January signals the return to a flow of school and work as students and faculty alike begin 2016 at NC State. While the campus returns to its routines, the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity continues an ongoing conversation about social justice as part of Social Justice January, a set of events that hope to bring our various campus communities together for a shared discussion.

The African American Cultural Center, GLBT Center, Women’s Center and Multicultural Student Affairs are partnering to host two events as part of their second year of Social Justice January. 

“The purpose of Social Justice January is to create a space for dialogue on campus,” said Lisa LaBarbera-Mascote, interim director at the Women’s Center. “Given the national climate, it is important for us to be having conversations that get to the root of the culture of violence we live in. There is not change without dialogue. By participating and engaging as a community, we can only become stronger.”

Frances Graham, interim director of the African American Cultural Center, said she thinks the movement is a nice collaboration between the four campus community centers and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“Martin Luther King was about justice for all people, and so I think this is a way to invite various populations to be engaged with the issue of justice and civility,” Graham said. “So Social Justice January is, I think, a nice complement to our campus in celebration of Martin Luther King.”

The two events this year of Social Justice January consist of a lecture as well as an interactive workshop. Graham said these events are important and beneficial for the campus community to continue to talk and be engaged around issues of diversity and inclusion.

“It’s a way for the campus to actually give our students a hands-on experience by bringing in a speaker who does a lecture where people can come and sit and be active listeners and have a second part of the presenter where students are actually engaged, where they’re gaining from additional tools and skills and competencies that lead to the idea of all of us becoming culturally competent around issues of social justice,” Graham said.

The first of the Social Justice January events for this year, “Rise. Resist. Repeat,” is a Social Justice January lecture by Ravi Perry, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

According to his VCU biography, Perry concentrates his research and activism in areas such as the new generation of civil rights debates, public policy and urban politics.

This lecture will address “the culture of violence against underrepresented communities that underlies the #blacklivesmatter and #translivesmatter movements,” according to OIED’s website. 

Perry’s lecture will take place Jan. 27 from 7 – 8:30 p.m. in Talley Student Union, Room 3285, and is open to all students, staff, faculty and community members.

The second event, “I Will Act Now: Strategies for Youth Activism Student Workshop,” is a workshop for students about how we can address intersectional social justice issues and how the next generation can actively be a part of intersectional activism. The workshop is also facilitated by Perry and will take place Jan. 28 from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. in Witherspoon 356. 

“What we really want people to take away is an understanding of intersectional social justice issues, and that they have a voice and that they have the ability to engage and influence the national dialogue around those issues,” said Renee Wells, director of the GLBT Center. 

Having these social justice discussions and experiences on a college campus, in particular, affects the next generation of individuals going out into the world and engaging with these issues, according to Wells.

“Having students engage and think about these issues critically and learn skills to help in some way work to address them I think is critical before people graduate and head out into the world,” Wells said. 

This is the second year the campus community centers are partnering together to host Social Justice January, according to Wells. Wells said that the directors from the four centers started to meet every two weeks last year, and Social Justice January was an idea that came from one of those meetings. 

“A couple months into our meetings with each other, we started talking about being intentional about doing more collaborative programming, so Social Justice January was sort of our first attempt to really do something that was organic as a collaboration between the four centers,” Wells said.

A panel discussion about intersectional social justice issues and a workshop for students on how to collaborate across communities in terms of addressing social justice issues were hosted last year as part of Social Justice January, according to Wells.

“Those events were really well received by a wide range of faculty, staff and students from different communities,” Wells said. “And people really seemed to appreciate what the events were trying to help people understand and do, so we decided to host Social Justice January again this year.”

Graham said the campus community centers have several different expectations for this year’s Social Justice January. First, according to Graham, the goal is for the centers to be reminded of the necessity to collaborate and work together as colleagues. She said these events are also a professional development opportunity for the centers’ administration to continue learning, to continue growing and to remain open. 

A third expectation for Social Justice January is to provide an opportunity for open dialogue across campus where people can participate and feel engaged and connected to the topics, according to Graham. She said the community centers expect students to participate fully and to be involved.

“I think another expectation for us is that when students come, they are all in, 100 percent, that you come and you actively listen, and you build on your skills, and that you take that information and you go out and you use it in your classes, in your communities, at home, as you continue to develop as students and ultimately as professionals through the field of work,” Graham said.

Although the community centers collectively have many expectations, Graham said the greatest expectation is to respect and support one another, no matter the differences.

“I think the expectations are numerous, and I think ultimately our greatest expectation of ourselves and of each other is that we try to open our minds, and our hearts and our arms to embrace one another regardless of visible differences or unseen differences and to support and respect one another no matter what differences may exist amongst us,” Graham said.

–JANUARY 27

Rise. Resist. Repeat

Talley Student Union, Room 3285

7 – 8:30 p.m.

–JANUARY 28

I Will Act Now

Witherspoon Student Center, Room 356

4:30 – 6:30 p.m.