Renowned scholar Jack Halberstam is keynote speaker for Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

On Friday, April 12, Salve Regina will host its annual Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the O’Hare Academic Building. This event is sponsored by the Presidential Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and it is the University’s hope that the summit will see wide participation from the campus community.

The University’s goals with the summit are to utilize a common framework for understanding others by intentionally engaging in cross-cultural interactions, developing strategies that advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work across campus, and exchanging ideas in a nonjudgmental way.

For a full schedule, go to the summit’s webpage.

Keynote speaker for 2024

The keynote speaker for 2024 will be Jack Halberstam, renowned scholar and director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality at Columbia University. Halberstam is the author of many books that explore gender identity, including works like “Female Masculinity,” “In A Queer Time and Place,” “The Queer Art of Failure,” and “Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal.”

Halberstam has been nominated three times for Lambda Literary Awards — twice for his most well-known book “Female Masculinity,” which sought to explore the idea of masculinity within society and the individual. Halberstam was also awarded the Arcus/Places Prize in 2018 from Places Journal for innovative public scholarship on the relationship between gender, sexuality and the built environment.

Jack Halberstam

What to expect at the summit

The Mercy Summit on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is meant for staff, faculty and students, so anyone who is part of the Salve Regina community can participate.

The morning’s events will begin at 8:15 a.m. with an optional continental breakfast, but the summit itself starts at 9 a.m. The keynote speaker, who is highlighted below, will be followed by breakout sessions for further dialogue around topics presented in the keynote.

After the breakout sessions, the participants in the 2023-24 Intercultural Competence Development Program (ICDP) and Advanced ICDP will have a presentation and awards ceremony.

Salve staff and students participated in the Mercy Summit for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on April 28, 2023.

Lunch will be provided at noon. After the lunch, there will be a number of breakout afternoon educational sessions where staff, faculty and students can pick which topics they’d like to learn more about. The topics range from developing culturally responsive teachers, gender identity and mental health, and more.

Participants can sign up for the morning, and they must also sign up for each breakout session in the afternoon that they might like to attend.

In Salve’s Strategic Compass, the University identified “inclusive community” as one of the key components of a Salve Regina education. Events such as the summit create settings for Salve to engage in meaningful dialogue about how the University can achieve inclusivity at Salve Regina as it strives to continually improve as a mercy institution.

For a full schedule and to register for the morning as well as the breakout sessions, go to the summit’s webpage.

Salve staff and faculty participate in a break out session during the summit on April 28, 2023.