The Office of the Provost and the Indiana University Bloomington Diversity Committee invite you to this event to be held Wednesday, March 10, 2010, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at IU Alumni Hall.

On September 9, 2009, during a joint session of Congress while President Obama was delivering a speech on health care, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted to the President, "You lie!" Four days later, on September 13, rapper Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Awards in Radio City Music Hall. And Congressmen and women at town hall meetings have been shouted down. Are such acts aberrations? Are they emblematic of a new cultural civility? To what extent are topics such as education, identity and belonging, immigration, economics, fear over who owns America, who may speak on behalf of the country, and power and race involved? To what extent is IU Bloomington implicated? Panelists and audience members will grapple with what recent issues and events tell us about the practice of reasonable and worthwhile public discourse and behavior in civic culture.

Panel members will be:

• Gerardo Gonzalez, Dean, School of Education
• Michael Grossberg, Sally M. Reahard Professor of History & Professor of Law\Director, Political & Civic Engagement Program (PACE)
• Arlene Diaz, Associate Professor of History
• Valerie Grim, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies
• Joan Linton, Associate Professor of English
• Eric Love, Director, Office of Diversity Education
• Brandon Johnson (student), Exercise Science
• Rachel Kubacki (student), Communication and Culture
• Moderator/commentator: Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Associate Professor of Communication and Culture

For more information, contact Calloway-Thomas at 812-855-0524 or calloway@indiana.edu

Revised: February 17, 2010

Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs
Bryan Hall 115, Bloomington, IN 47405-7000, USA
(812) 856-5700

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