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Green & Gold Speaker Series
The Green & Gold Speaker Series was created to reflect the ideas expressed in our campus Inclusive Excellence Statement which emphasizes our shared commitment to...
"work collaboratively upon principles of cultural humility and respect for all to create an atmosphere in which a sense of belonging within our community can flourish."
Purpose
The purpose of the Green and Gold Speaker Series sponsored by Inclusive Excellence is to offer a speaker series as a learning tool that elevates and promotes diverse voices of scholars, thought leaders, community developers, civil and human rights advocates etc.
The speaker series offers a range of formats from keynote speakers to panels in webinar, in-person, and hybrid modalities. Speakers are selected to address relevant and important topics and provide our campus with opportunities to learn and unlearn as a campus community.
Journeys to Belonging
The 2023-24 Green & Gold Speaker Series theme is Journeys to Belonging. Our focus for this year is on belonging. Belonging is a critical element towards self-actualization. Belonging means you have connection, relationships, and the agency to co-construct your environment to reach the outcomes that will edify and elevate communities.
As we explore the belonging journeys of the Jewish, Latine, APIDA, and SWANNA communities. let's consider how their stories are distinct, similar, shared, and or collective.
Below are some guiding questions to help us consider ways we can build a culture of understanding others, ourselves, and our interdependence as a community to support and uplift multiple communities.
- What did I learn about these communities that I did not know before the speaker series?
- What must I unlearn about these communities?
- How might I support these communities in their efforts to belong?
Belonging in the SWANA Community
Postponed.
Belonging in the APIDA Community
On Monday, February 12, 2024, from noon to 2 pm in the University Union Ballroom, we welcomed Anthony Ocampo, Ph.D. as the featured speaker for the Green & Gold Speaker Series: Raising APIDA Voices.
Anthony Ocampo is a scholar and writer addressing issues of immigration, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexuality. He has been featured on CNN, 60 Minutes, and in the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race, recently featured on NPR Morning Edition.
In his interactive talk, Dr. Ocampo highlighted the ways in which anti-Asian hate intersects with justice and the carceral system. We also explored how storytelling helps to remove barriers, create understanding, and serves as a foundation for inclusion and social justice.
Belonging in the Jewish Community
On October 16, 2023, we welcomed to our campus (virtually) Chella Man for the Green & Gold Speaker Series. We continued our Journeys to Belonging with the Jewish community.
Chella Man is a New York-based artist, director, and author whose work features the continuum of disability, race, gender, and sexuality. He identifies as being Deaf, trans, Jewish, and Chinese as well as determined, curious, and hopeful. Some of his accomplishments include publishing his first book, Continuum, being featured in gallery shows and artist residencies worldwide, launching a radically inclusive clothing line, working as a Deaf and trans-masculine model with IMG Models, and being cast as a superhero within Warner Brother’s DC Universe, Titan’s. He shared how his unique identity helps him understand belonging, accessibility, and inclusion in the Jewish community.
Chella was followed by an informative panel presentation with second-generation Holocaust survivor Barbara Brass, Senate Consultant for the CA Legislative Jewish Caucus Max Migdail, and UC Davis Associate Professor of German and Comparative Literature and Director of Jewish Studies Sven-Erik Rose.
Belonging in the Latine Community
The 2023-24 Green and Gold Speaker Series Journeys to Belonging theme kicked off on September 26, 2023, featuring Las Cafeteras in the University Ballroom.
Born and raised east of the Los Angeles River, Las Cafeteras has taken the music scene by storm with their infectious live performances that cross genre and musical borders. Their electric sound & energy has taken them around the world playing shows from Bonnaroo to the Hollywood Bowl, WOMAD New Zealand to Montreal Jazz, & beyond! Singing in English, Spanish, and Spanglish and adding their own remix of sounds, from rock to hip-hop to rancheras. Las Cafeteras use music as a vehicle to build bridges among different cultures and communities and create "a world where many worlds fit."
Thanks to the Latine Community for co-hosting Beats of Belonging: Latine Revolution & Restoration featuring Las Cafeteras. We explored belonging at an HSI with an interactive workshop that uses ‘conscious comedy,’ and engaging in conversations about race, identity, and privilege. The workshop allowed participants to engage in the power of storytelling and to begin extracting their own personal narratives while working through breaking down stereotypes. Following the workshop, there was an amazing concert performance!