SOC Celebrates Inaugural Inclusive Excellence Week
"Inclusive Excellence Week" was composed of听a series of events, including a film screening and discussion, a guest lecture, a research panel, community engagement and networking, and photo pop-ups.
The week kicked off with a screening of "," professor Laura Hinson鈥檚 award-winning short documentary which follows two Street Sense reporters, homeless themselves, documenting DC鈥檚 tent city. The film was followed by a panel discussion that featured the reporters, Shiela White and Reggie Black, moderated by Hinson. The听screening听was a great kickoff event and very powerful to have the two main characters in the documentary in attendance. Students asked some great questions,鈥漵aid Kristi Plahn-Gjersvold, SOC鈥檚 Assistant Dean for Administration & Strategic Initiatives and chair of SOC's听Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. The film was funded, in part, by an SOC Race Matters grant.
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| Reggie and Sheila reporting from tent city in a scene from "Street Reporter."听 |
Professor Aram Sinnreich invited Vivien Goldman to visit his as a guest lecturer 鈥淰ivien Goldman has been on the front lines of music鈥檚 role in racial reckoning and postcolonial struggle since her time working with artists such as Bob Marley and Fela Kuti in the 1970s. Her deep dive into the 鈥減unky reggae party鈥 as a guest lecturer in Musical Cultures & Industries helped students connect the dots between the subcultures of working class whites in the UK, 2nd-generation Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and the birth of hip-hop in New York City, demonstrating the personal and ideological threads that connected these apparently separate universes of music and culture,鈥 said Sinnreich.
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| There was a strong turnout for the research panel.听 |
Priya Doshi听opened her听Multicultural Strategic Communication class to the entire SOC community for a听research spotlight featuring three SOC panelists; Jeffrey Madison, Director of Technology Services;听Tambra Stevenson, PhD candidate and founder and CEO for WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture;听and Dr. Sherri Williams, SOC associate professor. Doshi moderated the panel, "How SOC Research Fuels Inclusive Excellence,"听covered issues from underserved communities rising up to combat climate change on their own to health equity and how Williams partners with publications to give her students the opportunity to publish on national platforms by sharing their authentic experiences.
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| SOC students, faculty and staff mingling at an after-hours reception. |
There were also events to strengthen SOC鈥檚 community; Dean Sam Fulwood III hosted a morning coffee hour which allowed students, faculty and staff to talk with him and mingle with each other, and professor Gemma Puglisi and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) held an after hours meet-and-greet which included a game where students had to guess the identities of faculty members based on their own college graduation photos. 听The Communication and Outreach office partnered with student photographers Dantong Lou, Damian Searchwell, and Mimi Tanchevski to hold multiple pop-up photo shoots where community members photographed and asked to share how they contribute to SOC鈥檚 inclusive excellence. The photos will be showcased in an exhibit in SOC鈥檚 McKinley Building and on the school鈥檚 website. The project was funded through an SOC RACE Matters grant.
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| Professor Priya Doshi was photographed by Damian Searchwell at a pop-up. |