Inside Iowa State

February 25, 2005

Filmmaker to give ISCORE keynote talk

by Anne Krapfl

Filmmaker, poet and diversity trainer Lee Mun Wah will give the luncheon talk at the sixth annual Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE) Friday, March 4, in the Memorial Union. Wah is a national speaker on diversity issues and consults with companies, schools and government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA.

The purpose of ISCORE is to give a local (campus) perspective to issues of race and ethnicity, said Debra Sanborn, who coordinates several student scholarship programs and is a co-chair of the ISCORE committee.

"This is about the students, and for many students the experience is a life-changing event," she said. "We would like to see more faculty and staff participation -- because we are the ones working with these students."

The conference, which is free and open to all faculty, staff and students, will include a welcome from President Gregory Geoffroy; an opening address by Sidner Larson, associate professor of English; four 50-minute breakout sessions and a closing reception. A registration form and full schedule are online at http://www.admissions.iastate.edu/iscore. Lunch is free for registered participants (registration is requested by Monday, Feb. 28).

The ISCORE planning team includes the 18 undergraduates and about a dozen staff who attended the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity last June. The two conferences are part of a year-long, for-credit course on race and ethnicity. All 18 students will lead discussions during the breakout sessions.

Keynote

Wah's films include Stolen Ground, which challenges myths about Asian Americans' status as the "model minority." It won a Certificate of Merit at the 1993 San Francisco International Film Festival. In his second film, The Color of Fear, eight men of different ethnicities talk openly about racism. The Color of Fear 2 was released in 1998. His newest film, Last Chance for Eden, a six-part film series that explores the impact of racism, sexism and heterosexism, was released in spring 2003.

He also directs StirFry Seminars and Consulting, Berkeley, Calif.

The luncheon session runs from noon to 2 p.m. in the Sun Room.

Lee Mun Wah