Experts Meet for Equality and Justice Conference Today and Thursday

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The “Equity and Justice: Through the Eyes of Underserved Populations” conference will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 17, and Thursday, Oct. 18, at various locations around campus. The two-day event is sponsored by the School of Social Work and the African and African American studies program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Seminars will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday in the multicultural center in the Arkansas Union and from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Thursday in room 104 in Mullins Library and the library in the School of Social Work.

A full list of locations, times, programs and speakers is as follows:

Wednesday, Oct. 17

2-3 p.m. – Panel Discussion – Multicultural Center

“Experiences and Needs of Africans/African Americans in Northwest Arkansas” panel with Jessie Bryant and Charlene Johnson.

Bryant is a community activist who served as justice of peace for 17 years and currently volunteers for LifeSource International in Fayetteville.

Johnson is an associate professor of middle level education curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas.

4-5 p.m. – Keynote Speaker – Multicultural Center

“Equity and Justice in the Academy: Taking a Strengths Approach” by Jeanette Davidson

Davidson is the director of the African and African American studies program and a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma. She edited African American Studies, a textbook deigned to introduce upper level undergraduate students and beginning graduate students to African American studies, American studies and ethnic studies. She serves on the board for directors for the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century.

Thursday, Oct. 18

9 a.m.-10:15 a.m. – Invited Presentations – School of Social Work and Mullins Library

Mustapha Alhassan on human trafficking and Xian Guan on juvenile delinquency, the School of Social Work library.

Alhassan is a graduate instructor at the University of Missouri.

In July, Guan successfully defended her dissertation, Early Behavior Problems in School, Juvenile Delinquency, and Adult Incarceration: a Longitudinal Examination of Pathways to Crime Among a Ten-Year Birth Cohort in Louisiana, for a doctorate of social work from Louisiana State University.

Dana Hunter on educational attainment and Emmett Johnson on fatherhood, Mullins 104. 

Hunter is a graduate assistant at Louisiana State University and a social work clinician at the Capitol City Family Health Center.

Johnson is a member of the Atlanta Board of Education and a recipient of the Green Award. Awardees are given a $10,000 college scholarship to present to a high school senior of his or her choice in the Atlanta public schools or from the awardee’s high school alma mater.

10:30-11:45 a.m. – Invited Presentations – School of Social Work and Mullins Library

Paula Gerstenblatt on art and memory and Valandra on African American mothers, the School of Social Work library.

Gerstenblatt is an assistant instructor and doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Texas at Austin and founder of the Mart Community Project in Mart, Texas.

Valandra is an assistant professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minn.

Erica Campbell on critical race theory and Derrick Echoles on education, Mullins 104. 

Campbell is an instructor of women’s and gender studies and black studies at the University of Missouri.

Echoles is pursuing a doctorate in educational administration and higher education with an concentration in social work from Southern Illinois University and serves as an academic advisor in Fulbright College at the University of Arkansas.

For more information about the School of Social Work or the African and African American studies program, please visit www.socialwork.uark.edu or www.aast.uark.edu.