2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageCelebrating the LGBTQ community through campus collaboration
Angela Franks Wells
Saturday, October 21 - 10:00AM to 11:00AM
Corn Center, Room 158
East Carolina University is located in a relatively small and rural community in eastern North Carolina. University campuses are microcosms of our society. 2016 brought about significant social and political unrest in the state of North Carolina, particularly with the passing of HB2, or the Bathroom Bill. The tension and fear in our students and communities was palpable. This session will share how two individuals from our campus began a collaborative experience to positively explore, express, and educate the community on the richness of our diversities and identities. The ongoing project provides a voice of celebration to counter the fear and hatred.
True Colors has had five iterations with unique themes and we're currently in the process of creating the sixth. The Dr. Jesse R. Peel LGBTQ Center and the School of Art and Design engage students in a collaborative endeavor to produce a photography exhibition with educational/interactive components.
The exhibits utilize student center spaces within the main campus and the health sciences campus; while also connecting to larger programming in conjunction with National Coming Out Day and LGBT History Month. The exhibits offer an opportunity for learning and community growth, as each exhibit explores facets of identity, community, family, and belonging among sexual and gender minorities. Student volunteers who help to create the work are able to utilize their skill sets from the classroom and studio in an effective and meaningful way that, in turn, facilitates cultural shifts on campus and beyond. We are instilling creative problem solving that goes beyond the self and aesthetics and into engaged living. We share the faces, voices, and narratives of our students, faculty, and staff to foster belonging, acceptance, and ownership of our community.
Attendees will discuss the logistics of interdisciplinary collaboration, seeking funding and support, creating teachable moments and practical skills development for students, effective means of community engagement, and assessment of the collaboration. We are interested in establishing ways to funnel the rage and frustration of the pervading "us against them" mentality into actions of beautiful dissent. With our work as the basis for discussion, we hope that participants might be inspired to explore similar collaborations on their campuses or in their community. While our work has engaged in intersectional explorations of LGBTQ identities, this could be the framework for exploring a rich variety of identities including, but not limited to, religion/spirituality, legal status, gender, cultural, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.
speaker
Angela Franks Wells
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