This annual event sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs is open to the students, faculty and staff of Tulane University, as well as the general public.
Every year, the office invites a prominent figure in our world to speak about his or her experiences as a person with a diverse background.
2019 Diversity Convocation: Khaled Beydoun
October 21, 2019 | 7:00 p.m. | Kenall Cram, LBC
Khaled A. Beydoun is a leading scholar on Islamophobia, national security and anti-terrorism law, and civil liberties. He serves as an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, and is Senior Affiliated Faculty at the University of California-Berkeley Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project. A Critical Race Theorist, Professor Beydoun's research has been published in top law journals, and his book, American Islamophobia: The Roots and Rise of Fear, will be published by the Univ. of California Press in 2018.
Past Speakers, Moderators, and Panelists
Damon Young
Damon is a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas. He is also senior editor of The Root. His work has been featured in numerous publications and on numerous platforms, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, EBONY, MSNBC, BET, Slate, Salon, and USA Today. In 2016, he was named to The Root 100, their annual list of the most influential African Americans in the fields of business, science, politics, technology, social justice, sports, and entertainment.
Rais Bhuiyan
Rais Bhuiyan, an American Muslim from Bangladesh, is an extraordinary individual with a powerful story. After serving as an air force pilot in Bangladesh, Rais moved to the United States in 1999 to study computer technology. Ten days after 9/11, Rais was the victim of a horrific hate crime. Shot in the face at point blank range by white supremacist, Mark Stroman, self-described “the Arab slayer,” Rais barely survived. Sadly, two other victims were killed. Stroman was sentenced to death; ten years later, Rais led an international campaign, fighting to save Stroman’s life.
Dr. Joy DeGruy
Joy DeGruy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication, a master’s degree in Social Work (MSW), a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Social Work Research. Dr. Joy DeGruy is a nationally and internationally renowned researcher, educator, author and presenter. She is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University and the President of JDP Inc. Dr. DeGruy has over twenty-five years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work. She conducts workshops and trainings in the areas of mental health, social justice and culture specific social service model development. Dr. Joy DeGruy authored the book entitled Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, which addresses the residual impacts of trauma on African Descendants in the Americas. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can eliminate non-productive attitudes, beliefs and adaptive behaviors and, build upon the strengths we have gained from the past to heal injuries of today.
Van Jones
CNN Political Contributor Van Jones is the president and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. In 2009, Van worked as the green jobs advisor to the Obama White House. There, he helped run the interagency process that oversaw $80 billion in green energy recovery spending. Van’s hard work has been acknowledged by a number of prestigious institutions and publications. A Yale-educated attorney, Van has written two New York Times bestsellers: The Green Collar Economy, the definitive book on green jobs, and Rebuild the Dream, a roadmap for progressives in 2012 and beyond. His awards and honors include being named to Rolling Stones’s “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done” in 2012, TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2009, Fast Company’s “12 Most Creative Minds on Earth” and Essence Magazine’s “25 Most Inspiring African Americans” in 2008. Van also served as distinguished visiting professor at Princeton University and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and American Progress Action Fund.
Mychal Denzel Smith I
Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute and a Contributing Writer for The Nation Magazine, as well as contributor at Feministing and Salon.
Félix Manuel Burgos
Language Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at New York University, who’s work focuses on the representation of violence by conducting discourse analysis of mass and social media.
Deon Haywood
Executive Director of Women With A Vision, Inc. (www.WWAV-no.org), a New Orleans-based community organization founded in 1991 to improve the lives of marginalized women, their families, and communities by addressing the social conditions that hinder their health and well-being.
Vicki Mayer
Tulane Professor of Communication who work focuses on media production and consumption in relation to economic and political transformations in media and creative industries.
Mauro P. Porto
Tulane Associate Professor & Chair of the Department of Communication at Tulane University and author of Media Power and Democratization in Brazil: TV Globo and the Dilemmas of Political Accountability (Routledge, 2012).
David G. Ortiz
Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tulane University and editor-in-chief of Mobilizing Ideas –a scholarly blog on social movements, focuses on the relationship between digital media and activism, the influence of time on contention-repression dynamics, long-term effects of disasters on social movements, and state repression and mobilization in Latin America.
