Claudia Rankine, left, and Camille Dungy sit down for a conversation with President Joyce McConnell.
The second installment of Colorado State University President Joyce McConnell’s Tell Me More conversation series will launch at noon on Monday, Oct. 26.
Tell Me More: A Conversation About Equity and Inclusion at CSU will feature Rams Read author Claudia Rankine and CSU English Professor Camille Dungy in conversation with McConnell.
Dungy is an award-winning poet and a University Distinguished Professor. Dungy, a faculty member in the Department of English, has received numerous honors for her work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Award. Her debut collection of essays, Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Most recently, Dungy was chosen to read one of her poems as part of the Democratic National Convention in August.
Rankine is an award-winning poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. Her collection of poetry, Citizen: An American Lyric, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, among other prizes. The anthology was chosen for Colorado State University’s inaugural Rams Read program. She also is the author of Don’t Let Me Be Lonely and two plays, including Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue. Rankine is the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.
CSU Libraries has added Citizen to the top of its anti-racist reading list, and has print, ebook and audiobook versions available for checkout.
Catch up on conversations any time
The first interview in the Tell Me More series premiered on Oct. 5 and featured Dr. Marcela Henao-Tamayo of CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. While her ongoing primary research focus is on tuberculosis, she is currently working with colleagues on developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Her conversation with McConnell highlights the scope, caliber and impact of CSU research.
All the prerecorded interviews will be close-captioned and will remain available on the President’s webpage for the duration of the academic year.
The full schedule features the president in conversation with:
- Oct. 5: Director of the Flow Cytometry Center Dr. Marcela Henao-Tamayo
- Oct. 26: Rams Read author Claudia Rankine and CSU English Professor Camille Dungy
- Nov. 16: Provost and Executive Vice President Mary Pedersen
- Feb. 22: Extension Western Regional Director CJ Mucklow
- March 22: University Distinguished Professor and Director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability Diana Wall
