East/West Cultural Migrations Is Topic of Conference
At Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus on April 2

Brooklyn, N.Y. — The junction of Asian cultures with other ethnic groups in America is the focus of this year’s Honors Program conference, titled "Convergences: East/West Cultural Migrations," at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus.

Free and open to the public, the conference will take place on Wednesday, April 2 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Library Learning Center, Room 116. Panel discussions, a photography exhibit, dance and music performances and a student poster session will reflect on how cultures migrate and shape one another.

Mitziko Sawada, professor emerita of history at Hampshire College, Irene S. Leung, senior program associate of the Asia Society, and Xiao Ming Li of the Campus’s English Department will discuss "Power and Place in Culture and Politics" at a 10 a.m. panel presentation. At 11 a.m., Edward S. Casey, professor of philosophy at SUNY-Stony Brook, will give the keynote address on "A Sense of Place in Landscape Painting: East & West."

At noon, Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company will perform at the Triangle Theater. Its mission is to employ dance as an interpretive medium inspiring understanding between diverse peoples and cultures.

The afternoon events feature a student poster session facilitated by sociology professor Haesook Kim, a workshop on "Place, Memory, Identity: A Personal Journey" by library dean Constance Woo, and a performance by the Long Island University Chorus, directed by Gloria Cooper. The conference concludes with a photo exhibit and reception in the Resnick Gallery. The exhibit, "Migrant by Nature," features the work of Robert Dwyer.

The conference is supported by the John P. McGrath and Andrew Mellon Funds, the University Honors Program and the art and dance departments. For more information, call (718) 488-1657 or e-mail james.clarke@liu.edu.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including nearly 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.