Eric Liu

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005
8 p.m., in the Geneva Room of the Warren Hunting Smith Library

Eric Liu, Author and founder of the Guiding Lights Project

"What Diversity Can—and Can't—Teach Us?"

GQ thinks he’s cool. Slate and MSNBC publish his commentary. And he really cares what young Americans have to say. The embodiment of these unique attributes is author and educator Eric Liu.

Liu is author of “The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker,” which discusses what it is to be an American, and the editor of “Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation,” featuring political and cultural commentary by writers in their 20s. The former Clinton-era foreign policy speechwriter and deputy domestic policy adviser is just as dedicated to mentoring as he is to politics. As founder of the Guiding Lights Project, a mentoring outreach program that showcases the strategies and stories of great mentors, Liu also wrote “Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life,” which examines life-changing teachers and mentors.

Liu, who graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School, currently hosts a local NPR interview show called “The Power of Voice” and teaches at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. He lives with his family in Seattle.

This event is being held in conjunction with the President's Diversity Forum, to celebrate and encourage differences/diversity in the Colleges curriculum and programs abroad. Other President's Diversity Forum events include the following:

  • A faculty and staff workshop titled “Developing a Multicultural Imperative for a Future-Oriented Education” with Carlos Cortés, professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Riverside, at 4 p.m. on April 27, in Hirshson Ballroom

  • Presentation of Cortés' autobiographical play titled “A Conversation with Alana” at 10:15 a.m. on April 28, in Hirshson Ballroom

  • Geneva community panel on “The Geneva/ Hobart and William Smith Partnership” at noon on April 28, in Comstock Dining Room

  • Talk on "Multiple and Overlapping Identities and Allegiances: Ethnic Diversity in the 21st Century" by Larry Shinagawa, director for the Center of Culture, Race and Ethnicity at Ithaca College, at 1:45 p.m. on April 28, in Hirshson Ballroom

  • Trustee and alumni/ae panel on “The Difference Differences Make” at 3:30 p.m. on April 28, in the Sanford Room of the Warren Hunting Smith Library

  • Performance by singer/songwriter Magdalen Hsu-Li at 8 p.m. on April 28, in the Geneva Room of the Warren Hunting Smith Library

  • This information is accurate for the time period that this person(s) spoke at Hobart and William Smith.