Conference FULL! 

Download the  CONFERENCE PROGRAM to plan ahead.

Conference Schedule

 Schedule: Registration 8:15 A.M.- 9:00 A.M.; Opening, & Keynote, John Robinson (see below) 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.; Concurrent Sessions A, 10:15 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.; Concurrent Sessions B, 11:45 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.;  Lunch 1:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M.; 2:15 P.M. - 3:15 P.M.  Keynote: Kwame Anthony Appiah (see below)

Session Schedule:

10:15 - 11:30A.M.

•When East Meets West–Understanding the Chinese Student: Strategies for Effective Cross Cultural Communication, Suzanne Fox   
•Socio-Economic and Class Diversity – The Assumptions We Make, Gene Batiste
• Closing the Achievement Gap: Educating Black Male Students, Randolph Carter
• Grease on My Wheels:  Using Whiteness to Challenge White Privilege and Internalized Dominance, Patti DeRosa

• Supporting an Inclusive School Culture: A Cultural Sharing Exercise, Christine Savini

• Systemic Racism in the Age of Obama, Paul Marcus

11:45 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.

• Cross-Cultural Competency in Independent Schools – The New Diversity Work, Gene Batiste

 • When East Meets West–Understanding the Chinese Student: Strategies for Effective Cross Cultural Communication, Suzanne Fox
• Building A Multicultural Anti-Racist School: Institutionalizing Diversity and Inclusion for Transformational Change, Patti DeRosa
• Racial Microaggressions: Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts, Paul Marcus

• How Reassessing and Revising Your Hiring Practices Can Result in a More Diverse Faculty and Staff, Christine Savini and Mark Stanek

• Race-based Affinity Groups for the Adults in School

Morning Keynote:  Overcoming Obstacles in Today's World, with John Robinson

 Growing up, John Robinson never considered himself an inspiration to others. He was born a congenital amputee and stands three foot eight as an adult. Although he has no extension of his arms or legs, he has not been limited in his career or in his personal life. After graduating from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, he went on to work for NBC affiliates in upstate New York and today is the director of corporate support for WMHT, the public broadcasting television station in Albany. Robinson's success did not come easily. From learning how to dress himself after going away to college, to making new friends and feeling accepted, he struggled to come to terms with his disability and make a life on his own. Although his journey may not be considered 'normal', he does not see this as an obstacle, but as an opportunity to succeed and to understand the meaning of responsibility. Robinson demonstrates that a disability does not have to get in the way of an education, a career, a family, or one of his favorite hobbies, golf. John Robinson is a motivational/inspirational speaker. In the past two years, Robinson has been from Australia to the White House discussing the obstacles he has overcome!  John Robinson is the subject of a national documentary shown on Public Broadcasting Stations titled Get Off Your Knees: The John Robinson Story. He also authored the autobiography Get Off Your Knees: A Story of Faith, Courage, and Determination published by Syracuse University Press. John has been married for over fifteen years and has three children. In 2001, he was selected to carry the Olympic torch as it passed through Albany, New York on its way to Salt Lake City for the 2002 games. John Robinson graduated from The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire and Syracuse University. See John on Youtube.

Download the  CONFERENCE PROGRAM to plan ahead.

Afternoon Keynote Speaker: Kwame Anthony Appiah

Called a post-modern Socrates, Kwame Anthony Appiah asks profound questions about identity and ethics in a world where the sands of race, ethnicity, religion and nationalism continue to realign and reform before our eyes. His seminal book Cosmopolitanism is a moral manifesto for a world where identity has become a weapon and where difference has become a cause of pain and suffering. In intellectually stimulating language, Appiah challenges you to look beyond the boundaries -- real and imagined -- that divide us, and to see our common humanity. Appiah is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is also the President of the PEN American Center, the internationally acclaimed literary and human rights association. He was born in London, to a Ghanaian father and a white mother; raised in Ghana; and educated in England, at Cambridge University, where he received a Ph.D. in philosophy. As a scholar of African and African-American studies, he established himself as an intellectual with a broad reach. His classic book In My Father's House and his collaborations with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- including The Dictionary of Global Culture and Africana -- are major works of African struggles for self-determination. In 2007, Cosmopolitanism won the Arthur Ross Book Award, the most significant prize given to a book on international affairs. In 2009, he was featured in the documentary "Examined Life," and was named one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 public intellectuals.

Appiah on Multiple Identities
Appiah on the Myths of Western Culture and Civilization
Appiah on Cosmopolitanism