Three high-profile women speakers will give talks this week during Martin Luther King Jr./March and Days of Dialogue (MLK/DOD) activities at the University of Wyoming.
"Social Justice Through Your Lens" is the theme of the event that runs through Friday, Jan. 23. MLK/DOD renews UW's commitment to making campus a more welcoming and empowering place for people from different backgrounds, heritages, orientations or abilities. Events celebrate the continuing impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and ideals.
Most events are free and all are open to the public. For a complete list of activities throughout the week, visit the MLK/DOD Web site at www.uwyo.edu/MLK.
Highlights of the week are keynote addresses by Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner Trice, Nadine Strossen, former ACLU president, and from UW Hall of Fame women's basketball Coach Margie McDonald.
Turner Trice's presentation, "The ‘R' Word: Using Journalism to Open a Civic Dialogue on Race and Culture," is Thursday, Jan. 22, at 5 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Family Room. McDonald will discuss "Diversity in Sports: Title IX," later that evening at 7:30 p.m. in the Wyoming Union ballroom. Strossen's talk, "Social Justice Through Advocacy and Activism; Conversations about Current Civil Liberties, Challenges and Controversies," is the following day, Friday, at 5 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Ballroom.
These presentations also will feature talks on economics, the law, gays and lesbians, religion, sports and other areas of discussion important to social justice, says Gracie Lawson-Borders, MLK-DOD committee co-director and UW African American Studies director.
Turner Trice arrives in Laramie on the heels of covering the historical inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C She will meet informally Thursday with UW students and attend a luncheon in the Multiculural Resource Center in Wyoming Union.
She has been with the Chicago Tribune for more than 20 years as an editor, bureau chief and columnist. After one of Obama's speeches, Turner Trice started a blog called "Exploring Race," in which she seeks interaction with the public on race and cultural issues. The blog appears on the Tribune Web site.
McDonald, in her fourth year as radio color analyst on UW Cowgirl basketball games, in 2002 was elected to the UW Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame. Admired and respected by her peers, she led the Cowgirls into one of the top basketball teams in the Rocky Mountain region during her nine-year career as head basketball coach.
McDonald directed the Cowgirls to a 122-114 overall record during her career. The 1979 team, in which she was named the league's coach of the year, had its best season under her leadership at 25-7. The native of Camargo, Okla., resigned her Wyoming coaching position in 1983 to become the first executive director of the High Country Athletic Conference, which later merged with the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
She served as of the WAC deputy commissioner and later as the coordinator of women's basketball officials for the Mountain West Conference.
Strossen will discuss the challenges to American civil liberties and will elaborates on relevant issues such as the war on terror and government's efforts to enact potentially intrusive legislation, growing demographic diversity, technological advances and a conservative political climate.
She was the first woman and the youngest person to ever serve as ACLU president. A professor of law at New York Law School, Strossen has written, lectured, and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. She also has written two books.
Posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2009
