The theme of the summit is "Decolonizing our Institutions and Communities," and will feature Keynote Speaker Clelia Rodriguez, numerous workshops and breakout sessions throughout the day, and will conclude with the play MARY SPEAKS, written and performed by Angela Polite. Most programs will be presented in person at UMD, and some will be available remotely via Zoom.
The conference is organized by the Commission on Equity, Race & Ethnicity (CERE), a group of dedicated UMD faculty and staff who volunteer to support the University’s mission of creating “an equitable campus community for people of all racial, ethnic, and intersecting identities through education and institutional change.” This year’s conference theme was born out of a desire to connect with and support efforts that are already ongoing at UMD, such as the Anti-Racist Learning Community’s (ARLC) discussions of what it would mean to decolonize the curriculum and a newly created liberal education requirement for Theorizing Race, Power and Justice. The keynote speaker, Clelia Rodríguez, is originally from El Salvador and we anticipate fruitful discussions of decolonization across the north-south divide created by that colonial legacy.
Organizers hope that participants will come away inspired and challenged to continue the work of questioning the structures and mindset of colonialism, and seeking real forms of restorative justice.
The Summit schedule and more information is available at the Commission on Equity, Race, and Ethnicity website.
About the Keynote
The 2023 Commission on Equity, Race & Ethnicity (CERE) Summit features Keynote Speaker Clelia Rodriguez. Dr. Rodríguez is a global scholar, speaker, mom, and auntie, born and raised in the ancestral lands of the Nawat, the Chorti-Maya and the Lenka Peoples, what is presently El Salvador. She is the founder of SEEDS for Change, an educational transnational collective bringing together Black, Indigenous and People of Colour to co-create pedagogies of liberation. Her work has been published in theJournal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, in the Journal of Popular Education, Critical Pedagogy and Militant Research in Chile, the Black Youth Project, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, Radical Teacher: A Socialist, Feminist, and Anti-Racist Journal on the Theory and Practice of Teaching, Postcolonial Studies, Revista Iberoamericana, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education and the Frontiers - A Journal of Women Studies.
About the play MARY SPEAKS
Written and performed by Angela Polite, MARY SPEAKS is a one-woman play with music. In this play, the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is used as a parallel to explore the history of black mothers and their sons from slavery onward. Through monologues, songs, spoken word and dance,we follow mother and son from the auction block, Jim Crow South, through the Great Migration, segregation and civil rights, to the present day.
MARY SPEAKS will be performed on the Marshall Performing Arts Center Main Stage beginning at 5:00 p.m. There is no cost, and all are welcome.
About the Summit
UMD has hosted a Summit on Equity, Race, & Ethnicity nearly every year since 2003. It is organized by the Commission on Equity, Race and Ethnicity (CERE), and participants include students, faculty, staff and administrators from UMD as well as community members from the Twin Ports.
Tickets/Registration
Registration is open. The event is open to the public. A small donation is encouraged but not required unless registering for Continuing Education Units (CEUs) which requires a $20 donation.
The Summit schedule and more information is available at the Commission on Equity, Race, and Ethnicity website.