Dear Colleagues,

As we move to wrap up the business of fall quarter, I write to wish you peace this holiday season and to express my deep gratitude for your engagement and partnership in our collective work to make SU inclusively excellent for all. Thank you for your continued presence in co-creating spaces to learn and grow together – from welcoming Ijeoma Oluo, author of this year’s common text “So You Want To Talk About Race,” Educating for Justice dialogue sessions, kickoff of Red Talks Season 2, tribute to the late acclaimed author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, to name a few, as well as engaging in the many other avenues across campus. These are challenging and complex times in which we live where rhetoric and action would suggest we have forgotten that we belong to one another. Thus, now more than ever we must Love. Hard. Now! Wishing you Peace and Furious Love this holiday season and the hope of a new beginning in 2020! 

Homily from the Mass of the Holy Spirit

I was honored to offer the homily at this fall’s Mass of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for your openness and the many generous sentiments. I have received several requests for a written version of my message, These Times Call for Furious Love!  I am humbled. In the spirit of the season, I offer it here. 

These reflections were top of mind as we came together to begin dialogue around the essence of who we are as a Jesuit and Catholic university at the Faculty Roundtable ─ Living the Questions: On Being Jesuit and Catholic in Contemporary Culture where faculty leaders shared their expertise and insights. Provost Martin and I look forward to sharing more from that session in the new year.

Red Talks: Uncommon Voices on Topics that Matter, Season 1 Full Catalogue – Now Available!

The theme of the 2018-2019 inaugural series of Red Talks Women’s Voices at the Intersection provided a forum for exploring women’s leadership across disciplines. This speaker series provides a resource for our campus and expands the reach of our faculty expertise to the broader community. The full catalogue for the 2018-2019 season is now available at Red Talks. For each talk, you will find a one-minute promo, the full talk and the Q&A segment. This catalogue provides a rich body of faculty thought leadership for ongoing learning and resources. Additionally, you can access the Student Edition which features four of our graduates.

What are Red Talks?

A partnership with the Office of the Provost, Red Talks: Uncommon Voices on Topics that Matter is a quarterly speaker series featuring leading academic voices across disciplines on a range of topics relevant to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The series is professionally produced for broader distribution. This fall we kicked off Season 2 of Red Talks under the companion theme Historically Marginalized Male Voices at the Intersection with Dr. Alvin Sturdivant’s talk “I Am Enough: Resilience in a World That Says You Don’t Matter.” The video will be available soon.

Finally, colleagues, wishing you time to rest, restore and experience joy in the ways that matter to you over the break. I look forward to continuing engagement in winter quarter. Your partnership continues to inspire me and remains vital for the good of our students. Be well.

In solidarity,

Natasha Martin, J.D.
Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
Associate Professor of Law