Promoting Equity Across Disciplines
The University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Interdisciplinary Studies Degree Program
is presenting its first conference this week, focused on the theme of “Race, Identity
& Equality.”
In this virtual collaboration from Feb. 15-16, undergraduates, graduate students, independent scholars and faculty from many disciplines are looking at equity gaps that have persisted in many walks of life—including higher education —and discussing ways to build pathways that acknowledge and reject these hegemonic structures.
Participants are presenting papers, panels and workshops on pedagogy and race, community engagement, arts and the humanities and many other topics.
Keynote speakers are Dr. Gloria Holmes and Dr. Orville Vernon Burton.
Dr. Gloria Holmes (left) and Dr. Orville Vernon Burton (right).Dr. Holmes is an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina Beaufort in the Department of Education and the recipient of the Multicultural Teacher of the Year Award in Higher Education from the National Association of Multicultural Education.
Committed to promoting cultural literacy in schools and communities, she has worked as a diversity trainer for the Anti-Defamation League and the Connecticut State Department of Education, and has conducted anti-bias workshops for community organizations, public school teachers and school leaders in Conn. and S.C. Dr. Holmes is a frequent speaker at symposiums, conferences and community discussions about race and equity. She is the author of “Justice in Search of Leaders, A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership” (2018) and many other publications.
Dr. Burton is Clemson University’s Judge Matthew J. Perry Distinguished Chair of History. He is also a professor of Pan-African Studies, Sociology, Anthropology and Computer Science, in addition to being director of Clemson’s CyberInstitute.
Burton's research and teaching interests are American history, with a particular focus on the American South, including race relations and community, and the intersection of humanities and social science.
He is a prolific author and scholar and director of numerous digital humanities projects. His book “The Age of Lincoln” (2007) won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction.
Among Burton’s honors are fellowships and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pew Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Humanities Center, the U.S. Department of Education, National Park Service, and the Carnegie Foundation.
This conference was generously funded by a mini grant from the South Carolina Humanities Council.