The Winona State University CLASP Lecture Series will host “Dealing With Rapid Change: Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in Norway” with Jennifer Chernega at 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 16, in Stark Auditorium 103 as part of the 2015-16 University Theme, Equity as a Human Right: Building Inclusive Community.
Chernega will speak about her time in Norway studying race and ethnicity, a country that has been experiencing an increasing amount of immigration. Norway’s focus on ethnicity rather than race and assimilation provides an interesting contrast to the United States. In addition, Chernega will discuss how Norway’s compressed system of economic inequality with very little poverty and relatively little extreme wealth mediates racial/ethnic inequality.
Chernega is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Winona State. She specializes in racial issues, urban sociology and social inequality with an interest in qualitative and community-based research methods She spent her 2015 sabbatical year on a Fullbright Scholar Award lecturing in Norway. Chernega also gave a Ted Talk relating to the topic while she was there.
For WSU and its communities, partnering around a university theme has proven to be an effective strategy for bringing faculty, staff, students and community members to the engagement table. The 2015-16 University Theme, Equity as a Human Right: Building Inclusive Community, is about upholding people’s rights, valuing diversity, challenging intolerance, and making institutional change around issues of social justice. The year-long focus will enable students, faculty, staff, and members of the wider Winona and Rochester communities to explore the intersections of identities, cultures, and abilities.
This event is free and open to the public and is available for stream via ITV in UCR ST 116 on the Rochester campus.
For more information, contact David Speetzen at DSpeetzen@winona.edu
