IUPUI

Campus Partnerships Are Focus of Taylor Symposium on Social Justice

INDIANAPOLIS - The role of university/community partnerships in facilitating social equality in education, access to healthcare and the documentation of Near-Westside Indianapolis history is the focus of the upcoming 18th annual Joseph Taylor Symposium.

The symposium will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15 at the University Place Conference Center, located at 850 W. Michigan St. on the IUPUI campus. Registration begins at 8 a.m. in the lobby outside the center's auditorium.

This year's symposium theme is "Urban Universities/Urban Communities: Partners in Social Justice."

IUPUI Associate Professor of Religious Studies Edward E. Curtis will deliver the symposium's opening address "University and Community Partnerships: Crossing Bridges, Confronting Walls" at 8:30 a.m. in the Conference Center Auditorium.

Dana-Ain Davis, assistant professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Global Black Studies Program at Purchase College, State University of New York, will deliver the keynote luncheon address from noon to 2 p.m. in the University Place Ballroom. Davis will discuss "Knowledge in the Vision of Service: Politically Engaged Scholarship."

IUPUI Chancellor Charles R. Bantz will present the 2007 Joseph T. Taylor Awards for Excellence in Diversity during the luncheon.

Panel discussion topics during three morning symposium sessions are: History as Social Justice: Memory and Public Heritage in the Near-Westside; Education and Social Justice: Critical Connections Between IUPUI and P-12; and Achieving Social Justice in Health: Closing the Gap in Access to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Panel speakers include near-westside community leaders; local health and education officials; and IUPUI faculty.

Symposium attendance is free and open to the public; however tickets and reservations are required for lunch. Lunch tickets are $30 per person, or $25, if purchased before Jan. 31. Sponsors and table patron tickets are also available. Deadline for lunch reservations is Feb. 5.

The Taylor Symposium was established to honor Joseph T. Taylor, the first dean of the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. He served as a sociology professor from 1965 to 1983 and as dean from 1967 - 1978. Taylor, who died in September 2000, is remembered for his commitment to dialogue and diversity.

This year's symposium is sponsored by the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI in association with the school's Department of Anthropology.

For registration information, please contact Heather Fuller, hfuller@iupui.edu, or go online to http://liberalarts.iupui.edu/.