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Crossing Lines and Forming Coalitions, Toward a More Perfect Union

Noted Panelists at Smith Conference to Probe Challenges of Pluralism, Tolerance
and Unity

Harvard Law School Professor Lani Guinier, sociologist Nathan Glazer, anthropologist Johnnetta Cole, President of California State Polytechnic Robert Suzuki and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith will be among the participants at "What's Next? American Pluralism and the Civic Culture: Challenges and Proposals," a national conference on issues of racial and ethnic diversity that will take place at Smith College November 4-6, 1999.

According to conference organizer Peter Rose, Sophia Smith Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, the conference will focus on three challenges: examining relations between America's minority and new immigrant communities; how respect and cooperation can be fostered in relation to generational, gender, class and political differences within various ethnic groups; and ways to overcome intergroup barriers to create "a more perfect union."

Along with panels addressing each of these topics, there will be a keynote address, presented by Guinier, and performances by Deavere Smith and by Sweet Honey in the Rock, the African-American female a cappella ensemble.

"Our objective is to have our lecturers and panelists assess the present and suggest concrete initiatives for future actions, both on our campus and well beyond Smith's gates," says Rose.

Other participants in the panel discussions will include: Rubén G. Rumbaut, Michigan State University; Katharine H.S. Moon, Wellesley College; Mary Catherine Bateson, George Mason University; Charles V. Willie, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Larry Toy, Foundation for California Community Colleges; Evan S. Dobelle, Trinity College; Kathryn Rodgers, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; Betty Burkes, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Gary Rubin, New York Association for New Americans; Milton D. Morris, Creative Futures International; Roberta Uno, University of Massachusetts/Amherst; Gilbert Cardenas, University of Texas; and Ginetta Candelerio, Andrea Hairston, Ellen Kaplan and Yvonne P. Daniel, of Smith.

The conference, which will include "Intolerance," an exhibition of noted documentary photographs depicting the civil rights struggle, from the collection of Sam Zailin of Biddeford, Maine, will be free and open to the public.

July 13, 1999