Diversity & Equity Speaker Series
Throughout the fall and into the winter, Algoma University will be hosting a speaker series, aimed at promoting a safe and inclusive campus and community, titled The Diversity & Equity Speaker Series.
The Diversity & Equity Speaker Series aims to provide a space to reflect and gain practical tools needed to advance equity and inclusion on campus and within the wider community by promoting cultural competency and critical thinking.
Four speakers will deliver keynotes from 2018 – 2019 on various topics. Each speaker comes from a diverse social background and is an expert in providing diversity and equity training.
Each keynote speaker will provide two presentations: one keynote presentation for the Sault Ste Marie community that is open to the public and another for the Algoma U internal community. Dates for each follows.
Coinciding with the Diversity & Equity Speaker Series, is the Diverse Film/Diverse Book series. The Arthur A. Wishart Library will be showing various films and advertising books and novels with themes of diversity.
For more information or to RSVP, please contact the Academic Librarian, Lisl Schoner-Saunders, at [email protected] or call 705.949.2301, Ext. 4614
Community Public Keynotes:
- Dr. Meena Sharify-Funk: “Beacons of Hope and Interfaith Understanding: Deepening the Bonds of Community”
- Tuesday, February 26, 7pm – 9pm
- Location: EW 205
Algoma U Internal Community Presentations:
- Dr. Meena Sharify-Funk: “Controversies, Cliches, and Conversations: Women and Islam”
- Wednesday, February 27, 11:30am – 1pm
- Location: Shingwauk Auditorium
Dr. Meena Sharify-Funk, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor for the Religion and Culture Department at WLU who specializes in Islamic and Sufi studies with a focus on contemporary Muslim thought and identity. Sharify-Funk has written and presented on a variety of topics, some being women and Islam, Islamic and Sufi hermeneutics, and the role of cultural and religious factors in peacemaking. Her books include, Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics and Popular Culture (2018), Unveiling Sufism: From Manhattan to Mecca (2017), Encountering the Transnational: Women, Islam, and the Politics of Interpretation (2008), Contemporary Islam: Dynamic, Not Static (2006), and Cultural Diversity and Islam (2003).
