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Title |
Description |
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Jones A/B, KCC
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"Jesus Went to Jail, Too: What We Can Learn from 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'"
Dr. Madison Clark, Assistant Professor of History
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The presentation will focus on key parts of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail." While MLK is often hailed as a nonviolent leader of the Golden Era of the Civil Rights Movement, there often lacks much public discussion on his response to the white moderate who felt uncomfortable with his approaches and tactics for justice and equality. The lecture will go into detail about why it's important to challenge discomfort and how this aids in building stronger allyship and communities.
As an outside project, participants will be given the name of a lesser-known Civil Rights figure to research and upload findings to a shared folder. This will help to build knowledge systems as well as community engagement.
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Jones C/D, KCC
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"Malcolm X and MLK: The Intersection of Two Greats"
Nader Said '29
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A journey through the lives of two of the most impactful civil rights leaders of the era and their lives, which were not only deeply intertwined with each other but also deeply integrated with the history of America changing for the better. This session will focus primarily on the rise of Malcolm X as a leader and then lead into his connection with Dr. King and their complex history together.
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Frida Nilsen Lounge, Fjelstad Hall
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"Protest and Pleasure: Can There Be Joy in Resistance?"
Dr. Tess Varner, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies
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"The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference." — Audre Lorde
This session explores the ways that joy and pleasure can serve as bridges between our various communities, as well as making the weight of social justice work easier to carry. Recognizing, sharing, and validating the importance of having fun and feeling good can play an important role in resistance to oppressive systems. Together in this session, we will look at the politics of pleasure and work to develop a toolkit for the activist life that makes space for joy, as well as one that recognizes and addresses its potential pitfalls.
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Bishop Whipple 144
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"Pan-Africanism, Youth Mobilization, and the Ongoing Work of Justice"
Mapalo Sumbwe '26 and Nana Agyemang '27, Concordia African Student Association
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This session explores historical and contemporary examples of African youth mobilization, highlighting figures such as Thomas Sankara and movements like the South African Students’ Organization (SASO). We connect global struggles for justice to the MLK Day theme by examining how Pan-Africanism and collective action continue to inspire community-building today. Participants will engage with questions about activism, identity, and responsibility within their own context at Concordia.
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Bishop Whipple 244
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"Once Upon a First-Year Seminar: Connection Through Storytelling"
Dr. Lisa Twomey, Director of Community Engagement and Integrative Learning, and FYS Students
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Students from the First-Year Seminar "Once Upon a Community: Creating Connections through Storytelling" will share their experience with a storytelling exchange project they completed with English Language Learners in Moorhead this past fall. The purpose of the exchange was to create a relationship with someone completely different from themselves simply by taking time to sit down and talk.
Students will share stories about the experience and about how being intentional storytellers and listeners is a way to understand others and work toward building strong communities and peace.
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Grose 134
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"Womanist Wisdom on Solidarity and Differences: Engaging Emilie M. Townes"
Dr. Evan Marsolek, Career Success and Academic Advisor
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This session will comprise an oration of Emilie M. Townes' "Women's Wisdom on Solidarity and Difference (On Not Rescuing the Killers)," followed by large group discussion on some takeaways and challenges. This session will also provide context for womanist ethical reflection.
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Grose 232
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"Growing Together Community Gardens + Cornucopia Greenhouse and Gardens"
Jack Wood, Growing Together Community Gardens; Dr. Joan Kopperud, Professor Emeriti-in Residence of English; Henry Skatvold '27
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Growing Together Community Gardens is a community organization that currently has nine gardens in Fargo. The newest garden will be in Moorhead, located at Concordia College's former Cornucopia site (on 11th Street east of the campus townhouses).
In this session, representatives from Growing Together will provide a brief overview of the 20-year history of the organization and explain how the Concordia site will be a major asset to Growing Together Community Gardens, to the Fargo-Moorhead community, and to Concordia College. Participants attending this session will be invited to ask questions and provide feedback for the planning stage of this exciting partnership with Concordia and Growing Together.
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ISC 101
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"Fall 2025 Justice Journey: Winston-Salem, North Carolina"
Phia Revoir '26, Nati Adams '29, Mariana Martins Carvalho '26 | Campus Ministry
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Come learn the student experience from the Fall 2025 Justice Journey — from serving lunch to a majority housing-insecure congregation, pilgrimaging with formerly homeless Dwelling Counselors, and renovating a house with Spark. This Justice Journey showed our students that their impact on their community is more than just a once-a-week church service, but the model of the Dwelling is serving the Winston-Salem community year-round, multiple times a week.
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ISC 201
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"MLK and Gandhi: A Shared Dream of Dignity"
Dr. Anne Mocko, Director of Interfaith Engagement
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This panel will examine ways that MLK was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who invented civil disobedience several decades before the American Civil Rights Movement as a tactic to peacefully resist British colonization. We will look at Gandhi's life and work, and examine the ways that Gandhi's commitment to nonviolence was rooted in Indian religious traditions. By looking at these Indian inspirations, and particularly the religious communities that helped inspire Gandhi, we will be able to see Dr. King's dream in a larger global context.
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ISC 301
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"'Gurl, Why Are You Throwing Shade?': A White Queer's Guide to Recognizing POC's Role in LGBTQ+ History"
Dominic Meyers, Instructor of Communication Studies
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This session aims to recognize how much of LGBTQ+ history and activism has been accomplished by Queer People of Color. Often, the little education and attention LGBTQ+ history and activism receives has to sanitize itself of identities other than Queer to be respected. This session will provide a timeline of modern LGBTQ+ history in the United States, discuss the political and social movement activism developed through that history, and implications for how much of modern Queer culture is thanks to the Queer People of Color that came before us.
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