Lecture: "Opening the Closed Society," Susan Glisson, William Winter Institute at the University of Mississippi, Avery Research Center, April 14th, 6:00 pm - College of Charleston Libraries

Lecture: “Opening the Closed Society,” Susan Glisson, PhD, William Winter Institute at the University of Mississippi, Avery Research Center, April 14th, 6:00 pm
Long known as the bastion of American racism, in recent years Mississippi has made efforts to create a culture of truth-telling, equity, and reconciliation. In this presentation, Dr. Susan Glisson, director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, will share community-based and institutional efforts she has supported throughout the state and beyond. These efforts have included prosecutions against racist violence, public ceremonies of commemoration and acknowledgment of past injustice, historical tours and markers that change the geography of memory, and the creation and implementation of school curricula on human rights. The William Winter Institute has also promoted healing work among previously segregated groups through community building to alter public collective narratives of areas known for racial violence. Finally, the Institute promotes ‪academic investigations and scholarship on patterns and legacies of abuse, and initiates partnerships of advocacy and policy groups that seek new institutional reforms that undo the structures of oppression and replace them with more equitable solutions.