Official Launch of the UCD Equality Studies Society

dublin | miscellaneous | event notice Tuesday August 29, 2006 17:37 by ESC

The Equality Society/Alumni will be officially launched on Tuesday October 10th,2006. The Equality Society’s membership will consist of both current and former students of University College Dublin. The chosen theme for the first year of the Society/Alumni will be to focus on the nine grounds of the Equal Status Act, and to also examine those ones not included.

The aims of the Equality Society are to:
- highlight and raise awareness of social inequalities;
- Host conferences and hold public lectures;
-organise workshops on issues of inequality;
-facilitate activism to combat inequalities;

The primary areas of concern are:
-racism
-sexism
-ageism
-economic inequality (within Ireland and Globally)
-discrimination on grounds of sexuality
-discrimination on grounds of ethnicity
-discrimination on grounds of a disability

Following months of hard work and preparation by the Committee the process of application for formal recognition as a Society/Alumni is well underway and we are delighted to announce the date of the Inaugural Lecture and official launch in October.

Inaugural Lecture

Professor Kathleen Lynch & Professor Ivana Bacik will both officiate at the Inaugural Lecture on Tuesday 10th October at 8pm which will be held on the Belfield Campus. This will be followed by a reception.

All members are invited to attend.

On-Line Facility

An official website for the Equality Society/Alumni is currently under construction. Through this website, members of the Society/Alumni can interact and raise awareness of relevant issues. In the meantime a database of all members will ensure that each member is kept informed of upcoming events by e-mail/newsletter. If you would like to become a member please e-mail carlos.bruen@ucd.ie

LGBT Conference at UL

We are delighted to announce that one of the first events scheduled is a conference on LGBT issues which the Equality Society/ Alumni UCD will co-host with ‘Out at UL’, the LGBT Society at University of Limerick on Friday November 18th 2006.We will be issuing programme details/travel arrangements in due course to members.

Suggestions

During the last semester the Committee carried out a survey among current UCD students to ascertain what they would look for in an Equality Society. In response to this request a number of suggestions were put forward:

1) Guest Speakers
2) Social Events
3) On- campus awareness campaigns highlighting inequalities in both UCD and the outside world
4) Round Table Discussions
5) Fairtrade Campaigns
6) Annual Open Day on Campus.

We are currently planning and organising such events. If you have any further suggestions for events please e-mail

carlos.bruen@ucd.ie

We Need YOU!

The Equality Society/Alumni will provide an environment through which we can raise awareness of inequalities, exchange experiences, meet new people as well as keeping in touch with former classmates.

If you have not already done so, please consider joining the Society today by sending an email to carlos.bruen@ucd.ie and your name and email address can be added to the Society database for future communications.