Our blog has moved to http://clarkuthingsthatmatter.wordpress.com/ !  This year we are doing something new and exciting. We have started a new blog on which we will be discussing what is happening in our world and in our community through an intercultural lense. We would love to hear your ideas so please comment on our blog. Pieces written by members of our community are also welcome!

 

Intercultural Dating

Dana Commons Fish Bowl

Friday 4/19/13

3PM

Join The Office of Intercultural Affairs and Professor DeMarco from the Philosophy Department (who also teaches the Philosophy of Love) for a discussion of intercultural dating. We will be juxtaposing the different dating practices from different regions. Come prepared to share your experiences with intercultural dating!

Light Refreshments will be served!
For special accomodations contact Deviyani Dixit at ddixit@clarku.edu

Jenny Boylan shared her amazing experiences!


On Thursday night, Professor Jennifer Boylan brought an enthusiastic and diverse crowd to Atwood Hall. There were many students and staff as well as many members of the Worcester community. She shared riveting passages from her last book She's Not There and a passage from her new book Stuck in the Middle With You. Many people of different backgrounds found her to be very personable and relatable. Thank you to Professor Boylan for sharing your story with us! Thank you to all of our co-sponsors who helped make this event possible.

 

Jennifer Finney Boylan

Thursday, April 11

Atwood Hall

6:30pm

Professor Jennifer (Jenny) Boylan is the best-selling author of her memoir, She's Not There, in which she describes the details of her transition from male to female. After the surgery and after coming out, Professor Boylan's wife stayed with her and they remain happily married with their two children. She has appeared on CNN, Oprah, NPR, and CBS, among others. Professor Boylan, the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Colby College, is an inspirational and enthusiastic speaker on issues of gender-identity and transgender rights.
This spring, Professor Boylan will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of She's Not There and will be touring for her new book Stuck In The Middle With You: Parenthood in Three Genders.
Jenny Boylan came to Clark once before in 2009. Jenny spoke to a packed house in Atwood Hall and it was very well received by the Clark community. Please join us to welcome her once more to Clark University.

http://www.jenniferboylan.net/about-jenny/
http://www.jenniferboylan.net



 

The Interrupters

Thursday 3/28/13

Jefferson 218

6pm to 8pm

 

Join the Office of Intercultural Affairs for a screening of The Interrupters produced by Kartemquin Films in celebration of Black History Month. This documentary is about 3 individuals in Chicago who try to protect their neighborhoods from violence. It takes place in a time when Chicago became a national symbol for city violence.

For more information you can visit their website at: http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

 

Real Women ft. Photography by Sue

Grace and Lurie Conference Rooms

Saturday 3/23/13

5pm-8pm

Join the Office of Intercultural Affairs to celebrate Real Women around the world next Saturday, March 23rd. There will be a phototraphy exhibition featuring photographs of women at Clark taken by Sue. For the second half our program join us on the adventure of a lifetime! We will be following the photographer of this iconic Afghan girl, Steve McCurry, to find her once more.

Telling Her Story

The Grind

3/21/13

1:30pm-3:00pm

During this very special Telling Her Story, we will be having 3 Clark students and 2 Clark staff members telling us about their experiences during Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. This 5 women met with Massachusetts senators and congressmen to support immigration reform and the Paul Simm Act for Study Abroad. Refreshments will be served.

Telling Her Story: Maria Engels

Johnson-Sanford Center
1st Floor

3/13/13

6pm

OIA and RHA are excited to present this upcoming installment of the Telling Her Story series. During this event, a Clark senior named Maria Engels will be sharing her experiences of being adopted and what it was like to go back and visit her orphanage in Bangladesh. This is a riveting story that you will not want to miss! 

Refreshments will be served.

Asian New Year

Saturday 2/23/13

3pm-6pm

This year's celebration of Lunar New Year was very successful! There were many Asian countries represented such as Vietnam, China, Thailand, Korea, and others. The Geography quiz of Asian countries was a big hit along with making paper cranes. Thank you to all of the people who helped make this event such a success and thank you to everyone who attended. 

 

Soul Pancake: PART 2

Thursday 11/26/12

7:00pm

The Grind

 

 

 

 

The first Soul Pancake was such a success that it is making its second debut this semester! We will be unpacking our opinions on the differences between spirituality and religion and how they affect lives differently. Professor Melissa Butler will be joining us to facilitate the discussion. Those of you who came to our first Soul Pancake know just how engaging our discussion was so please join us again to continue the discussion. Those who did not attend the first program are of course welcome to join as well.

 

Pancakes will be served!

 

Verbal Pollution was a great success!

 

Yesterday's Verbal Pollution was small and intimate which led to great conversation! The words that we use were examined closely and analyzed in a group setting. This event is definitely a keeper. Keep an eye out for it in future years. 

 

 

Verbal Pollution

The Grind

11/28/12

5:00pm

 

 

 

 

Come join us in the Grind at 5:00pm for a discussion on the words we use. We will explore the connotations and history behind the words that we use and how they affect society. What do the words that we say really mean? Do you contribute to Verbal Pollution?

 

Telling HerStory

 

Come join OIA and RHA on tuesday November 13th in the Grind for Telling HerStory. Our three special guests will be discussing the cultural implications of being a black woman in America and the diversity between them. The women being featured in this installment of Telling HerStory are all a part of the Clark Community: Dean Mounira Morris, Evette Walters, and Kristine "KK" Marbell. 

 

 

 

 

Noche Latina

 



Tilton was packed last friday night with people attending Noche Latina. The performances by members of the Clark community and members of the Worcester community were received very well by our guests. There was music, dancing, singing, and as always lots of food to celebrate Latin culture. Overall this was a wonderful night that we hope to do again next year.     

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

 

Our annual event Noche Latina is coming up just one week from tomorrow!

 

 

It will be held in Tilton Hall on friday 10/26 and will celebrate Latin American History Month. We will be featuring performances by many of the Clark community and a band called Grupo Fantasia. http://www.grupofantasia.com/ Tickets for part 1 of the event are on sale at OIA, tabling, and from members od LASO, Salsa Encendida, and OIA.

 

SOUL PANCAKE

Sept. 27th, 2012

Maywood Hall Lounge

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Melissa Butler joined us for a riveting discussion about religion and spirituality. Many religious groups on campus were represented as well as those who don't identify with any particular religion. We discussed religion's purpose, it's place in society, and it's place in our lives.  All while eating delicious pancakes! All in all it was a very successful event that we hope to carry on in the future. Make sure to stay updated on our future events! This one may make a reappearance!

CONVERSATION CAFE!

Wednesday April 11, 2012 6pm

Dana Commons, pit 

This week, OIA brought back Conversation Café! This event is an opportunity for anyone who is interested in practicing their English to do so, in a comfortable and relaxed environment among peers. Whether you have been speaking English for five days, five years, or your entire life, this is a great opportunity to come and practice with your fellow Clarkies! This event will be happening on a weekly basis until the end of the semester, and is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Come practice your English, and make some new friends from all over the world, see you next week!!

REAL WOMEN

Friday, March 16, 2012 – 5:30pm-8:30pm
TRAINA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Real Women, formerly known as Ladies’ Night, is an annual event hosted by the Office of Intercultural Affairs that aims to bring attention to the role of women in society. This year’s event focuses on the way women are portrayed in the media, and the heightened standards of femininity that are impossible to achieve. We seek to challenge such concepts by highlighting the beauty and diversity of women through a nude portrait exhibit of Clark students. Our hope is for people to see past what society and the media deems as “imperfections” and look at how all those elements are what make up a real woman. We believe that part of what makes women beautiful and unique is the diversity and range and even the blemishes and scars women are often taught to hide.

This event was not an attempt to define what makes a “real woman”, but rather to break through the societal constraints and broaden perspectives. 

Special thanks to Sue and Megumi, and their amazing models, for designing beautiful posters!

The photography exhibit was coordinated by Ariana Foster, and the photographs were taken by Caitlin O’Brien. In addition to the exhibit, we also screened a movie – “Miss Representation”!

Like drawing back a curtain to let bring light stream in, Miss Representation (90 min; TV-14 DL) uncovers glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, that make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself. (source)

WHITE PRIVILEGE AND RACE IN AMERICA

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM

Robert Jensen, professor in the School of Journalism at University of Texas at Austin discussed white privilege and race in America. Among other things, Professor Jensen's work puts a critical focus on American society to help with understanding the persistence of institutional and unconscious racism within it. His opinion and analytic pieces on subjects such as foreign policy, politics, race, and gender have appeared in papers and on websites around the world, both mainstream and alternative.

HOW TO GROW UP? – Teacup discussion

Thursday, February 23, 2012 – 12:30pm-1:30pm

The Office of Intercultural Affairs invited all children, big and small, for a discussion on growing up. Chocolate milk and cookies accompanied a debate on the pros and cons of being a grown up, what it means to be a grown up, and what growing up really entails. We also looked at the societal and cultural differences in perceptions of adulthood, parental supervision, and independence. For those who were worried about the seriousness of the conversation, we provided coloring books and crayons.

And the crayons helped a lot, as the discussion moved from lighthearted chat on who we wanted to be when we grew up to a serious debate on when one is emotionally mature enough to call oneself a grown-up. We reached no conclusions, but thinking about these issues made us – especially graduating seniors - look differently at what could possibly happen to us in June…

We also had a ton of really cute posters, courtesy of Annalise! Which one is your favorite?