Events taking place on campus this month will provide an opportunity for students, staff, faculty, visitors to Cornell and the local community to engage in meaningful conversations around diversity, politics, higher education and other topics.

Sponsored by organizations and units across campus, many of the events coincide with Cornell Days and Diversity Hosting Month activities for prospective students and their families. “Visitors are welcome to participate in these events, which showcase the breadth of opportunities at Cornell to explore issues pertinent to national and global conversations,” said Yael Levitte, associate vice provost for faculty development and diversity.

All events are free and open to the public. They include:

• “‘The Miner’s Canary’ and Black Lives Matter,” Monday, April 18, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall. Gerald Torres, the Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and Lani Guinier, the Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, will discuss contemporary race issues in the Robert L. Harris Jr. ADVANCEments in Science Distinguished Lecture.

Guinier and Torres are co-authors of “The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy,”described by Publisher’s Weekly as “one of the most provocative and challenging books on race produced in years.” Their talk is sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. A reception will follow.

• “Blacks and Jews in America: A Conversation,” with Ross Brann and the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Clarke Sr., discussing the history, particularly in the 20th century, as well as the current state of black-Jewish interaction in a discussion with the audience, April 18 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., in Milstein Auditorium, Milstein Hall.

Brann is the Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell, and Clarke is director of Cornell United Religious Work (CURW). The discussion will be introduced by Gretchen Ritter ’83, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Event sponsors include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Africana Studies and Research Center, the Jewish Studies Program, American Studies Program, Cornell Hillel, CURW, the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives and the Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

• Historian Amy Slaton of Drexel University will present “Race, Gender and Disability in American Engineering Education: Why STEM Diversity Must and Cannot Work,” Tuesday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m. in 101 Phillips Hall. Her talk is co-sponsored by the Bovay Program in History and Ethics of Professional Engineering, and the Department of Science and Technology Studies.

• The Breaking Bread initiative presents a series of dinners for the campus community; the next will feature an informal discussion of the political landscape and how it impacts race and the campus climate at Cornell, Wednesday, April 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology. Seating is limited to 90 people, with priority given to students. RSVP at http://tiny.cc/breakingbread.

Student facilitators will prompt discussions at each of 10 tables, using recent college campus and national events as a backdrop for the conversations among Cornell students, staff, faculty and administrators.

The event is hosted by the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives, the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity and the Graduate School Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement; with funding support from the Office of the Provost.