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al Affair
Multicultur
OVEMBER
Inside this issue:
MISSION
Multicultural Affairs promotes awareness
of cultural diversity and multicultural
issues. The office serves as a resource
and referral center for faculty, staff,
students, and local communities.
In addition, the office enhances
educational development about diversity
and multicultural issues and advocates
for students’ needs on campus.
Check us out on Facebook!
Student Organizations
2
Calendar of Events
3
Campus Events
4-7
Special Events Around Topeka
Opportunities for Students
8
9-12
Multicultural Affairs
Washburn University
Morgan Hall, 110
1700 SW College
Topeka, KS 66621
Email: [email protected]
www.washburn.edu/mao
Monday-Friday
8:00am-5:00pm
(After 5pm by Appointment)
washburn.edu/diversity
facebook.com/wudiversity
Dona K. Walker, Director
Debra Hupp,
Senior Administrative Assistant
Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO)
Contact: [email protected]
Meets Wednesdays at 4:30 pm in the Cottonwood Room, Memorial Union
Indigenous Nations Student Association (INSA)
Contact: [email protected]
Asian American Association (AAA)
Leadership needed
Washburn Black Student Union (WBSU)
Contact: [email protected]
Meets Mondays at 7pm in the Blair Room, LLC
Washburn NAACP College Branch (NAACP)
Leadership needed
Questions?
Contact Multicultural Affairs at
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 2
November
ON CAMPUS
Nov. 2—Family Day at the Mulvane Art Museum Artlab
honoring Dia De Los Muertos (see page 6)
Nov. 4— Nov. 8 — Historical film series of Phi Alha Theta ( see page 4-5)
Nov. 7—Other Stories—Noon—1:00 p.m. @ Mabee Library
Storytelling with Washburn students and faculty
Nov. 8, 9, 15, 16 & Nov. 17—Neese Gray Theatre Production “Our Countrys’ Good ( see page 7)
Nov. 11—Veterans’ Day recognition ceremony at 12:00 at the
Vietnam War Memorial on campus (see page 7)
Nov. 14— “Reel Bad Arabs” (A video depicting the unfavorable representation
of Arabs & Muslims in American movies.)
12:00 pm in Mabee Library and 7:00 pm in the Blair Room of the LLC
IN THE COMMUNITY
Nov. 2—Kansas Children’s Discovery Center celebrating
Dia de los Muertos—Sugar Skull Making Workshop
Nov. 11—Veteran’s Day Parade—Downtown Topeka (see page 8)
Nov. 19—Art show and Ofrenda exhibit—NOTO art district
www.ddlmtopeka.com
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 3
HISTORICAL FILM SERIES OF PHI ALPHA THETA—FEATURING
GORDON PARKS….
The historical film series of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary society, is going big
in November with a week-long celebration of the films of Gordon Parks, celebrating
his 101st birthday (because prime numbers are so much more interesting than mere
centennials, anyway). Parks, the legendary Kansas-born pioneering AfricanAmerican photographer, writer, and filmmaker (and musician, and visual artist),
came to film late, following a well-established career in photography (famous especially for the images he did
for Life magazine of the civil-rights movement, Black Muslims, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali, but known as
well for his fashion photography), but he left a distinctive mark.
Our schedule of films is as follows (all showings free and open to the public):
Monday, Nov. 4, Henderson 304, 7 p.m.: Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks (2000).
For those who know little about Parks's long career, this HBO documentary, following on the heels of Parks's
retrospective book of the same title (1998), provides an excellent overview of both his life and his multiple
careers. The film, with narration by Denzel Washington, includes snippets of his films, a good sample of his
photographic images, some of his visual art and music, and interviews with a range of people, including
Parks himself, still a lively presence at the age of 88.
Tuesday, November 5, Henderson 308, 7 p.m.: The Learning Tree (1969).
Parks wrote, directed, and produced this pioneering film, based on his own autobiographical novel; he also
provided its musical score. Parks himself later said of the film: "it's a movie about people, complicated people,
and of course it has a lot of me in it." Set (and filmed) in Parks’s birthplace, Fort Scott, Kansas, and drawing on
his own memories of growing up black in Kansas, the film limns the delicate balance between the races in
small-town Kansas in the age of Jim Crow. Thomas Cripps, himself a pioneer in giving academic attention to
black film, wrote of The Learning Tree that it showed “touching respect and love for his native Kansas,” and
at the same time “the movie shimmers with the cosmopolitan eye of a man of the world…. He chooses everything—scene, incident, character—to open the viewer’s eye first to the racial condition of Kansas and then to
the human condition, all captured in the coming of age of an endearing black manchild.” And, like all great
Kansas films, this one includes a tornado.
Wednesday, November 5, Henderson 304, 7 p.m.: Leadbelly (1976).
The life of legendary bluesman Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, provides the story for Parks’s
biopic; Leadbelly’s songs, sung by HiTide Harris, provide the score. The life was a hard one, dealing with poverty and racism in Texas in the 1930s-40s, with time on the chain gangs and in the cotton fields pulling Leadbelly away from his music and seeking to hold him down; nothing holds him down, however, and the songs
stand as the proof of it. Roger Ebert called this “one of the best biographies of a musician I’ve ever seen,” because “Leadbelly’s music is seen as rising naturally out of his life and experiences,” while Parks displays “an
attention to visual detail that tells us all we need to know.” Vincent Canby, in the New York Times, called the
film “elegiacal,” while complaining that the film seems “a recollection of the legend, rather than the man.” But
perhaps in this case we can follow the advice of film director John Ford’s character: “This is the West, sir.
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Or film it.
Continued on page 5…………...
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 4
Continued from page 4………….
Thursday, November 6, Henderson 308, 7 p.m.: Solomon Northup’s Odyssey : 12 Years A Slave (1984)
Yes, a new, big Hollywood production of Solomon Northup’s Odyssey has just been released, but Gordon
Parks got there first (and the new film has yet to be scheduled to play in Topeka anyway). Parks directed
this adaptation of free black Northup’s memoir about being sold into slavery, 12 Years A Slave (1853), for
television’s Hallmark-sponsored American Playhouse. Parks was 72 at the time and had not directed a film
in close to a decade, but, as he told the New York Times at the time: “the story of Solomon Northup was
enough to lure Mr. Parks back to film. ‘I decided to do this one because I thought it was so important. So
little is said about slavery. This was our holocaust, and it’s always hushed, hushed, hushed.” The film, because it was done for television, created new constraints for Parks. As he told the Times, these constraints
operated both internally (he notes: “I wanted to make it bearable for people to look at. I wanted to minimize the violence in it, if I could, and still tell the story”), and through what the Times called “external constraints” (“There were at least five historical advisers … and one of them stayed on the set all the time. They
were always there, breathing over your shoulder. I was asked n certain areas to keep it toned down. I
would say, ‘But these things happened.’”). Still, for Parks, the imperative was to tell the story: “the thing is
to get it done and get it out.” Parks also provided music for the film.
Washburn Assistant Professor of History Kelly Erby will lead discussion.
Friday, November 7, Henderson 308, 7 p.m.: Shaft (1971)
I’m talking about Shaft! Parks directed the film, Richard Roundtree played Shaft (and did most of his own
stunts), Isaac Hayes provided the theme song so many of us can still hum. Shaft was a breakthrough film
in multiple respects: the first black private eye, the founding film of blaxploitation cinema (even if Parks
despaired at the label), and Parks’s greatest commercial success. In conversation with Roger Ebert, Parks
recalled the film’s reception: “Suddenly, I was the perpetrator of a hero. Ghetto kids were coming downtown to see their hero, Shaft, and here was a black man on the screen they didn’t have to be ashamed of.”
Nor was Parks ashamed of his contribution to commercially successful black film; as he told Ebert: “We
need movies about the history of our people, yes, but we need heroic fantasies about our people, too. We
all need a little James Bond now and then.” And we still do.
Special bonus: Leading discussion of the film will be University of Kansas-based filmmaker Kevin Willmott.
Some of you may recall that Willmott’s most recent film, a hilarious meditation on racial stereotypes and
civil rights, Destination: Planet Negro!, was featured in our historical film series last semester. Among Willmott’s other works are Ninth Street, C.S.A., Bunker Hill, and The Only Good Indian; his newest work,
Jayhawkers, which treats legendary basketball player Wilt Chamberlain in the context of the era’s civilrights struggles, is in postproduction.
Saturday, November 8, Henderson 308, 7 p.m. Shaft’s Big Score (1972).
Can’t get enough of him, can you? Shaft (and Richard Roundtree playing him, and Gordon Parks directing
again) is back in this sequel to the hit film (the only one of the two sequels to be directed by Parks).
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 5
PLEASE JOIN US
NOVEMBER 2, 2013
FROM 1-4
FAMILY DAY AT THE MULVANE ART MUSEUM
ARTLAB
HONORING DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
Cut tissue paper papel picado and string a banner. Create
a retablo. Hand-craft tissue paper marigolds. Design your
own Dia de los Muertos mask. Visitors are welcome to
add their own offerings to the ArtLab’s ofrenda.
Our guests from KU’s Center for Latin American &
Caribbean Studies Outreach Program will be sharing their
Day of the Dead Cultural Trunk with ArtLab visitors.
<[email protected]>
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 6
November 11th - Plan to attend the Veterans’ Day recognition ceremony at noon
at the Vietnam War Memorial on campus. If you have a name you’d like to be read
at the ceremony, please email the student services office at:
[email protected].
Veterans Day is the day that’s been set aside to honor American veterans of all wars. It’s celebrated on
the 11th day of the 11th month because that’s the
day when an armistice or temporary cessation of
hostilities was signed between the Allied Nations
and Germany during the “The Great War.”
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 7
Date:
November 11, 2013
Time: 11:00 am
Where: Downtown Topeka
The Topeka Veterans Day Parade is open to American
Veterans, Blue Star Families, Gold Star Families, Reserve & Active duty Military members. Floats will be
provided by the Jamie Jarboe Foundation. Veteran
floats will be made for each war and veterans are encouraged to contact [email protected] to help
design and build floats in their area.
Staging:
Staging will be in the area from 1st and Kansas to 4th
and Kansas and will begin 1t 8:00 am. No one will be
allowed in the staging area prior to 11:00 am.
Rules:
There will be no parking in the staging area for nonparade entries, so all entrants who will be gathering
their groups need to plan accordingly. All groups and
individuals are welcome—registration of $5.00 is required.
GROUPS: Form before you come to the staging area
so you can be assured to stay together.
The parade is created to honor our American Veterans. No political advertising and all floats must be approved in advance. No items of any kind can be
thrown from vehicles or floats—any candy or beads
must be distributed by walkers accompanying the vehicles/floats. All vehicles must comply with all applicable laws and be operated by licensed drivers. The Parade Committee reserves the right to refuse participation to any entrant that does not comply with these
rules.
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 8
Applications are accepted for the 2014 Ford Foundation Fellowships Programs for Achieving Excellence in
College and University Teaching. Full eligibility information and online applications are available on The
National Academies website at: http://nationalacademies.org/ford
Eligibility Requirements:
 U.S. citizens, nationals, permanent residents, or individuals granted deferred action status under the
DACA program
 Planning a career in teaching and research at the college or university level in a research-based filed of
science, social science or humanities
Stipends and Allowances:
 Predoctoral—$20,000 to the fellow, institutional allowance of $2,000 for three years
 Dissertation—$21,000 for one year
 Postdoctoral—$40,000 for one year, $1,500 employing institution allowance, to be matched by
employing institution
Awardees have expenses paid to attend one Conference of Ford Fellows.
Approximately 60 predoctoral, 35 dissertation, and 24 postdoctoral fellowships sponsored by the Ford
Foundation and administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
Application Deadline Dates:
 Predoctoral: November 20, 2013
 Dissertation: November 15, 2013
 Postdoctoral: November 15, 2013
For Further information please contact:
Fellowships Office, Keck 576
National Research Council of the National Academies
500 Fifth Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202.224.2872
Fax: 202.334.3419
[email protected]
Applications are now being taken for the Legislative internship program for the: Spring 2014 in the Kansas Legislature. Students can get applications at: http://www.washburn.edu/academics/collegeschools/arts-sciences/departments/political-science-public-administration/internships/application.html or
email Dr. Beatty at [email protected] or pick up one in the Political Science office, HC 215.
The deadline for unpaid internships is November 22. Some of the internships, students can receive course
credit by taking one of the Political Science internship classes or the HN 202 class.
Along with many students over the past few years learning a lot about the legislative process via the program, the internships have also proven quite valuable for certain students who have parlayed the experience into jobs and campaign opportunities with members of the state legislature.
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 9
UNCF • MERCK
Science Initiative
Science Scholarships and Fellowships
The UNCF•Merck Science Initiative is an innovative approach
that creates opportunities in the biological, chemical and biomedical engineering sciences for African American students
throughout the country.
UNDERGRADUATE
Science Research Scholarships
Scholarships and awards up to $25,000
 Internship opportunities
 Mentoring and networking opportunities
 Eligibility: College juniors, science or engineering majors, 3.3 GPA

GRADUATE
Science Research Dissertation Fellowships
Fellowships up to $53,500
 Mentoring and networking opportunities
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Eligibility: Ph.D. or equivalent degree candidates engaged in dissertation research
in the biological, chemical or engineering fields
POSTDOCTORAL
Science Research Fellowships
Fellowships up to $92,000
 Mentoring and networking opportunities


Eligibility:
Ph.D. or equivalent degree recipients in the biological, chemical or
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 10
Contact: Carrie Greenwood, State Coordinator
4001 SE 34th Terr.
Topeka, KS 66605
(785) 267-5982 Phone
(785) 215-6699 Fax
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MS. WHEELCHAIR KANSAS SEEKING
NOMINATIONS FOR WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Program is currently searching for women of achievement, who are
wheelchair mobile, to serve as contestants in the Tenth Annual Ms. Wheelchair Kansas event. Contestants can be
nominated by a person or group or can choose to participate in the program. Organizations and companies are
being encouraged to nominate women who are passionate, dynamic, articulate, and who have a message to share
throughout the state.
The Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Program is NOT a beauty contest, but rather a competition to select the most articulate, accomplished delegate to serve as a role model and spokesperson for people with disabilities in Kansas. She
will successfully advocate, educate, and empower all people on a state level. Contestants will be scored based on
their accomplishments, self-perception, communication, and projection skills. The crowned titleholder will have the
opportunity to travel throughout the state of Kansas educating various groups about the issues of importance to
people with disabilities. She will have the opportunity to share her chosen platform, interact with the media, and
network with many people throughout Kansas. Her reign will ultimately lead up to an opportunity to attend the national competition where she will compete for the title of Ms. Wheelchair America.
The Tenth Annual Ms. Wheelchair Kansas event will be held on March 14-16, 2014, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in
Topeka, Kan. Contestants must meet the following requirements:
 be a US citizen between the ages of 21 and 60
 utilize a wheelchair for 100% of daily community mobility
 be a resident of Kansas for at least the past six months
 marital status is not a consideration
 have not held a similar title in another state
 be willing to raise money and obtain sponsors for the state and national entry fees
 be willing and able to travel throughout the state - this includes having access to reliable and easily
obtained transportation
 be ready and willing to successfully advocate, educate, and empower all persons through various
opportunities over the course of the year
Organizations, companies, or individuals can nominate women by submitting a nomination form. Interested participants must then send in a completed application with a $150 entry fee, which can be obtained through sponsors or
the nominator, as well as a written letter of recommendation and a portrait to be included in the program. Applications must be postmarked by January 7, 2014.
To learn more about the Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Program; to become a contestant; or to nominate a woman of
achievement, please contact Carrie Greenwood, State Coordinator, at 785-267-5982 or via e-mail at [email protected]. More information, a printable application, and a nomination form can also be found on
the MWKS Web site at www.mswheelchairkansas.org.
The Ms. Wheelchair Kansas Program is sponsored in part by the Prairie Band Potowatomi Nation.
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
PAGE 11
SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
Learn to conduct a research project in…...
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Anatomy and Physiology
Biochemistry/Molecular Biophysics
Biology
Chemistry
English
Grain Science
Horticulture, Forestry & Recreation Services
Physics
Plant Pathology
Psychological Sciences
Please check the SUROP website for a regularly updated list of participating departments and to learn about
research being conducted by potential mentors in each discipline.
http://www.k-state.edu/grad/surop/surop.html
Participate in Kansas State University’s
2014 SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM (SUROP)
Program Summary
Kansas State University Graduate School is sponsoring the Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
(SUROP) from May 27 to July 25, 2014 (participants must arrive May 26). Participants will work in project teams with faculty
in various fields, will obtain first-hand research experience, and will gain valuable preparation for graduate or professional
school. In addition to spending approximately 40 hours each week working on a research project with a faculty mentor,
SUROP participates will attend weekly seminars to learn about the graduate school experience and will attend other social
and educational events and activities. At the end of the nine weeks, participants will present their summer research project
in a special forum.
Eligibility

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Members of ethnic minority groups and other under-represented groups, such as first generation college students
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Applicants must be available for the entire period of the program
Applicants must be American citizens or have legal resident alien status
Applicants should have an undergraduate cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale
Applicants must have a career goal that includes graduate-level education of at least two years beyond the B.S. or B.A
degree
Applicants must be completing their bachelor’s degree on or after December 2014
Financial Support

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Stipend of $3,000
Travel allowance up to $300
Room and board allowance covered by program
Application Procedure
 Submit completed application form (accessible from SUROP website)

Submit statement of purpose that describes your academic and
career goals, research interests, and faculty with whom you
would like to work and why
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Recommendation letters from TWO faculty members
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Official transcripts of all undergraduate coursework
including grades for the Fall 2013 semester
For more information contact:
The Graduate School—SUROP
Kansas State University
103 Fairchild Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506-1103
Phone: (795) 532-1682
Toll-free: 1-800-651-1816
Email: [email protected]
http://www.k-state.edu/grad/surop/surop.html
Early applications will be reviewed on a continuous basis beginning November 1, 2013.
Completed applications must be received no later than February 1, 2014.
NOVEMBER 2013 MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
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