The Office of Equity and Diversity has planned an all-day, action- packed special event for Diversity Fair 2009. The Fair will take place on Thursday, November 5, 2009 beginning at 10:30am in The DeNaples 

Center 4th floor. The theme for this year's Fair is "See yourself in others."

The Fair will kick off with special guest speaker, Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee with a presentation in the DeNaples Theater on Voices in the Wilderness. Kathy Kelly, 52, of Chicago, IL, helped initiate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq. For bringing “medicine and toys” to Iraq in open violation of the UN/US sanctions she and other campaign members  were fined $20,000 and threatened with 12 years in prison. 

Kelly has taught in Chicago area community colleges and high schools since 1974. From 1980 – 1986 she taught at St. Ignatius College Prep (Chicago, IL ). She is active with the Catholic Worker Movement. Kelly helped organize nonviolent direct action teams in Haiti (summer of 1994), Bosnia (August, 1993, December, 1992) and Iraq (Gulf Peace Team, 1991). In April of 2002, she was among the first internationals to visit the Jenin camp in the Occupied West Bank. She currently helps coordinate the Voices in the Wilderness campaign. Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison (2005) by Kathy Kelly is available through Counterpunch or Voices in the Wilderness.

The Diversity Fair festivities will then shift to the DeNaples Ballroom where attendees will receive a Passport to Diversity and a sportpack upon arrival. They will have the opportunity to visit the informational tables in World Cultures, World Religions, disAbilities (visible and invisible), Veterans, Gender Equity and Inclusion and a One World display, etc. Upon getting the required number of stamps on the passport, participants will receive a goodies such as T-shirts, frisbies, etc. Diverse foods will be served all day. 

The scheduled events are as follows: 

11:30am: Live performance of Marko Marcinko and the Latin Jazz Quintet; 

12:30pm: Salsa Dance lesson; 

1:00 pm: Learn to speak Chinese; 

1:30pm: Music from around with world with Jamie Orfanella and The Tribal Waves; 

2:30pm: Middle Eastern music and dance Performance by Diana Shahein and the Oasis Winter Garden; 

3:00pm: Middle Eastern Dance lesson; 

3:30pm: more music from Tribal Waves; 

4:15pm: Learn to speak Swahili; 

4:45pm: Dance performance by the Urban Beats.

November 6 from 9:00am - 12:00pm,  we will follow up our Fair on Friday, with a special Northeastern Pennsylvania Diversity Education Consortium presentation "Best Practices to Champion Diversity" given by Dr. Blaine Steensland, for all faculty, staff, students and NEPDEC members. This event will take place in DeNaples 405. Refreshments will be served.

For information, please contact diversity@scranton.edu.  This Diversity Fair is funded by a Diversity Initiatives Fund Grant from the University of Scranton and hosted by teh Office of Equity and Diversity.