The Ohio University Office for Diversity, Access and Equity is encouraging undergraduate students to submit works on diversity for its conference next quarter.
Submissions for OU's first undergraduate research conference on diversity may include essays, seminar and research papers and creative works such as poetry, performance art, student activism and film.
Students from OU's Athens campus, as well as its regional campuses, will attend the conference May 7 and 8. One of the goals of the conference is to bring all of OU's campuses together, said Winsome Chunnu, assistant director of the Multicultural Center.
The (Office for Diversity
Access and Equity) is new so it's an opportunity for students to get to know that this division exists as well as to provide some kind of space for understanding as to where our division fits in with the academic mission of the university
she said.
The conference is meant to be academic, and submissions will help teach others about diversity beyond its traditional linear definition
Chunnu said.
I think there definitely needs to be more education surrounding diversity
she said. We're hoping this will give our students the opportunity to express diversity as they see it. I think that it gives students more of a buy-in
because they feel like they have a voice and they have a role in how we move forward with this mission.
Brian Bridges, vice provost of the Office for Diversity, Access and Equity, said the conference was designed to showcase only undergraduate work in order to foster connections between learning and diversity.
Highlighting student work should be what this university is all about
Bridges said. It also helps (students) reflect on class work in terms of diversity.
Women's Center Director Susanne Dietzel said the conference would acknowledge undergraduate students as scholars, adding it can help prepare students for graduate school.
It's all about undergraduate education
she said. We want undergrads to recognize that they are scholars in their own right and that they have work that they can share with others and build on the knowledge shared during the conference.
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