March 13, 2006

For more information, contact: Kimberly Kreider (901) 333-4023

HONOR STUDENT TO ASSIST WITH OXFORD PAPER

Patricia Harris, president of Southwest’s Diversity Club and work study assistant will accompany Dr. Malinda Wade, associate professor of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences to England to present at the Oxford Roundtable. Harris is an honor student majoring in early childhood education. Her most recent assignment with Dr. Wade was the Women’s Project and the Diversity Proposal. Harris will be attending the roundtables and participating in the student forum. “She will be able to see what the international climate is like dealing with diversity as it pertains to students,” said Dr. Wade.
     
Dr. Wade was invited by the Oxford Roundtable, Oxford University to participate in a scholarly roundtable and to present a paper on Diversity in Society on March 12-17. It will be held at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. The Oxford Roundtable promotes human advancement and understanding through the improvement of education.

Dr. Wade is faculty sponsor for the Diversity Club, formerly the Rainbow Society that was created for students who felt not a part of the main stream and felt under represented because of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other lifestyle choices. The Diversity club was form to be inclusive of all students. A Diversity Course, taught by Dr. Wade, was developed to explore issues such as euthanasia, interracial marriage/adoption, etc.

“This is diversity brought to the table from a global front,” stated Wade. “Up to 35 people have been selected internationally from different veins, bringing different things to the table. I am getting folks to take a serious look at diversity as a Change agent. The title of my paper is ‘Diversity a Change Agent, A Method for Cultural Madness’. I am looking at it from somewhat of an empirical sense critiquing some other folk who consider diversity as an anti merit, a negative… To get us to take a look at our lenses and we have several different lenses, whether institutional, organizational, communal or family.”

In response to the question what she hoped to bring back Dr. Wade said, “I would like to learn as well as I am presenting and bring it back and take my students to another level.”