News & Upcoming Events

Fall 2009

September

Native American Heritage Week Events Next Week!

Monday 9.21 @ 1:40, A104 & Tuesday 9.22 @ 11am:

Professor Robert Shotgun, Instructor of Native American Culture at Chief Dull Knife College, will address the campus.  Mr. Shotgun will be accompanied by two students from the college, and will be speaking about life and the college experience on the reservation. This is an exciting opportunity for our students to examine their experience of community college life while learning about someone else’s.

Monday 9.21 & Tuesday 9.22, various times, A104

The Exiles, a film by Ken Mackenzie, will be screened on Monday @ 9:30am, 11am, and 3pm in A104, and on Tuesday @ 9:30, 1:40, and 3:10pm also in A104.

Gritty, realistic and far ahead of its time (in a period when Hollywood films featured noble savages), the script for THE EXILES was created exclusively from recorded interviews with the participants and with their ongoing input during the shooting of the film. Native American writers and activists have long considered the film as one of first works of art to portray modern life honestly and as an important forerunner for the cultural renaissance of American Indian fiction, poetry, filmmaking and theater starting in the 1970s.

Tuesday 9.22:

Birds of Prey with Jennifer Pena @1pm in the student center.

Luncheon in honor of Chief Dull Knife College @12:30, TEC128B.  Space is limited. Please RSVP by Thursday 9.17 to Anne Marie Prendergast:  aprendergast@bergen.edu

Wednesday 9.23:

Drum and dancing with Red Storm Drum and Dance Troupe.  Their first performance will be at 12:30pm in the student center, and there will be various performances throughout the day.

Thursday 9.24:

Grammy winning flutist Mary Youngblood, "First Lady of the Flute," will perform at 7pm in the Ciccone Theatre.

October

Thursday October 8th:

Professor Peter Balakian will address the campus.  Prof. Balakian is a renowned novelist and poet, and his award winning memoir Black Dog of Fate succinctly chronicles the Armenian genocide.  This has become a leitmotif of his work, and Prof. Balakian will present excerpts from his work and lead a discussion on like issues affecting the Armenian community locally and globally.

Professor Balakian's visit is precipitated by the creation of a new center at BCC--The Center for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation.  The creation of this center, which will be directed by Professor Keith Chu of the department of History, catalyzes BCC's commitment to both intercultural understanding and more specifically to the promotion of local and global peace and justice.

Specific details of the Balakian event TBA.

Monday October 19th:

Pulitzer Prise winning novelist Junot Diaz will present excerpts from his internationally renowned novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  Diaz, who is also a professor of creative writing at MIT, will hold two seperate discussions with our student body in the Ciccone Theatre, and professors are encouraged to bring their students and to teach the novel as well as selections from Drown, a collection of shorter prose.  The Literary Arts Series (LAS) will be disseminating pedagogical materials before the event.  Primary and secondary texts will be available both in our library and electronically via the LAS web site; and discussion questions for faculty instruction will likewise be available on the site.  www.bergen.edu/las

This program has been made possible by the Office of Student Life, the Latino Heritage Week Committee, the Literary Arts Series, and CSIU.  Specific information TBA. 

November

Please revisit our site in September for programming.

December

December is Interfaith Month.  Please revisit our site in October for complete program details.

Ongoing

Seminar Series: Cosmopolitanism and the Community College Classroom

This is a monthly faculty seminar coordinated by Dr. Jessica Datema and Professor Roya Kowsary.  Specific information--dates, etc.--will be made available in September.  To participate in this seminar series, please contact Dr. Jessica Datema at jdatema@bergen.edu.

Malaria Awareness/Global Hunger Project

Professor Barbara Davis and Professor Mary Flannery will continue to coordinate programming that features the impact of malaria and poverty on our global community.  Specific program details TBA.

Past Projects 

A special presentation by Dr. Jon Yasin on Hip-Hop as a form of communicating values

A special presentation and poetry workshop by poet Martin Espada, arranged by Professor Stacey Balkan

A college-wide speech competition on topics from the Millennium Development Goals, run by Professor Jane Phelps

A Diversity Seminar on Human Rights, Citizenship, and Liberal Education, involving twenty faculty members, directed by Dr. Diane Krumrey

A course in Cultural Competency for Police, created by Professor Rich Kuiters

The Conversations Cafe dialogue sessions, run by Professor Cristina Haedo

Professor Michael Lees' Religions of the World forums

The Golden Rule dialogue session

The initial programs of the Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation Center, directed by Dr. Keith Chu

The Intercultural Communication Trainer Corps, directed by Annique Nestmann

Cafe Bergen special music for Native American Week, planned by Professor Andrew Krikun

October 17-19, Stand Up and Take Action! - a part of the global movement to stamp out extreme world poverty

Co-Curricular Programs

CSIU supports the Heritage Week events planned by the Office of Student Life. To encourage faculty application of these events in their teaching, CSIU offers stipends for initiatives that link co-curricular events and classroom instruction. Faculty members are encouraged to plan ways to incorporate the event or artist with classroom instruction. They are also encouraged to have their classes attend the events to enhance the goals of the currciulum and courses. CSIU is eager to brainstorm with professors to explore how co-curricular events can complement their instruction. This would involve setting specific learning objectives and measuring the results. CSIU also encourages collaborative efforts among professors to facilitate the integration of activities into classes to enrich instruction.

In the fall of 2008, CSIU sponsored the poet Martin Espada, who came to the college to give a presentation and to work with students. Internationally acclaimed poet and essayist martin Espada read from his award-winning poetry collection, The Republic of Poetry, On Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 6 p.m. in the Anna maria Ciccone Theatre.  This program was co-sponsored by Latino Heritage Week and the Office of Student Life.

On-Going Projects

 Millenium Development Goals Programming on the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases
• Ensure environmental stability
• Pursue a global partnership for development

 Publications and Video Productions:

• Personal narratives by students on their cultural experiences
• Stories that create understanding and empathy for the struggles of others

 Dialogue:

• Interfaith sessions on shared principles of world religions
• Issue sessions on topical concern

 Literary and Art Programs:

• Café Bergen
• The Middle Eastern Studies series
• The Literary Arts series
• The AfterWord Cultural Arts panel
• Guest Diversity Artists

Educational Tools:

• “About Face: Turning Away from Hate” kiosk
•  African Art Traveling Exhibitions

High School Outreach:

• Cultural awareness programs
• International students visiting local schools

Diversity Faculty Scholars

Community Engagement

• Students tutoring on-site
• Student research and scholarship on local issues
• Service Learning