NEWS

West Virginia University at Parkersburg 300 Campus Drive | Parkersburg, WV |  26104-8647  Phone:  304-424-8203 | Fax:  304-424-8315  Director:  Connie Dziagwa | E-mail:  connie.dziagwa@mail.wvu.edu

West Virginia University at Parkersburg is celebrating Diversity Week (Oct. 14-18). Theme of the week is "Diversity Unites" and the week’s activities are designed to enlighten and encourage consideration of how diversity can make a difference, college officials noted.

All programs are free and open to the public.

Three interactive workshops on diversity are scheduled Tuesday (Oct. 15) featuring Dr. Maura Cullen, an educational consultant and motivational speaker. She provides training programs and presentations on multi-culturism and leadership throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.

Her workshop presentations will include "Toto, We’re Not in Kansas Anymore," at 11 a.m., which will explore race, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic class, religion, ability and size discrimination in an interactive format; "Matching the Music with the Dancer: A Garanimals Approach to Diversity Education," at 1:30 p.m., which will cover how to integrate learning style, psychosocial development and anti-oppression educational theories to develop effective curricula; and "Shh … It’s Around the Corner," at 6:30 p.m., which will take a look at leadership and its impact on development of community. All three workshops will be held in the multi-purpose room.

On Wednesday (Oct. 16), Nancy Nanney, chair of the Humanities Division, will speak at 12:30 p.m. in Room 2536 on "Islam and Women: A Performance in the Making."

Thursday’s (Oct. 17) activities will include a brown bag lunch presentation at 12:30 p.m. in Room 2536 by the faculty members who visited Bulgaria this past summer. At 2 p.m., there will be a viewing of "World Song" video in the multipurpose room.

Diversity Week is sponsored by WVU Parkersburg’s Social Justice Committee and funded by a West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission grant.

Additional information is available by contacting Devika Malhotra, professor of sociology, 424-8229.