Communication Solutions for a Diverse Society (CS4DS) will host its first symposium on Friday, March 22. To be held in WKAR Studio A, the symposium’s three sessions will discuss the central role of communication in advancing equity, access and inclusion across disciplines. The single-day symposium will bring the work of the consortium to a broader audience across the Michigan State University campus and will include participants from the community beyond East Lansing.
Launched in Spring 2023, CS4DS represents all five academic units within the college including Advertising and Public Relations, Communication, Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Journalism, and Media and Information, with representation by Fashina Aladé, Danielle Brown, Celeste Campos-Castillo, Chuqing Dong, Elizabeth Dorrance Hall, Jacob Fisher, Thea Knowles, Christina Myers, Ed Timke, and Susan McFarlane-Alvarez.
The first panel of the day will include representation from the Diversity Research Network, the Organizational Disparities Lab in the College of Education, the ANDIE Lab in the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Alliance for African Partnerships, and the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD). In the second panel, the core faculty will reflect on how they view diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging through the lenses of their research and experience.
The symposium will also feature a lunchtime activity hosted by Drs. Ed Timke and Christina Myers. The activity will introduce participants to the research-focused Culturally Resilient Training Card Deck, which helps to build awareness of how cultural diversity impacts organizations.
“We’re proud of the outreach already established,” notes CS4DS director, Susan McFarlane-Alvarez. “Our hope is that through this consortium, our work will continue to foster understanding about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging,” notes McFarlane-Alvarez. “CS4DS represents ComArtSci’s diversity on so many levels. We look forward to seeing how our mission will continue to take shape through our workshops, through this symposium, and beyond.”
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About CS4DS
Communication Solutions for a Diverse Society (CS4DS) is a research and practice consortium in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University. Focused on advancing discussions on issues of access, inclusion, and belonging, CS4DS is dedicated to intersections between academia and communication industries and practices. The core faculty of CS4DS are passionate about the importance of communication in ensuring compassion and equity in a diverse society.
The mission of Communication Solutions for a Diverse Society (CS4DS) is to provide collaboration and thought leadership on the relevance of communication arts and sciences in ensuring access and inclusion. CS4DS also seeks ways to support researchers and creative producers relating to access, belonging, and inclusion, while providing a nexus of discourse among researchers and practitioners within Communication Arts and Sciences.