Please join us for

Elizabethtown College’s
Social Justice Week

October 22-26, 2012

All events are open to entire Elizabethtown College community and we strongly encourage all students, faculty, and staff to attend. Please contact Angela Wilt or Dr. Rita Shah for additional information, questions, or concerns.
 
Monday, October 22:
UgandaSpeaks Panel
6:30-9:30 pm
KAV
A follow-up presentation to last semester’s Kony2012 discussion, this panel will look at the issue from the Ugandan perspective and discuss the methods of achieving social justice. This panel will consist of a roughly 45-minute documentary followed by an open question and answer period.

Tuesday, October 23:
Gun Violence Discussion
3:30-5:00 pm
Hoover 110
A student panel discussing the recent span of gun violence, how to address it, and the role gun control should play, if any, in reducing gun-related violence.
 
Slam Poetry
9:00-11:00 pm
Blue Bean Coffee Shop
An open forum for students, faculty, and staff to discuss issues of social justice by showing their creative side. This is an opportunity for you to use spoken word, music, short plays, etc. to showcase the issues you believe are captured under the idea of social justice.

Wednesday, October 24:
Human Trafficking Awareness and Response
11:00 am-12:00 pm
Musser Auditorium, Leffler Chapel and Performance Center
The College’s Education Department hosts Kathleen Davis, director of National Training & Technical Assistance at Polaris Project, an organization that combats human trafficking. She presents “Human Trafficking Awareness and Response” as it relates to Pennsylvania.
 
Model UN: Addressing Syria
5:00-6:30 pm
Hoover 110
Elizabethtown College’s Model UN club will perform a simulation of the United Nation’s Security Council as they discuss how to address the human rights crisis taking place in Syria. The panel will discuss the issue for approximately 1 hour followed by a 30 minute question and answer session open to the audience.

Thursday, October 25:
Social Justice Debate
3:30-5:00 pm
KAV
With individuals representing both sides of the social justice issue, this panel hopes to open up dialogue as to the definitions of social justice, it’s worth, and whether or not educational institutions should play a role in social justice activities. The first 45-minutes will be a moderated debate between both sides, with the final 45-minutes serving as a question and answer session open to the audience.

Friday, October 26:
Social Justice in Action
5:00-7:00 pm
Hoover 110
This panel will wrap-up the week by discussing social justice within various fields of study, the extent to which individuals are willing to go to achieve social justice, and where the boundaries of social justice lie. The panel will include a 90-minute moderated discussion followed by a 30 minute question and answer session open to the audience.

One of my frustrations with both academic research and media reporting on crime and criminal justice issues is that we often ignore the voices of those directly impacted by the system. Not just the voices of those incarcerated, but also those who endure life as one related to an incarcerated individual. There are a few books written from the point of view of prisoners (Life without Parole comes to mind), a few on the impact of parental incarceration on children (fortunately this is a growing research area), and little to nothing from the point of view of parolees. It is frustrating because it makes it easy to forget that we are dealing with people, and easy to forget that the policies created impact millions of lives on a daily basis.
 

It also frustrating because, as a teacher, I try to give my students as complete a picture as possible. It is incredibly easy to discuss the administrative aspects of the criminal justice system, or of running a prison, but that is only half of the story. The other half involves discussing how our court systems are perceived by the accused, how prison life impacts an individual, the challenges one faces after leaving prison, and yes, the impact of parental incarceration on children. So, I am constantly in search of other forms of media, beyond written pieces, to help convey these issues to my student. Periodically, I find a gem that perfectly captures the issues at hand. This is one such clip: