The Vanderbilt Unity Project will host ‘Unity Dinner: Race in America’ on Aug. 3

The next Vanderbilt Project on Unity & American Democracy Unity Dinner will center around race in America and will be 5–6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 3, at the Scarritt Bennett Center.  

The Unity Dinners are a series of events designed to bring students, faculty, staff and community members together in conversation around our society’s most pressing issues. The dinner is open to the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities; registration is required, and space is limited. Dinner is provided. 

To register for the waitlist, please fill out this registration form. Unity Dinners fill up quickly and this one is already at capacity, but we are excited to continue hosting these dinners. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when registration is live.

This Unity Dinner will center on the project’s pillar “Race in America: Toward a Nation of Equality.” This pillar focuses on the historical and present-day impacts of racism in America and how we can work toward a more equal and just society. 

This discussion will be facilitated by Dena Lane-Bonds, the assistant director and research scientist for the Initiative for Race Research and Justice with the Peabody College of education and human development. Lane-Bonds has devoted her career to fighting for justice with a keen focus on dismantling systems of oppression for people with marginalized identities. She works with critical scholars, students and community partners to create and sustain equitable policies and practices for marginalized people. 

Laura Fittz, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Peabody College’s Department of Teaching and Learning, will also facilitate the discussion. A former MNPS teacher and founder of Restorative Student Leaders, Fittz is passionate about listening to and working with youth to improve schools through restorative practices and youth participatory action research.  

Shevonne Nelson Dillingham (she/they), director for intercultural engagement for the Vanderbilt Project on Unity & American Democracy, is the mastermind behind our Unity Dinners and will be present to oversee the discussion. Dillingham has more than 20 years of experience helping public and private organizations reach their diversity, equity and inclusion goals. They have a wealth of experience in higher education and have focused most recently on helping students, faculty and staff to learn about socially constructed differences and systems of oppression and to envision places and spaces that better reflect equality.