The University of Illinois Springfield will host six Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series events during spring semester 2025. The series presents events that promote and adhere to the value of engaged citizenship, cultural awareness and respect for diversity.

ECCE Speaker Series events, which are free and open to the public, include:

• “Artificial Intelligence (AI) For All: Leveraging Emerging Technologies to Empower Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” 6 p.m. on Feb. 5 in Brookens Auditorium. Sookyung Suh, an assistant professor at SIU School of Medicine, and Neetu Singh, an associate professor of management information systems at UIS, will explore the transformative power of AI in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Participants will discover effective strategies for integrating AI into existing frameworks and learn how emerging technologies are reshaping workplace and social dynamics through real-world case studies.
  
• “Moises Salazar Tlatenchi: Hijx De Viboras Doradas” 6 p.m. on Feb. 19 in Brookens Auditorium. Moises Salazar Tlatenchi, a non-binary artist from Chicago, will share and discuss projects that explore the intersections of queer and immigrant identities within the Latinx community. Tlatenchi’s studio practice examines themes of cultural heritage, resilience and social justice, with works that challenge the dehumanization of immigrant communities. These projects create space for dialogue on issues of representation, equity and empowerment. A reception will follow this presentation at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery with food, drinks and an opportunity to meet the artist.
  
• “Believing Our Stories: Narrating Black Health and Health Equity”
  6 p.m. on March 5 in Brookens Auditorium. Keisha Ray, an associate professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities & Ethics at UT Health Houston, will discuss how medical humanities is a growing interdisciplinary field that uses humanist and social science methods to approach questions about the experience and significance of health, illness and healthcare. Ray’s work in the medical humanities and bioethics focuses on the effects of institutional racism on Black people's health, highlighting Black people’s own stories, and the sociopolitical implications of biomedical enhancement. Her work uniquely prioritizes linguistic justice as a matter of access and commitment to public scholarship of South Asian music and its impact on global culture.
  
• “What Does It Mean To Be White?” 6 p.m. on March 26 in Brookens Auditorium. Jacqueline Battalora, a professor of sociology at Saint Xavier University, Chicago, will discuss the relationship that exists between the American system of law and jurisprudence and the perpetuation of “whiteness” as the dominant narrative of socio-political and cultural identity within the United States.
  
• “Global Conflict in Context” 6 p.m. on April 9 in Brookens Auditorium. UIS School of Politics and International Affairs faculty Brandon Bolte, Isabel Skinner and Ali Nizamuddin will discuss the challenges and implications of recent conflicts from a global perspective. Topics of discussion include global patterns of interstate and civil wars and how they are fought, how current conflicts compare to these broader trends and implications for migration, global institutions and the United States’ role in a changing international order.
  
• “Building Tree Equity to Support Health Using The Miyawaki Method”
  6 p.m. on April 23 in Brookens Auditorium. Christine Dannhausen-Brun, chief operations officer of Nordson Green Earth, will discuss her work using the Miyawaki method of tree planting to bring the benefits of forests to urban communities. By creating tiny native forests, Nordson builds tree equity and helps ensure that everyone can benefit from the health, community and social benefits that greenspaces provide. Miyawaki forests grow quickly and are self-sustaining in two to three years and mature in twenty to thirty years (versus centuries). They are low maintenance and can help historically disadvantaged communities mitigate the health effects of climate change. They also help remediate damaged urban soils and can support sixteen times as many species as non-native landscapes. Dannhausen-Brun will explain how these tiny forests are established and why tree equity matters.
  

For further details on the events, please visit the ECCE Speaker Series website.