"The Assembly of the Delegates"    by Jerry Ross

Home :: Schedule :: Keynote :: Keynote Bio :: Afternoon Session Description :: Questions :: Contacts :: Volunteer Form

Welcome - Lane Annual Spring Conference

Friday, April 22, 2005

Lane in a Different Mirror: Re-Visioning Lane's Future

"Creating a Community of a Larger Memory"

Program Description

The Morning Session:
Keynote Speaker: Ronald Takaki
“America in a Different Mirror: Re-Visioning Our Nation’s Past”

Lane is delighted to welcome Ronald Takaki, distinguished author of this year’s Reading Together book, A Larger Memory: A History of our Diversity, With Voices, as well as numerous other award-winning books. The Los Angeles Times has described Professor Takaki as “a minority Everyman…a rare hybrid, a multicultural scholar.”

Professor Takaki’s lecture will challenge the master narrative of American history – the familiar but mistaken story that our nation was settled only by European immigrants and that Americans are only white or European in ancestry. His hope is to offer a more inclusive and accurate definition of who is an American.

Professor Takaki asks us to consider three questions,

• What is multiculturalism?
• Why do we need it?
• How do we do it in the curriculum of the 21 st century?

A panel discussion and question and answer session will follow Professor Takaki’s presentation.

The Afternoon Session:
A Chorus of Voices: Creating a Larger Memory of Life at Lane.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to sing in public to participate in this year’s Spring Conference afternoon session. However, you will be encouraged to listen and speak. Informed by Professor Takaki’s definitions of inclusive histories, Lane staff from all workunits, departments, committees and organizations will come together as delegates to enter into important conversations about questions facing our college.

To provide structure for our conversations, we will be adapting an approach called “appreciative inquiry.” Appreciative Inquiry fosters a space for empowering and positive stories and choices to emerge. This strategy will help us uncover stories about our organization that may challenge Lane’s “master narrative.” To ensure that everyone is heard and to encourage active listening, groups of between 40 and 100 people will gather in separate rooms, taking turns talking in circles called “fishbowls” and listening and note taking. Inspired by Professor Takaki’s inclusive histories, we will create a larger memory of life at Lane, and we will envision and articulate a future for the entire Lane community which achieves its full mission and reaches its full potential.