For over a year, the CLAS Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has been working hard to organize the symposium Histories and Legacies of Displacement and Removal on the Auraria Campus. This two-day interactive gathering, taking place on September 28-29, will explore the University of Colorado Denver’s histories of displacement and removal of Indigenous and Hispanic/Latinx communities. The event will provide a space where participants can engage with the campus’s past and present and strengthen on‐going efforts to construct mechanisms to acknowledge, confront, and commemorate the forced relocations of communities of color that allowed for the existence of the Auraria Campus. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, it’s more important than ever for us to reflect on the painful parts of our history in order to make sure we are working in every way to support equity going forward.
The complete schedule, descriptions, and registration for the symposium is now available on the CLAS website. While the event will be held in-person at St. Cajetan’s Church, options for virtual participation are available (and Spanish translation services will be a part of the zoom option). The hope is that this event will ensure the continued sharing of Denver, Auraria, and campus histories and promote broader understanding of the impact of displacement and removal. The symposium will include academic panels, personal testimony, open discussions, walking tours, documentary film, and more, but I wanted to highlight just a few of our own faculty and students taking part:
September 28, 2:00-3:15pm: "Current Case Studies of Displacement Pressures in Denver"
- Valentina Serrano Salomón, MA Student, Sociology
- Marisa Westbrook, PhD Candidate, Health and Behavioral Sciences
September 29, 9:30-10:45am: "Community and Social Justice in Auraria Commemoration Projects"
- Rachel Gross, History
- Brian Page, Geography and Environmental Sciences
- Tony Robinson, Political Science
Septmber 29, 3:30pm-4:45pm: "Archival and Digital Methods in the Classroom to Understand Displacement and Removal"
- Rebecca Hunt, History
- Amanda Rees, Geography and Environmental Sciences
- Michelle Comstock, English
In addition, History Graduate Students Bianca Barriskill and Maggie Graber-Heisinger collected oral histories, and Lee Bishop and Whitney Roberts developed and will run walking-tours. Registration is required to attend, and don’t wait because space is limited.
I’d like to thank everyone both inside and outside CLAS who are making this event possible, including the CLAS members of the symposium working group Rachel Gross, Timberly Roane, Kristen Salsbury, and Tracy Kohm. Most of all, this symposium is a testament to the diligence and dedication of Associate Dean Marjorie Levine-Clark. Her continued commitment to expanding diversity, equity and inclusion programing in the college and beyond can only be described as heroic.
