The RIT community is invited to join us for our 6th annual Let Freedom Ring celebration.
Keynote: 10:30-11:30am | Ingle Auditorium Reception with food: 11:30am-1:00pm | Fireside Lounge
Our Let Freedom Ring program, held each January, is a campus-wide event that honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It brings exciting speakers to campus who challenge us to think deeper, to broaden our horizons and to express our individuality.
We are joined by keynote speaker, Dr. Katrina Overby, Assistant Professor, School of Communication, College of Liberal Arts.
Keynote Address: From Marching to Tweeting: An Activist Scholar's Journey Toward Digital Disruption and Dissecting Discourses
Dr. Katrina Overby is an Assistant professor in the School of Communication at RIT. As a virtual and digital ethnographer whose research, rooted in Black feminist thought and critique, Dr. KO investigates and explores broadly communication, race and identity. Specifically, she analyses Black social media usage, primarily Black Twitter, online discourse by and about Black women, Black women’s epistemology and praxis in, through and out of the academy, and race and gender in sports communication. She has recently instructed the courses Communication and Identity, Reporting on Racial Justice, and her favorite Public Speaking.
Some of her recent co-authored publications include “Breaking bread with storyworlding methodology: Black feminist/womanist commentary on unearthing communal lifeworlds” published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education as well as the book chapters, “Black and Quarantined: Celebrating Black Identity during COVID-19 via Instagram” and “#BlackInTheIvory: Utilizing Twitter to Explore Black Womxxn’s Experiences in the Academy.” Forthcoming, Dr. KO’s co-authored book chapter “Activist Scholar: Advocating for Change in the Streets and on the Sheets” will be published in the edited volume Freedom Teachers, Freedom Dreamers to be released in 2023.
From 12:30 p.m. until 2 p.m. we will offer a brief film screening and discussion of “The Promised Land 1967-1968” from the Eyes on the Prize documentary series, led by Diversity Education Director Taj Smith. The film highlights the final years of Dr. King’s life. This will be held in the 1829 Room in the Student Alumni Union.
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