This will be a doozie.
MOSCOW – Feminist author and race scholar Ijeoma Oluo will deliver the keynote address for the University of Idaho Women’s Center’s 50th anniversary 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the ICCU Arena.
A writer, speaker and self-proclaimed “internet yeller,” Oluo wrote the No. 1 New York Times bestseller, “So You Want to Talk About Race.” In 2020, she also released her book titled, “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America.”
Oluo was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list, twice named to The Root 100 and received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association.
“Oluo’s work is foundational for helping to advance important conversations about race and its intersection with gender justice,” said Lysa Salsbury, director of the Women’s Center. “As a feminist organization at a predominantly white institution, we have a responsibility to critically examine the ways in which we have historically contributed to the exclusion and marginalization of communities of color, especially women, and commit to doing better moving forward.”
The event is free and open to all, but seating is limited and pre-registration is required. Proof of registration will be required for entrance to the keynote venue.
Oluo’s book, “So You Want to Talk About Race,” was selected as U of I’s Common Read for 2022-2023. Now in its 15th year, the Common Read is intended to engage the university and Moscow community in a unified intellectual activity. First-year students are being assigned to read the book as part of their first-year studies courses and in the first-year writing composition sequence, part of the General Education program.