University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Internationally Known Teacher, Lecturer, Jane Elliott to Speak

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Internationally Known Teacher, Lecturer, Jane Elliott to Speak

Article Body: Internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, Jane Elliott will speak on “The Anatomy of Prejudice” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 30 and 1 p.m. Wednesday, January 31, at the Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center on the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown campus.

The lecture, which is a UPJ Diversity Working Group initiative, is free of charge and open to the public.

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Ms. Elliott devised the controversial and startling “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise. This famous exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority.

In her three-hour presentation “Anatomy of Prejudice,” Ms. Elliott introduces and discusses the subject of the Peabody Award-winning film, The Eye of the Storm, which focused on the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise, and explores with the audience the problems of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and ethnocentrism and the responsibility shared by all of us for illuminating them in and eliminating them from ourselves and our environment.

Lecture attendees will be encouraged to discuss the issues raised as they relate to their own workplace. They also will be encouraged to discuss the materials presented on the handouts which are designed to help them to identify their own racist statements, behaviors, and attitudes. Participants also will receive a list of suggested activities, which, if implemented, can help them to decrease the amount of racism in their environment, as well as a list of books, which, if read, can provide added insights to the problems of the –isms with which we are all confronted.

A grant was provided by Stackpole-Hall Foundation for this event. This program was made possible by the generous donations from Sodexho, MetLife, Concurrent Technologies Corporation, and MTS Technologies, Inc.

Founded in 1927, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown is a four-year, degree-granting college of the University of Pittsburgh with an enrollment of approximately 3,200. The university offers more than 40 majors and is known for its engineering technology, education, humanities, natural and social sciences degree programs. UPJ has been ranked “Third in the North” among public comprehensive colleges and universities, northern region, by U.S. News and World Report, America’s Best Colleges, 2007.

Posted by Shook, Kimberly on 1/24/2007 12:10:00 PM