By Sara Nelson

Topics ranging from anonymous Internet comments on Muslim women in hijabs to exploring the academic and social experiences of first-generation Latinx students at a predominately white institution were just two of many explored during the 2018 Martin Luther King Jr. Research Symposium.

The symposium, which took place Friday, Jan. 26, was an opportunity to showcase the diversity-related research that undergraduate and graduate College of Education students are conducting.

The event was sponsored by the College of Education Diversity Committee, and the awards were sponsored by Dean Emeritus Nicholas Colangelo and Kay Colangelo. The symposium took place in Jones Commons in the UI College of Education.

Twenty-two students from six different programs across all four academic departments in the college participated in the poster session. 

Charles Martin-Stanley II (HESA) received first place for his study of racism and black male experiences in higher education.

Raquel Wood (Language, Literacy, and Culture) received second place for her research on immigration and the effects of the Literacy Test Act of 1917.

Amanda Mollet (HESA) received third place for her study of asexual college students’ identity formation.

Deb Liddell, Rossina Liu, and Jacob Priest assisted with judging for the symposium.

San Wong, director of the Iowa Department of Human Rights, shared the keynote address centered on cultural humility and approaches for respectful interactions.

UI College of Education Dean Dan Clay welcomed everyone to the symposium.

“The words of Martin Luther King Jr. are as relevant and important today as ever. He said ‘the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education,'” Clay said. “The student poster session was evidence of exactly that this morning. I am proud of the work our students are doing and the faculty who support them.”