, human resources, and diversity. Two of her books, Are the Walls Really Down? Behavioral and Organizational Barriers to Faculty and Staff Diversity and Bridging the Diversity Divide: Globalization and Reciprocal Empowerment in Higher Education received the prestigious Kathryn G. Hansen Publication Award from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). The New Talent Acquisition Frontier, the first book to lay out a concrete roadmap to the integration of HR and diversity strategy, was awarded a silver medal in the 2014 Axiom Business Book Awards. Her co-authored books include Creating a Tipping Point: Strategic Human Resources in Higher Education and Leading a Diversity Culture Shift in Higher Education: Comprehensive Organizational Learning Strategies. Her most recent books are Rethinking Diversity Frameworks in Higher Education with Joe Feagin and Conducting an Institutional Diversity Audit in Higher Education with Alvin Evans. Dr. Chun holds the Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees with High Distinction from Indiana University, the Master of Arts from Columbia University, and the Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College. She currently serves as Chief Learning Officer for HigherEd Talent, a national diversity and human resources consulting firm. She is a sought-after speaker on talent management and diversity strategies and serves on a number of national advisory boards.
Wednesday, November 25th
Leanne Dzubinski – Biola University
Gender Bias
Leanne Dzubinski is Associate Professor of Intercultural Education in the Cook School of Intercultural Studies at Biola University. She teaches doctoral courses on education, leadership, and research methods for students working in multicultural settings. She completed her PhD in Adult Education and HROD at the University of Georgia. Her publications include studies of adult learning, online learning, qualitative research, women in leadership, and women in Christianity.
Thursday, November 26th
Maurice Stuckling – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Board Games
Maurice Suckling has worked in the video games industry for over twenty years, and on over fifty published video game titles. He has worked with publishers such as Atari, SONY, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Epic, Disney, 2K, Nintendo, Deep Silver, and the BBC. He’s worked as a producer, a designer, a voice director, a motion capture director, an animation director, but most often as a writer. His most recent game writing credits include Fortnite, Civilization VI, and Lost Words: Beyond the Page. He is also a professional board game designer, specializing in historical simulations. His third game is currently in production.
Friday, November 27th
Michael Mulryan – Christopher Newport University
Moral Education as a Solution to Social Division and Political Polarization
Michael J. Mulryan an Associate Professor of French and French Literature at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in French and History from Saint Bonaventure University, an MA in Museum Professions from Seton Hall University and an MA and PhD in French Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mulryan’s research focuses on the representation of the marginalized in eighteenth-century European literature and marginalized Europeans’ literary representation of their world. His work unveils how the oppression of social categories leads to revolution and political shifts. He recently co-edited a book on prison escape tales (Bucknell University Press, 2016) and co-edited and co-translated an educational treatise by Louis-Sébastien Mercier (MHRA 2020). His work on Enlightenment literature and culture has appeared in numerous national and international academic journals. He is currently working on a monograph on Mercier’s representation of social injustice in the city of Paris during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
