A student-organized symposium will explore issues and solutions in social justice and civic engagement on Friday and Saturday.
The event, "Exploring Social Justice: a student symposium on social justice issues," starts today at 1 p.m. in the Hinckley Institute of Politics. The symposium will provide a platform for students enrolled in the course Historic and Contemporary Issues in Social Justice to share their research with the public.
"This symposium is a good experience for students to begin engaging in both academia and the larger community in both theory and practice," said Mary Ann Villarreal, an assistant professor in history and ethnic studies.
The professorship course is co-taught by Villarreal and Lisa Flores, an assistant professor in communication and ethnic studies, through the Honors College. Students in the class have written individual research papers on different areas of interest. Experts will lead roundtable discussions about the topics.
For their papers, students were asked to identify social justice, research a particular social injustice and offer a solution that would make the situation just. Topics that students will address range from global access to health care, to hip-hop and education to the use of the word "illegal" to describe undocumented immigrants.
Both panel and roundtable discussions during the symposium will look at both historical and modern contexts for social justice and how these events shape civic engagement.
On Saturday, the symposium will be held at The City Library at 1 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.
c.norlen@chronicle.utah.edu
