The OIED Campus Community Centers will host the fourth annual Social Justice January later this month. This collaborative annual event co-hosted by the GLBT Center, Women’s Center, Multicultural Student Affairs and African American Cultural Center aims to engage the campus community in critical conversations about contemporary social justice issues that impact multiple communities. Social Justice January also aims to create a space for student leaders to come together to build skills that will enable them to work collaboratively to effect social change.

This year, the Campus Community Centers have invited Jamila Lyiscott, community organizer, spoken word artist and Visiting assistant professor of social justice education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research, teaching and service focus on the intersections of race, language and social justice in education, and she is currently working on a book manuscript about her work within predominantly white institutions across the nation, helping educators to confront white privilege within and beyond the classroom.

Lyiscott will lead two events as part of Social Justice January. On Thursday, January 25, 2018, her lecture, “How Broken English Made Me Whole: The Politics of Race and Language,” will address white privilege within and beyond the classroom. The lecture will be held from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in Park Shops, Room 210 and is open to students, staff, faculty and community members. On Friday, January 26, 2018, she will facilitate a workshop on “Community Culture Circles: From Critical Analysis to Social Action” from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Witherspoon Student Center, Room 356. The workshop is to help student leaders develop strategies for moving to collective social action and toward the goal of individual and collective accountability.

• See the web calendar.

Renee Wells is the director of the GLBT Center.