Convocation Home
2018-2019
"The Search for Justice"
These events have been coordinated by members of the faculty and staff to complement this year's keynote address and theme. They allow us to keep the discussion going throughout the year. Should you have any questions about a particular event, please reach out to the person(s) indicated as the coordinator.
FALL 2018:
On Tuesday, September 18, Dr. Myron Glick, founder and chief executive officer at the Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo, will address the campus at 6:00 pm in Rosch Recital Hall. He will discuss "Confronting Health Inequality: One Doctor's Experience in Buffalo and around the World." The Health Center is on the west side of Buffalo and provides health care services to nearly 1000 people every week. Justice is listed as one of the core values the health center, "We advocate for society's most vulnerable members in all forums." Jericho Road Community Health Center provides a culturally sensitive medical home, especially for refugee and low-income community members, facilitating wellness and self-sufficiency by addressing health, education, economic and spiritual barriers in order to demonstrate Jesus’ unconditional love for the whole person. Contact: Dr. Ted Lee.
During the month of October (date and time TBA), 
LGBTQ and human rights activist Cleve Jones will join us via Skype. Jones, a protegee of Harvey Milk, was the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States; he has been involved in social movements for nearly five decades. Jones is the creator of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the author of the Lambda Literary award-winning memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, and he played an instrumental role in the fight for marriage equality. Much of his current work focuses on the labor movement via his role as an organizer for the hospitality workers' union, UNITE HERE. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Jeff Iovannone, coordinator.
Sharon Flake, young adult author and YWCA Racial Justice Award winner, will join 
us from Thursday, October 18-Saturday, October 20 (Homecoming weekend) for a reading that will be open to the campus, area secondary schools, and alumnni (late afternoon on Friday, October 19; time and location TBA). The author of nine books written for children and adolescents, Flake's presentation at Fredonia will mark the 20th anniversary of her groundbreaking book The Skin I'm In, which was named a New York Public Library Top Ten Book for the Ten Age and received a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults award. Flake has also received three Coretta Scott King Author Awards. She is well-positioned to talk about the search for justice. Contact: Dr. Ann Siegle-Drege.
In conjunction with the Writers @ Work program, former U. S. ambassador and Fredonia alumnus James B. Foley will visit the campus to discuss "Peace through Speech: Dialogues around Sustainable Justice" on Thursday, November 8 at 7:00 pm in the Kelly Family Auditorium. According to the Center for Sustainable Justice, "The general principle of sustainable justice is to turn bad into good, contributing to social harmony, and personal and societal development. After nearly thirty years' experience in foreign relations and diplomacy - including the roles of U.S. Ambassador to Haiti (2003-2005) and to Croatia (2009-2012) and the Senior Coordinator for Iraqi Refugees (2007-2009) - Foley is well-prepared to consider questions related to justice from multiple perspectives. He will discuss the challenges he has faced in his diplomatic roles and the limits he has encountered when seeking to define justice and coexist peacefully on an international scale. On Friday, November 10 at 3:00 pm in the English Reading Room, Mr. Foley will share with a student-writing workshop his strategies for facilitating peacful dialogue around challenging issues. Contact: Dr. Natalie Gerber.
As part of their investigation of “Ivory Tower Misfits,” Bob Dahlgren and Ros Smith will screen Paper Chase on Thursday, November 15, 7:30 pm, Williams Center S204ABC. Higher education in the United States has come under greater scrutiny in the past few years, and in some cases, Hollywood has reinforced these criticisms, producing a series of films that has portrayed college professors in a perpetual state of mid-life crisis, seeking solace from a tedious academic work life in alcohol, drugs and the sexual companionship of undergraduate students. Sociologists and cultural historians have long understood the power that narratives exert over the processes with which people make meaning of their everyday experiences. The two films being shown in conjunction with convocation are Paper Chase (fall semester) and Revenge of the Nerds (spring semester). These films explore the role of institutions of higher learning and the academics who populate them through the lens of popular culture, allowing the viewer to investigate the contemporary perspectives of college life among the American public. Contact Bob Dahlgren or Ros Smith.
SPRING 2019:
On Thursday, February 28, 2019, performance artist Dread Scott will address the campus and community from 8:30-9:50 pm in McEwen Hall, Room 209. His lecture will highlight the Marion Art Gallery’s exhibition, “Innovators and Activists: Celebrating Three Decades of New York State Council
on the Arts / New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships,” which will include some of Scott’s work. For almost three decades, Scott has relentlessly interrogated issues of ideology and power, often in terms of how they are experienced through the prisms of nationalism, race, and violence. In his search for justice, Scott provokes viewers and sometimes invites them to participate in the performance. He describes his work this way: “I make revolutionary art to propel history forward. I look towards an era without exploitation or oppression. I don’t accept the political structures, economic foundation, social relations and governing ideas of America. This perspective has empowered me to make artworks that view leaders of slave revolts as heroes, challenge American patriotism as a unifying value, burn the US Constitution (an outmoded impediment to freedom), and position the police as successors to lynch mob terror.” (Image: performance still from On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide.) Contact: Barbara Racker, Director, Marion Art Gallery.
As part of their investigation of “Ivory Tower Misfits,” Bob Dahlgren and Ros Smith will screen Revenge of the Nerds on Thursday, February 7, at 7:30 pm, Williams Center S204ABC. Higher education in the United States has come under greater scrutiny in the past few years, and in some cases, Hollywood has reinforced these criticisms, producing a series of films that has portrayed college professors in a perpetual state of mid-life crisis, seeking solace from a tedious academic work life in alcohol, drugs and the sexual companionship of undergraduate students. Sociologists and cultural historians have long understood the power that narratives exert over the processes with which people make meaning of their everyday experiences. The two films being shown in conjunction with convocation are Paper Chase (fall semester) and Revenge of the Nerds (spring semester). These films explore the role of institutions of higher learning and the academics who populate them through the lens of popular culture, allowing the viewer to investigate the contemporary perspectives of college life among the American public. Contact Bob Dahlgren or Ros Smith.