The Office of Diversity and Intercultural Programs

The Office of Diversity and Intercultural Programs oversees the Collaboratory for Urban and Intercultural Learning and the International Office. The Office, located on the first floor of Caroline Hall, seeks to sustain a campus community that appreciates diversity and embraces our differences as well as our similarities. We intentionally try to create and maintain a climate that values diversity through programming, outreach, and support for all members. In an effort to strengthen cultural awareness and diversity, the office supports activities and events on such topics as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, age, and socio-economic status.

We host numerous events including speakers, workshops and exhibits that address the value of diversity in the context of building community and intercultural competency. In addition, the Office is committed to providing quality events to promote diversity beyond food, fashion, and festivals. We meet this objective focusing on the critical components of diversity through campus dialogue forums, academic presentations, and diversity-related workshops and seminars. The events are designed to complement and support the academic mission of the University.

Collaboratory for Urban and Intercultural Learning

The Collaboratory for Urban and Intercultural Learning collaborates and consults with various academic schools and divisions as well as with individual faculty and staff to develop curricular and co-curricular opportunities designed to support and encourage greater integration of students’ in-class and out-of-class experiences.

The primary focus of the Collaboratory is on the contemporary multicultural and intercultural American urban context, with a concerted commitment to questions of justice, and with a distinctive orientation toward the city of Chicago as the local laboratory. The Collaboratory fosters attention to the various cultures of color in the American city. Attention is given to a variety of groups including the Africana, Latino-American, Asian-American, and Middle Eastern-American cultures as well as selective other immigrant cultures represented in Chicago. The Collaboratory addresses faith-based commitments to justice which are important to the well-being of the various communities of color, adopting the contemporary American urban context as the primary laboratory for learning.

We hope you will attend and become an active participant in our campus diversity events and programs. If you have any question, please feel free to contact me by email or by phone at (773) 244-6220.

Sincerely,

Dr. Terry A. Lindsay
Dean of Diversity and Intercultural Programs
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies