Spring 2022
Queer Futures: Media and Communication at the Intersections
Wednesday, April 6
Thursday, April 7
The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Moody College of Communication presents the second annual Diversity in Media Symposium, “Queer Futures: Media and Communication at the Intersections”. The annual symposium is dedicated to exploring an aspect of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and social justice across the media ecosystem.
This virtual event will feature practitioners from LGBTQIA+ communities operating across the media and communication landscape. Conversations will highlight the layered representations of queer communities throughout the media and communication industry and emphasize meaningful intersections with issues of economic justice, climate justice, racial justice, health justice, migrant justice, and more.
Moments in Time: Eli Reed and Jamel Shabazz
Wednesday, March 30
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm CST
The Moody College Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and School of Journalism and Media present Moments in Time: Eli Reed and Jamel Shabazz, a conversation with two photographic legends. The two pioneering African American photographers will reflect on their respective artistic journeys, using photography as a medium to creatively document and shed light upon diverse communities around the globe.
The event is moderated by Ja’nell N. Ajani, curator of Jamel Shabazz’s Peace to the Queen: A Retrospective at the Carver Museum and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of American Studies.
Fall 2021
The Black College Experience: A Panel Discussion with Black Faculty and Students
Wednesday, October 20
6:30 pm - 7:30pm CST
One of the staple readings of the Moody College Honors Program has been the critically acclaimed memoir “Between the World and Me,” a powerful reflection on the legacy of white supremacy in America. To supplement our conversations in class, this panel discussion will focus on one of the themes of the book: the author’s transformative experience attending Howard University. Our faculty panelists, like Coates, have attended historically Black colleges as well as small liberal arts colleges and state schools. At UT, where our mission is to “transform lives for the benefit of society,” what is the experience like for Black students? Is it transformative in the ways that Howard was for Coates? Is it transformative in the way that it often is for other UT students? What is liberating and what is oppressive? How do students navigate white spaces on campus and classrooms? And what can all students and faculty learn from their stories? Please join us on October 20 for this moderated webinar discussion with Black faculty and students from the Moody College of Communication.
Faculty Panelists
Dr. Natalie Tindall, Professor and Director of the School of Advertising and Public Relations
Dr. Sean Upshaw, Assistant Professor, Advertising and Public Relations
Dr. Ya'Ke Smith, Associate Professor in RTF and Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Moody College of Communication
Student Panelists
Morgan Severson, Journalism, Moody Honors, Sophomore
Gregory Phea, Comm Studies, Moody Honors, Plan II, Senior
Tarniesha Floyd, Radio-TV-Film, Moody Honors, Sophomore
Moderators
Munji Nfor, Chair, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Moody College Honors Student Council
Dave Junker, Director, Moody College Honors Program
Podcasting The Black Experience: A Virtual Conversation with the hosts of JADE & XD and Therapy for Black Girls
Tuesday, October 19
2:00 pm - 3:15 pm CST
Podcasting is a digital conversation space that features news, public opinion and cultural insight on various topics. The panel guests will share how podcasting as a medium shapes their branding and visibility, and appeals to communities of color. The event will feature in-person and virtual participation options.
Panelists
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, host of Therapy for Black Girls
Jade and X.D., co-hosts of Jade and X.D. podcast and the Jade and X.D. Variety Show
Moderator
Sr. Sean Upshaw, Assistant Professor, School of Advertising and Public Relations
Where
CMA 3.124 (in-person audience) or Join Stream (virtual)
Spring 2021
Confronting Anti-Asian Racism: A Bystander Intervention Workshop
Monday, March 29 | 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm CST
Tuesday, March 30 | 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm CST
This digital workshop is open to all current UT students, staff and faculty with limited capacity via ZOOM. Confronting Anti-Asian Racism is a 1.5 hour interactive workshop that will lead participants through the history of anti-Asian xenophobia in the US as it relates to the present day Asian American experience. This historical context will provide a foundation for attendees to practice identifying and interrupting anti-Asian bias through the BeVocal bystander intervention model. The workshop requires active participation in small groups, and working through real-world scenarios of microaggression and covert/overt anti-Asian racism.
Diversity in Media Symposium | Moody College of Communication
Is this Black Media Renaissance Real?
Thursday, March 25
10:00 am - 5:00 pm CST
The Moody College Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will present the first annual Diversity in Media Symposium on Thursday, March 25, 2021. Each academic year, this symposium will dedicate itself to exploring an aspect of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and social justice across the media ecosystem.
This year’s virtual symposium titled “Is this Black Media Renaissance Real?” will focus on race in the media, specifically Blackness, and its re-emergence in popular discourse over recent years. What will the conversation about race in the media sound, look and feel like in 5 years...10 years' time? This symposium will place academic scholars, artists, journalists, and an array of media professionals in conversation with the goal of exploring the roots of this question and offering paths forward from their differing vantage points.
“Who Run the World?” Black Women’s Voices in Popular Music
A Music Listening Session and Panel Discussion with Black Women Scholar
Monday, March 1
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm CST
Panelists
Shirley Thompson, Ph.D., American Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies
Traci-Ann Wint, Ph.D., Lecturer, African and African Diaspora Studies
Skyller Walkes, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, College of Pharmacy
Moderators
Ya’Ke Smith, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Moody College of Communication
Dave Junker, Director Moody College Honors Program
In racial justice movements as well as in popular music, Black women have been at the center of political action and artistic creativity. Yet their voices have rarely been given their just recognition. Perhaps this is about to change. Does the increased visibility of Black women in popular music – along with recent films on Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Ma Rainey – suggest a corrective to this history and a new era of greater equity and inclusion? Artistically, culturally and politically, what have Black women been telling us through their music over the years, and what should we be listening for today? In this special panel of Black women scholars and music fans, we’ll address these and other questions by listening to and discussing selected tracks from important and overlooked Black women artists from jazz to neo-soul, and from hip hop to the rich musical mix of the Black diaspora.
This event is sponsored by the Moody College Honors Program; the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Moody College of Communication; and the Center for Women and Gender Studies.
State of Black UT
February 10-12, 2021
Virtual Three-Day Event
Zoom Webinar and Facebook Live
During a time in our country when race and racial injustices are top of mind for many people and organizations, the Black Studies Collective at the University of Texas at Austin finds it imperative to engage the Longhorn community in collective conversations that lead to fostering a more open and supportive campus for the UT Black community. The State of Black UT is a three-day event that will facilitate discussions and exploration of the work UT has done, is doing, and needs to do to create an inclusive campus. State of Black UT will centralize discussion and unify efforts being made to foster a supportive learning, teaching and working environment for the Black UT community.
Fall 2020
30 Years of Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
Featuring: Ya’Ke Smith, Christen Smith, Rich Reddick and Roger Reeves
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm CST
If you browse any of the Black Lives Matter playlists trending on Spotify, you’re sure to find Public Enemy and their Black power anthem “Fight the Power” high in the cue. If music is a source of your ‘woke’ education in the year 2020 – and why shouldn’t it be? -- then there’s no better place to start than Public Enemy’s 1990 masterpiece, Fear of a Black Planet, which helped lead a revival of black consciousness in hip hop and beyond.
What makes this album so significant politically and so engaging musically? How did particular songs fulfill the group’s mission to “reach the bourgeois and rock the boulevard,” as Chuck D rapped in an earlier song? How are these songs in dialogue with our present moment and how are current artists answering the call PE issued 30 years ago? Black scholars and hip-hop fans Ya’Ke Smith, Richard Reddick, Christen Smith and Roger Reeves will hold forth on these and other questions in this virtual listening session and roundtable discussion, Wednesday, Nov. 18. JOIN US!
Civic Saturday: Post-Election Processing
Featuring: Stephen Vladeck, Dr. Bethany Albertson, and Dr. Art Markman
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
7:00 pm CST
Civic Saturday. The election happened. Let's unpack the practical law behind election confirmations. How are you digesting the election? We'll discuss ways to process it all. This multifaceted program will include poetry, comedy, and in depth discussions with faculty and leaders in the field, as well as student leaders.
Let's Talk About Integrity and Race: Ijeoma Oluo, author of “So You Want to Talk About Race"
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm CST
Ijeoma Oluo, the New York Times bestselling author of" So You Want to Talk About Race", will speak Nov. 10 via Zoom to an audience of University of Arkansas faculty, staff and students and community members from Northwest Arkansas as part of the semester-long Let’s Talk About Integrity and Race program by the Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Still Hidden Figures: Black Women in the Workplace
35th Annual Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights
Thursday, November 5, 2020
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm CST
Join VP for Diversity and Community Engagement Dr. Leonard Moore in a conversation with Yamiche Alcindor, PBS political correspondent, about her career and challenges covering the White House. In addition to a special performance and the student legacy award winners, the symposium will feature an interactive conversation about Black women’s experiences in the workplace.
Seminar with Tyrone Porter: Cultural Tax: The Cost of Being the Only or the Few
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm CST
What’s the price you pay when you walk into a room? For Black STEM students and professionals—as well as individuals from other underrepresented groups—there’s a cost to entering the classroom, lab, conference, and more. Tyrone Porter, principal investigator at Boston University, has paid this tax on countless occasions in his STEM career. His experience, while not unique, provides a deeper look into what many students and professionals also encounter. Porter offers his best prescription for confronting what can often be a silent burden and putting a stop to the cultural tax many pay.
Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace – Bring your authentic self to work
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm CST
Hear from companies committed to diversity and inclusion. Panelists will share the great ways their organizations empower them to bring their authentic self to work.
A Conversation About Diversity & Journalism
Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecture with Washington Post's new Managing Editor for diversity and inclusion, Krissah Thompson.
Friday, Oct 9, 2020
1:00 pm CST
Join us for the annual Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecture with special guest, Krissah Thompson. Krissah Thompson is The Washington Post’s Managing Editor of Diversity and Inclusion. She is the first Black woman to hold the Managing Editor title at the organization. She began her career at The Washington Post in 2001 and has held multiple roles including intern, Business reporter, covering presidential campaigns and writing about civil rights and race. Before becoming an editor in the Style section, she covered the first lady’s office, politics and culture. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and College of Liberal Arts Plan II honors program. She also earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.
The discussion will be moderated by journalism professor, Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez. Discussion questions can be emailed to journalism@austin.utexas.edu.
Realigning Purpose: Resistance and Persistence
Friday, October 9, 2020
9:00 am - 5:00 pm CST
Hosted by the Texas Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (TADOHE), this year’s Fall Summit theme, Realigning Purpose: Resistance and Persistence, reflects current challenges and priorities faced by many of our student communities who are struggling to address issues of racial injustice, violence and pandemic exhaustion. This event seeks to motivate and inform Higher Education D&I leaders about strategies for supporting holistic student well-being and advancing the cause of justice on our campuses and in our communities.
Being Well in the Midst of Racial Trauma
Monday, October 5, 2020 from 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm CST
Friday, October 23, 2020 from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm CST
The EAP is offering a workshop to faculty and staff impacted about race-based trauma. This workshop will focus on understanding the impact that racial trauma may have on your mental health and learning grounding techniques for restoring your wellness.
Sporting Blackness
Thursday, September 24
3:30 - 4:45 pm CST
Join the Department of Radio-Television-Film and the Center for Sports Communication & Media for a panel discussion on Dr. Samantha N. Sheppard's new book, Sporting Blackness: Race, Embodiment, and Critical Muscle Memory on Screen (University of California Press).
Tuesday, September 22
4:30 p.m. CST
A conversation hosted by the colleges of Natural Sciences and Liberal Arts, learn about a new research-practice partnership at UT in which STEM faculty will play a central part.
Speakers include: Carol Dweck of Stanford University, Mary Murphy of Indiana University, and David Yeager of UT Austin.
Thursday, October 8
3:30 - 5:00 pm CST
In order to learn more about the experiences of our international students, and to see how much interest there is in creating a network, Moody College Global Engagement Committee will be hosting a virtual "town hall" event in partnership with Associate Dean Ya’Ke Smith from the Moody College Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. At this event, international students will be invited to ask questions and present issues facing them as an international student, and discuss the creation of a student network.
Know the Power of Your Vote With Russell Boyd II and Skyller Walkes
Wednesday, September 16
5 p.m. CST
Join College of Pharmacy Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Skyller Walkes, Ph.D. and Russell Boyd II for an online discussion about the power of your vote. Boyd is an activist, organizer, and currently serves as the National Field Organizer with the NAACP Youth & College Division.