Sponsored by Memory & Resistance Coalition (https://memoryandresistance.squarespace.com/) and Cleveland State University College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, Cleveland State University History Department.

Zoom Session

1. Short Introduction to Roundtable
2. Participants will have the opportunity to choose a breakout room in Zoom for a conversation facilitated by 1 or 2 of the facilitators.

Facilitators

• Shelley E. Rose, Department of History, CSU
• Mary Triece, Director of the Women’s Studies Program, University of Akron
• Michael Cangemi, Department of History, United States Military Academy
• Sherrae M. Mack, Black Studies Program, CSU
• Christine Stonebraker-Martinez, InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF)
• Michael Wiitala, Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion, CSU

Event Description

The History Department and College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Cleveland State University are partnering with the Memory & Resistance Coalition to offer a public event: “Activism” An Interdisciplinary Conversation.” Six scholars, activists, and community members will facilitate an informal discussion based on three guiding questions focusing on contemporary and historical examples of resistance as well as how individuals conceptualize their own acts of resistance.

The facilitators will post 5-7 minute reflections to the guiding questions prior to the event and we invite all interested participants and community members to submit reflections for archiving at EngagedScholarship at Cleveland State University. There are often limited archival records of individuals reflecting on their roles in acts of resistance. This event will bring these experiences and reflections to the forefront, creating a repository around the critical question of what it means to be an activist from individual perspectives rather than the labels applied by historians and other scholars, often after the events have occurred. Furthermore, this repository will serve as an archival record of the Memory and Resistance Coalition year for use by educators, activists, students and community members.

This is a special Memory & Resistance program. During IRTF’s 40th anniversary year, the Memory & Resistance Coalition is honoring the witness and legacy of Cleveland’s women killed in El Salvador in 1980 (Jean Donovan & Dorothy Kazel, OSU) by uplifting the struggles of all oppressed peoples. A year of special programming (art exhibition, panels, public discussions, music & spoken word performances, book clubs, and more) is designed to spotlight, commemorate, celebrate, teach, and reflect on some of Cleveland’s stories of resistance, past and present.

Activism: An Interdisciplinary Conversation Flyer

Guiding questions

Participants are invited to record an answer to one or more of the guiding questions (max 5-7 minutes) that will be archived here.

• What does it mean to be an activist in the context of your discipline/research?
• If you consider yourself an activist, how do you define activism?
• If you have committed an act of nonviolent protest or civil disobedience, but don’t self-define as an activist, can you describe either why this term doesn’t fit or what term you prefer?

Instructions for Recording Submission:

Option 1: Zoom

1. Download and Open Zoom: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360034967471-Getting-started-guide-for-new-users
2. Create a cloud recording of yourself: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203741855-Cloud-recording. Please give special attention to the "Advanced" section of this article that discusses how to turn on automatic transcriptions. If you have an education or business subscription for Zoom, start a meeting with just yourself and follow these instructions to be sure captioning and audio transcription is enabled. https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004794983. The EngagedScholarship @ CSU archive required captions or transcripts (preferably captions) for all video recordings.
3. In your recording start by saying your name and affiliation. Then spend 5-7 minutes responding to the guiding questions.
4. Locate the mp4 file in Zoom. Be sure you know where to locate the file on your computer to upload in step 5.
5. Fill out the submission form https://bit.ly/MRActivismCon
   • attach your mp4 file to the form
   • download and sign this release form http://bit.ly/ESRelease so we can post your recording here in EngagedScholarship @ CSU.

Option 2: Device of your choice

1. Record your response on the device of your choice, phone, tablet etc.
2. In your recording start by saying your name and affiliation. Then spend 5-7 minutes responding to the guiding questions.
3. The EngagedScholarship @ CSU archive requires captions or transcripts (preferably captions) for all video recordings. If this is an option when you record, please activate it. If it is not, we will create captions for you after submission.
4. Fill out the submission form https://bit.ly/MRActivismCon
   • attach your file to the form
   • download and sign this release form http://bit.ly/ESRelease so we can post your recording in EngagedScholarship @ CSU.

Thanks to Beth Piwkowski and Barb Loomis, CSU Michael Schwartz Library, for their work on the Activism website.