The Department of Anthropology has recently created a Diversity Initiative - a group of staff, graduate students, and faculty - who meet regularly to work on issues related to diversity and inclusion in the Department of Anthropology.

One of the aims of the Initiative is to increase dialogue in our Department on these issues. In order to achieve this, we are instituting a regular Happy Hour discussion on a variety of topics where diversity and inclusion are central themes. Rather than academic discourses, we would like to focus on topics and issues in popular media, as a way to broaden our thinking and discussion on what diversity means, how to be more inclusive in our thinking, and how to apply what we learn to our everyday lives. These discussions are intended to be a safe space to talk and exchange ideas, and we invite everyone in the department to attend.

Each individual identifies with multiple collective identity groups and we act situationally, prioritizing one identity over another based on our needs. Our identification with collective groups are also interrelated, and cannot be seen as discrete categorizations. 

We would like to discuss how we each identify, and complicate others' notions of who we are. To this end, we ask that participants in our discussion reflect upon how you see yourself, how others see you, and what you might like to share about how categorizations of identity can be affirming and limiting. 

As a resource to aid in the reflexive process, please see an exercise developed by Dr. Tony Whitehead titled: Who am I?: An Exercise in Exploring the Multiple and Core Selves, which explores concepts of multiple selves and the core self: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/542d69f6e4b0a8f6e9b48384/t/57224d7...
Another exercise on identity from the Office of Human Relations Programs which was shared by Erik Hanson, can be found here.

Additionally, alumna Kerry Hawk Lessard has shared two resources regarding American Indian identities. From Kerry: "The first, a blog post, has really created quite a bit of discourse in Indian Country. The second is a short documentary on American Indian identity and its consumption by non-Natives."
"The Souls of White Indians": http://www.nativeninetypercent.com/kyle-t-mays.html
"The Last American Indian on Earth": https://vimeo.com/164478711