UAS Power & Privilege Symposium Adds a Second Day to Virtual Event and Announces Schedule, November 10-11

The University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) Power & Privilege Symposium planning committee has added another day of sessions for its new virtual format. Save both dates - Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10-11, 2020.

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: October 28, 2020

The University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) Power & Privilege Symposium planning committee has added another day of sessions for its new virtual format. Save both dates - Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10-11, 2020. Registration is now live for these sessions and will save attendees time by auto-enrolling them into the Zoom sessions. The full schedule with details about each session and presenters can be found on the Juneau Campus Calendar.

Keynote Highlights

Haley Moss, November 10 at 9:00 am

Haley Moss was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and made international headlines for becoming the first documented openly autistic attorney admitted to the Florida Bar. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law in 2018, and graduated from the University of Florida in 2015 with Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Criminology.

Haley is currently writing her next book, Great Minds Think Differently: Neurodiversity for Lawyers. She is also the author of Middle School: The Stuff Nobody Tells You About and A Freshman Survival Guide for College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Stuff Nobody Tells You About. She also illustrated and contributed to the anthology What Every Autistic Girl Wishes Her Parents Knew. Her writing about autism, neurodiversity, and disability has appeared in mainstream publications such as The Washington Post, ABA Journal, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Fast Company, and more. She currently serves on the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Board of Governors, the Florida Bar Journal editorial board, the constituency board for the University of Miami – Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and the Board of Directors for Different Brains. She is a co-chair of the Miami-Dade Chapter of Florida Association for Women Lawyers Diversity Committee.

Hina Wong-Kalu, November 10 at 1:00 pm

Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies "a place in the middle" between male and female – as well as a modern transgender woman. Wong-Kalu was born in the Nuʻuanu district of Oʻahu. She was a founder of the Kulia Na Mamo transgender health project, cultural director of a Hawaiian public charter school, and candidate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, one of the first transgender candidates for statewide political office in the United States. She also served as the Chair of the Oʻahu Island Burial Council, which oversees the management of Native Hawaiian ancestral burial sites. She is a recipient of the National Education Association Ellison Onizuka Human and Civil Rights Award, Native Hawaiian Community Educator of the year, and a White House Champion of Change. USA Today named Wong-Kalu one of ten Women of the Century from Hawai'i.

Wong-Kalu was the subject of the feature documentary film Kumu Hina, directed by Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson. Kumu Hina premiered at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2014 and won best documentary at the Frameline Film Festival and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Wong-Kalu wrote a children's version of the film, A Place in the Middle, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival for Kids and is featured on PBS learning media. Wong-Kalu co-directed and produced the short film, Lady Eva and feature documentary Leitis in Waiting about the struggle of the Indigenous transgender community in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. In 2020, Wong-Kalu directed, produced and narrated Kapaemahu, an animated short film based on the Hawaiian story of four legendary māhū who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawai'i. Narrated in the rare Niihau dialect of Hawaiian, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and qualified for the Oscars at Animayo.

Pre-recorded Sessions

Welcome to the Symposium with Campus & Community Leaders

Interim Chancellor Karen Carey, Dean of Students Jackie Wilson, DáxKílatch Kolene E James, Xeetli.éesh Lyle James, and Áak’w Kwáan elder Frances Houston

Decolonizing the Ocean Sciences

Presenter: Dr. Michael Navarro

Creative Nonfiction and Lived Experiences of Power

Presenter: Dr. Corinna Cook

Live Sessions – Tuesday, November 10

10:00 am – Red Cross: Confronting Power and Privilege When Preparing for, Responding to, and Recovering from Disasters

Presenter: Britt (Britta) Tonnessen), Disaster Program Manager with the American Red Cross of Alaska

11:00 am – "The Walkers" A renaissance of indigenous culture in Peru

Presenters: Aaron Ebner, Executive Director of Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development, and Dashiell Hillgartner, UAS Academic Exchange and Study Abroad Coordinator

2:00 pm – Picture a Scientist

Presenter: Dr. Lisa Hoferkamp, UAS Associate Professor of Chemistry

Panel Members: Dr. Shannon Atkinson, UAF Professor of Fisheries, Dr. Sonia Nagorski, UAS Assistant Professor of Geology, Romee McAdams, UAS Title IX Coordinator, Office of Equity and Compliance

3:00 pm – Adding Indigenous Content and Protecting Cultural Safety

Presenter: Dr. X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell, UAS Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages

4:00 pm – The Privilege to be Free from Addiction: How LGBTQ+ and African Americans are being targeted by Big Tobacco

Presenter: Justin Hansen, UAS student, and Sierra Palmer, intern for National LGBT Cancer Network

Faculty Sponsor: UAA faculty Dr. Casey Rudkin

5:00 pm – Stepping into the future, looking into the past (Suicide in Indigenous communities)

Presenter: Kootxheech Elizah Dominy, UAS Student

Staff Sponsor: Kolene James, UAS Student Equity & Multicultural Services Manager

Live Sessions – Wednesday, November 11

9:00 am – "When the Salmon Spoke" Storytellers' Panel Discussion

Presenter: UAS alumna Breanna Walker, Salmon Beyond Borders Campaign Coordinator

10:00 am – Echoes of War: The power of voice in museum design

Presenter: Niko Sanguinetti, Curator of Collections and Exhibits at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum

11:00 am – Avoiding Echo Chambers, Confirmation Bias, and Mis/Disinformation Online

Presenter: Kaia Henrickson, UAS Information Literacy Librarian, Egan Library

12:00 pm – Stories of Resilience: Alaska Native Student Transition and First Year Persistence in Higher Ed

Presenter: Valerie Svancara, UAA First Year Advisor & Barbara Sikvayugak, co-researcher and UAA student

2:00 pm – Power of Sexuality

Presenter: Kelsey Gerke, Community Outreach Educator with Planned Parenthood GNHI

3:00 pm – Understanding Disaster & Resilience through the Lens of Power & Privilege

Panel of UAS Sustainability Committee Members

4:00 pm – Addressing Systemic Racism Together

Presenter: Haifa Foroughi with the Juneau Human Rights Commission

5:00 pm – Rivers Through Green

Presenter: Michael Dickerson, UAS Graduate Student

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Jeffrey Lofthus, UAS Professor of Education

Registration is now live for these sessions and will save attendees time by auto-enrolling them into the Zoom sessions. The full schedule with details about each session can be found on the Juneau Campus Calendar.